Lucy Letby bill: The serial killer has amassed £1million in legal aid over a 10-month trial over the killing of seven babies
Serial killer nurse Lucy Letby has racked up a £1million legal aid bill during her 10-month trial over the murder of seven babies.
The taxpayer-funded seven-figure cost was announced weeks after Letby was sentenced to life without parole for her nasty crimes.
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This comes on top of the £2.5million spent prosecuting the 33-year-old, who pleaded not guilty, according to The Sun yesterday.
The nurse’s solicitors were paid at least £980,133.92 in legal aid. MailOnline reported tonight.
The number came from the Justice Department in response to a Freedom of Information request.
It was unclear if Letby would pay back any portion of the legal aid.
Defendants facing a Crown Court trial are eligible for aide, but may be required to pay dues up to the full cost if found guilty of at least one charge.
The MoJ said her legal aid included £4,244.68 at a police station and £975,889.24 for her solicitor and barrister at Manchester Crown Court.
Conservative MP Alec Shelbrooke has called the £2.5million cost to the Crown Prosecution Service “shocking” and said it showed “Lucy Letby’s psychopathy lasted to the end”.
Letby, originally from Hereford, was found guilty of the murder of seven babies and the attempted murder of seven others at the Countess of Chester Hospital in Cheshire last month.
She was handed 14 life sentences for her crimes and told she would die behind bars.
Letby refused to appear in court when the judge announced his verdict, drawing the families’ ire.
There were tears in court as the surviving relatives of their victims read powerful statements about the impact on the victim.
Analysts suggest Letby’s possible motives could include an “obsession” with a doctor at the hospital and enjoying any “thrills” of the illness.
She is serving her sentence at Low Newton Prison in County Durham, where Rose West used to live and where triple murderer Joanna Dennehy is now a fellow inmate.
West, Dennehy and Moors killer Myra Hindley are the only women, along with Letby, to have received a life sentence in Britain.
Following last month’s verdicts, the government announced an inquiry into the Letby case – and last week gave it legal powers to compel witnesses to testify.
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