Child serial killer Lucy Letby has had an initial bid to challenge her convictions refused by the Court of Appeal.

The former Countess of Chester Hospital nurse lodged an application for permission to appeal against all of her convictions in September 2023, following a 10-month trial which concluded the previous month.

A judge has since refused her application after considering the case documents, a judicial spokeswoman confirmed on Tuesday.

In August 2023, Letby, 34, of Hereford, was sentenced to 14 whole life orders after she was convicted of the murders of seven babies and the attempted murders of six others, with two attempts on one of her victims.

The offences took place at the Countess of Chester Hospital’s neonatal unit, where nurse Letby worked, between June 2015 and June 2016. Typically, applications for permission to appeal against a crown court decision are considered by a judge looking at legal documents without a hearing.

If this is refused, people have 14 days to renew their bid for permission at a full court hearing before two or three judges.

The jury in Letby’s trial at Manchester Crown Court was unable to reach verdicts on six counts of attempted murder in relation to five children.

Letby will face a retrial at the same court in June on a single count that she attempted to murder a baby girl, known as Child K, in February 2016.

A court order prohibits reporting of the identities of the surviving and dead children who were the subject of the allegations.