A neonatal nurse accused of murdering multiple babies cried in the dock as she told a court she had been diagnosed with PTSD following her arrest.

Lucy Letby, 33, entered the witness box on Tuesday to give evidence at Manchester Crown Court.

She is alleged to have murdered five boys and two girls, and attempted to murder another five boys and five girls, between June 2015 and June 2016.

The prosecution says Letby was a "constant malevolent presence" in their care at the neonatal unit of the Countess of Chester Hospital.

It is said she used various means to target the infants, including injections of air into their system and insulin poisoning.

Letby, wearing a black top and black trousers, walked from the dock and across the courtroom to answer the allegations as her defence case started.

Speaking through tears she told the court: "I have been diagnosed with PTSD since the arrests."

She told the court about the three times she was arrested by police on suspicion of murder and attempted murder of babies.
She described her arrests as "traumatising" and "the scariest thing I have ever been through", and said she had now been diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Ben Myers KC, defending, then took Letby through some handwritten notes found at her home after her arrest.

Letby said writing her thoughts down was something she had done all her life.

Asked to explain why she had written 'Not good enough' at the top of one note, Letby said: "That's the overwhelming feeling I had about myself at that point, because the way people had made me feel. I thought I had been incompetent or done something wrong.

"It's just me processing thoughts."

Several rows behind, her parents, John Letby, 76, and Susan Letby, 62, looked on - as did family members of the alleged victims on the other side of the public gallery.

Her barrister, Ben Myers KC, asked her: "Over the period of 2015 and 2016 we are looking at the babies on this indictment, could you put a figure on the number of babies you cared for in that period?"

Letby said: "It would be hundreds."

Mr Myers said: "Did you care for them?"

Letby said: "Yes."

Asked if she ever wanted to hurt any of them, she said: "No, that's completely against being what a nurse is."

She said she studied her nursing degree at the University of Chester and was the "first person in her family to go to university".

During her studies she went on numerous work placements, she said, with the majority at the Countess of Chester Hospital, either on the children's ward or the neo-natal unit.

Letby said she qualified as a Band 5 nurse in September 2011.

A court order prohibits reporting of the identities of surviving and deceased children allegedly attacked by Letby, and prohibits identifying parents or witnesses connected with the children.

Letby, from Hereford, denies all the allegations.