Lucy Letby’s ‘best friend’ turned up in court every day to support the convicted serial killer during her latest trial – while her parents stayed away. 

Janet Cox worked alongside Letby on the neonatal unit of the Countess of Chester Hospital and has insisted she is innocent.

Letby was originally found guilty in August of murdering seven children and trying to kill six others, but the jury failed to reach a verdict on the attempted murder of a premature girl known as Baby K. A jury convicted her of this count yesterday.

Mrs Cox was a permanent fixture in the public gallery throughout the 13-day retrial. During the first trial, she sat next to Letby’s parents, John, 77, and Susan, 63, but the couple did not attend the latest proceedings at Manchester Crown Court. 

Mrs Cox spoke briefly at the front door of her semi-detached home in Ellesmere Port on the Wirral when approached by MailOnline after the original verdicts.  

Janet Cox worked alongside Letby on the neonatal unit of the Countess of Chester Hospital and has insisted she is innocent. They are pictured together on a social occasion 

Mrs Cox was a permanent fixture in the public gallery throughout Letby’s 13-day retrial 

Asked whether she still believed in her friend’s innocence, she replied ‘Yes’ but refused to elaborate further. 

Numerous social media photos show Mrs Cox alongside Letby at parties and other social occasions.

In one image they are both seen wearing Christmas jumpers, while in another they are seen holding cocktails in a bar with a group of other friends.

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Mrs Cox is not the only friend or colleague of Letby who has stood by her despite her conviction. 

Dawn Howe, a long-term friend, is among those who refuses to accept the jury’s decision that the nurse is a baby killer.

Speaking to the BBC’s Panorama programme last summer, Ms Howe, 33, said: ‘Unless Lucy turned around and said “I’m guilty” I will never believe that she’s guilty.

‘We know she couldn’t have done anything that she’s accused of, so without a doubt we stand by her.

‘I grew up with Lucy and not a single thing that I’ve ever seen or witnessed of Lucy would let me for a moment believe she is capable of the thing’s she’s accused of.

‘It is the most out-of-character accusation that you could ever put against Lucy. 

‘Think of your most kind, gentle, soft friend and think that they’re being accused of harming babies.’

She also accused police of ‘trying to build a case, to find someone culpable to find someone to blame’ as she maintained Letby’s innocence.

Mrs Cox has struggled to come to terms with her friend’s guilt

Letby (right, with Cox) has maintained her claim to be innocent of harming babies 

Letby’s parents, John, 77, and Susan, 63, attended their daughter’s first trial but not her second  

During the original trial, Letby’s parents John and Susan relocated from their home on a quiet cul-de-sac in Hereford, where they had lived for almost four decades after marrying in 1989, to Manchester so they could be nearby.

Mrs Letby on occasion broke down in tears and appeared anxious during breaks when her daughter was undergoing particularly tough periods of questioning.

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Investigators suspect Letby had told them scant detail of the horrific nature of the crimes she was being accused of before it was laid out in front of them in court.

And as the original guilty verdicts were returned, Mrs Letby broke into a series of anguished sobs which continued even after she had left the court. At one point she cried out: ‘You can’t be serious. This cannot be right.’

Nothing suggests that Mr and Mrs Letby were anything but caring parents who showered her daughter with love from the moment she was born – five months after they married. 

A source told the Mail that Letby’s mother was distraught when she was arrested – wailing, crying and even telling police, ‘I did it, take me instead,’ in a desperate bid to protect her.

Jurors took three and a half hours to find Letby guilty of the attempted murder of Baby K during the latest proceedings.

Numerous social media photos show Mrs Cox alongside Letby, including here in a pub 

Letby – who is the most prolific child killer in modern British history – was 26 when she deliberately dislodged the breathing tube of Baby K in the first hours of her life.

In the following hours, the cruel killer tried a further two times to murder the infant who was so tiny she would have fitted into Letby’s open palm.

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Lucy Letby retrial told killer nurse was ‘cunning and devious’

After the first the nurse refused to come to the dock to hear the judge read out his sentencing verdicts, but these were read out by the prosecutor at the start of the latest proceedings as she watched on in court.

Mr Justice Goss said colleagues at the Countess of Chester Hospital were forced to ‘think the unthinkable’ when they realised that Letby was deliberately hurting babies.

Police searches of Letby’s home uncovered grim mementoes of her victims: mountains of handover notes swiped from the hospital, a diary marking the dates that babies died, a Post-It note that read: ‘I am evil, I did this’.

Mr Justice Goss said: ‘I am satisfied you started to keep these documents after those initial offences in June 2015 as morbid records of the dreadful events surrounding the collapses of your victims and what you had done to them.

Letby is the most prolific child killer in modern British history 

‘Some of your victims were only a day or a few days old. All were extremely vulnerable.

‘By their nature and number, such murders and attempted murders by a neonatal nurse entrusted to care for them are offences of very exceptional seriousness.

‘This was a cruel, calculated and cynical campaign of child murder involving the smallest and most vulnerable of children, knowing that your actions were causing significant physical suffering and would cause untold mental suffering. 

‘You have shown no remorse. There are no mitigating factors.’ 

Letby has denied harming any of the babies and supporters have launched a campaign to set her free.