Taxpayers rack up eye-watering £2.5million bill to prosecute killer nurse Lucy Letby

TAXPAYERS coughed up £2.5million to prosecute baby-killer Lucy Letby.

The nurse’s not-guilty plea to killing at least seven tots forced families to endure a harrowing ten-month trial.

It also meant the Crown Prosecution Service ran up a bill of £2,504,245 to jail her.

The full cost to the taxpayer will be even higher as it does not include Letby’s legal aid, likely to run to six figures.

Replying to a Freedom of Information request, the CPS said: “The figure accounts for counsel, experts and presentational fees.”

Tory MP Alec Shelbrooke said: “This is shocking and shows the psychopathy of Lucy Letby lasted until the end.

"She was fully aware of her guilt but decided to put the families through the ordeal of the awful case when she could have pleaded guilty.

“She probably got a kick out of that — and by putting pressure and costs on to the system.”

Letby got 14 whole-life orders for the murders and seven attempted killings and will die behind bars.

She is now at Low Newton prison, Co Durham, where child-killer Rose West was formerly held and triple-killer Joanna Dennehy is an inmate.

She is the fourth woman to receive a whole-life order in Britain after West, Dennehy and Moors murderer Myra Hindley.

The Government has announced an inquiry into the Letby case, with legal powers to force witnesses to give evidence.