On Friday, a British court found a neonatal nurse guilty of killing seven infants and attempting to kill six more throughout a year-long campaign of deception in which she preyed on the weaknesses of unwell newborns and their concerned parents.
The Manchester Crown Court jury found 33-year-old Lucy Letby guilty of murdering infants, including two sets of triplet boys, in the hospital’s neonatal ward between June 2015 and June 2016. The trial lasted 22 days, and she receives her sentence today.
Senior prosecutor Pascale Jones stated, “Parents were exposed to her morbid curiosity and her fake compassion. Too many of them returned home to empty baby rooms. Many surviving children live with permanent consequences of her assaults upon their lives.”
Jones characterised her attacks as “a complete betrayal of the trust placed in her.”
The families of those who lost loved ones have said they will “forever be grateful” to the jurors who heard 145 days of “gruelling” evidence beginning in October.
They thanked the witnesses for coming to what they called an “extremely harrowing and distressing” trial in a joint statement read outside the courtroom.
“To lose a baby is a heart-breaking experience that no parent should ever have to go through, but to lose a baby or to have a baby harmed in these particular circumstances is unimaginable,” they said.
The scale of Letby’s acts suggests meticulous organisation, but her motivations remain a mystery.
She was accused of purposely injuring the infants by putting air into their bloodstream and feeding them air or milk through nasogastric tubes. She was also accused of tampering with babies’ breathing tubes and introducing insulin to their intravenous feeds, which would have been fatal.
Soon after the judgments were announced, the British government initiated an independent inquiry to investigate the full scope of what transpired at the hospital, including the response to staff complaints.
Health Secretary Steve Barclay said, “This inquiry will seek to ensure the parents and families impacted get the answers they need.”
“I am determined their voices are heard, and they are involved in shaping the scope of the inquiry should they wish to do so.”
A senior physician at the Countess of Chester Hospital said to the BBC that he had sought to alert hospital administrators about Letby on multiple occasions but that no action was taken.
In his role as head physician in the newborn intensive care unit, Dr Stephen Brearley claims the hospital tried to stifle physicians’ complaints about Letby and delayed notifying the police.
After 22 days of deliberation, the jury (consisting of 7 women and 4 men) reached its conclusion. The court allowed the remaining 11 jurors the option of reaching an outcome with 10 individuals in agreement rather than unanimously after one juror was excused for personal reasons late in the discussion process.
Letby was found guilty of the deaths of seven people, including six children, and seven attempted murder counts. She was found not guilty of two counts of attempted murder, and the jury deadlocked on the other counts.
Although certain results were declared in court at the beginning of the month, the judge ordered that they not be reported until all cases had been heard.
Prosecutors claimed during the lengthy trial that beginning in 2015, an unusually high number of infant deaths and rapid declines in health were observed at the facility. Some had “serious catastrophic collapses” but recovered with medical attention.
At the time of each child’s collapse or death, Letby was on duty; prosecutors have described her as a “constant malevolent presence” in the neonatal ward. They claimed the nurse had damaged the infants in subtle ways, convincing her coworkers that the babies’ collapses and deaths were the norm.
In May 2017, police opened a probe into the infant fatalities at the hospital, and in November 2020, Letby was charged in connection with the deaths.
Detective Superintendent Paul Hughes, who led the investigation, said, “The last thing we expected to find was a suspect responsible for these deaths and nonfatal collapses.”
“Turning up at the home of a family who have lost a baby, grieved for their loss and are trying to move on from that is difficult enough, but having to tell them that someone who was meant to be caring for their little one could ultimately be responsible for their death — is not an easy task,” he added.
For 14 days, Letby stood before the court to argue her innocence. The defence argued that she was a “hard-working, dedicated and caring” nurse who genuinely cared about her patients and that the infants’ sudden collapses and deaths might have been the result of something other than her negligence.
On August 8, as the jury announced its guilty verdict on two counts of attempted murder, Letby held back tears before breaking down in sobs as she departed the courtroom. After being found guilty of four murders and two attempted murders three days later, she returned to court.
She chose not to be present in court on Friday when additional verdicts were read, and she has already told the court she has no intention of showing up on Monday, being today, for her sentence hearing or witnessing it by video link.
Legislation to force convicted criminals to appear in court for their sentencing is currently being examined.
A terrifying confession was uncovered in a note at Letby’s home after her initial arrest in 2018.
She scribbled, “I don’t deserve to live,” on a green post-it note that was presented in court. “I killed them on purpose because I’m not good enough to care for them.”
“I am a horrible evil person,” she penned. “I AM EVIL, I DID THIS.”
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