“Cold, methodical, rigid and persistent»: This is how the prosecution described Lucy Letby, the 33-year-old former nurse, who was convicted today of the murder seven newborn babies and the attempt murder ten others, at the end of a ten-month trial, in a case that caused disgust among Britons and not only to them.
Between June 2015 and June 2016, seven premature babies died suddenly and without apparent cause in the intensive care unit of the Countess of Chester Hospital, in the city of the same name, in northwest England.
The then 25-year-old Letby worked there.
The death of newborn was sometimes recorded within a few hours of each other. Ten other newborns were found near death, again with no apparent cause, but survived.
The “constant malevolent presence when things took a turn for the worse”
As doctors were unable to find a medical reason for the deaths, the police were called. After a lengthy investigation, Letby, who had been involved in the care of the babies, was identified as the “constant malevolent presence when things took a turn for the worse”, prosecutor Nick Johnson emphasized.
He was the only medical staff member still on duty when the newborns’ health deteriorated at the hospital, Judge James Goss had noted, before the 12 jurors began deliberating the case on July 10.
“Trust me, I’m a nurse”
Lucy Letby was transferred in June 2016 to administration.
Photos of her on social media they showed a happy and smiling woman with a busy social life, and in one photo she was seen cradling a baby. But as the evidence of the investigations came to light, at her trial Letby proved to be a determined killer.
He was arrested for the first time in 2018 and then in 2019, and was jailed in November 2020.
At her home after her arrest, police investigators found papers and medical notes with references to the children involved in the case. She made searches on social media for the parents and families of the murdered babies.
Some of her handwritten notes read:I killed them on purpose because I’m not good enough to take care of them,” read a handwritten note found by police when they searched her home after her arrest. “I am a horrible, diabolical person,” he wrote. “I’M DEVIL, I DID THIS”.
She cried during her testimony
At her trial, however, the serial infanticide would plead not guilty.
She wept in her testimony, saying she never tried to harm infants and only wanted to care for them, claiming the wards were understaffed and dirty conditions may have been a factor in the deaths.
“I have never murdered a child, nor harmed any of them“, he said. She claimed that four doctors had conspired to blame her for the unit’s poor performance. Regarding her self-incriminating note, she argued that she wrote it because she felt overwhelmed, and that she was somehow inadequate at her job or had done something wrong.
But jurors heard from prosecutors, among other things, that Letby kill the babies by injecting them with air, using the nasogastric tubes to send air or an overdose of milk into their stomach. He also added insulin to the nutrient solution bags, disconnected the breathing tube from one premature infant, tube-fed another. Sometimes she combined these tactics.
The defense, according to the Athens News Agency, described Lucy Letby as “dedicated” professional. “My work was my life,” she said.
Prosecutor Nick Johnson made a detailed reconstruction of the baby killer’s working hours and the similarities between the deaths. He explained that Letby carried out her murderous acts on infants after their parents had left, when the other nurses had left, or in the middle of the night when she was alone. Then, in some cases, he joined collective efforts to save newborns or even help parents who were desperate for their babies.
Among the victims were twins and even triplets, two of whom died within 24 hours of each other after she returned from leave in June 2016. The third was saved, after his parents’ persistent pleas for him to be transferred to another hospital.
He tried three times to kill a little girl and finally killed her the fourth time
When a mother fell on her as Letby attacked her twin babies, the latter told the mother: “Trust me, I’m a nurse.”
Some of the infants were twins – in one case he murdered both siblings. He tried three times to kill a little girl, before finally killing her on the fourth attempt.
“Lucy Letby was entrusted to protect vulnerable infants. Those who worked with her did not know that there was a murderer in their midst,” said Pascal Jones, public prosecutor from the UK Crown Prosecution Service.
“She did everything she could to cover up her crimes by varying the ways in which she repeatedly harmed infants in her care,” Jones added.
“uncontrollable”
After killing without attracting attention, she became “uncontrollable,” the prosecution said. “He thought he was God.”
A very premature baby who was attacked three times by Letby in September 2015 was left severely disabled.
Her lawyer Ben Myers argued that the neonatal unit in 2015-2016 “received more babies than normal, with greater care needs” and “failed” to meet those needs. He had denounced the lack of evidence against his client, saying that incompetent doctors had accused her.
In his closing arguments, her lawyer spoke of a “presumption of guilt” against his client.
According to the prosecution, the infanticide also falsified some medical notes, to cover her tracks.
During the trial, a mother told how, returning to fetch milk for one of her twin babies – born prematurely – at 9 o’clock one night in August 2015, she heard him screaming and found he had blood around him. his mouth. Lucy Letby reassured her and the nurse advised her to go up to her room.
According to the indictment, Letby then, just before his mother appeared, had pushed medical equipment deep into the tiny infant’s throat and also injected him with air. A few hours later the baby was dead, having lost a quarter of its blood.
“We’ll never know unless he chooses to tell us”
Police investigators said they found nothing unusual in Letby’s life and could not determine any motive as to why she became a serial infanticide.
“The only person who can answer that … is Lucy Letby herself,” said Detective Inspector Paul Hughes, who led the investigation. “Unfortunately, I don’t think we’ll ever know unless he chooses to tell us.”
Police are carrying out further inquiries into the time Letby worked as a nurse at the hospital and another in Liverpool where she trained, to identify if there were any other victims. “There are a number of cases that are under active investigation that parents have been notified about,” Hughes said.
She was charged with 22 charges
She was charged with 22 counts, seven for murder and 15 for attempted murder against 10 infants.
The trial began on October 10 in Manchester. The babies during the trial were identified only by letters, A to Q, to protect the families. Parents testified, sometimes in tears.
Her sentence will be announced on Monday.
After the guilty plea, the British government said it had ordered an independent inquiry “to look into the circumstances surrounding the deaths and incidents, including how concerns raised by clinicians were dealt with”.
The investigation will seek to ensure that lessons are learned and answers are provided to parents and families.
“It will help us identify where and how patient safety standards were not met and ensure that mothers and their partners have the right confidence in the UK healthcare system,” Health Secretary Steve Barclay said in a statement.
Source: News Beast
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