Lucy Letby, 32, has been sentenced to life in prison for the “sadistic” murder of seven babies and the attempted murder of six babies. The court in Manchester announced this on Monday. Letby killed the children while working as a nurse at the Countess of Chester Hospital in the city of Chester, between June 2015 and June 2016. Never before in recent British history has anyone been convicted of the murders of so many children.
Letby worked as a nurse in the neonatology department, where she was responsible for the care of premature babies. During her work, the department suddenly had to deal with an inexplicably high number of deaths, after which the hospital launched an investigation in 2016. This did not explain the increase in the mortality rate, but the researchers did find major shortcomings in staffing, poor decision-making in the department and a shortage of senior employees.
A year later, the hospital contacted the police, who then launched their own investigation. More than 70 officers worked on the case. They collected more than 32,000 documents and questioned about 2,000 people. “This was an investigation like no other – in scope, complexity and weight,” said a police investigator at the trial. In 2020, Letby was arrested and charged.
Baby A through Q
During the trial, which lasted more than nine months, jurors were confronted with harrowing details about the murder of babies, some of whom were just a few days old. The babies, described as Baby A through Baby Q, were injured or killed in various ways. Letby killed the infants by injecting air and insulin into their bloodstream, injecting air into their gastrointestinal tract, and forcing them to give milk or other fluids. The children often died a very painful death.
The victims were five boys and two girls, two of whom were brothers. They were part of triplets. According to the court, Letby mainly focused on twins or triplets. One of the babies tried to kill them twice in a two week period.
The key evidence in the case consists of files containing forged notes from Letby and the staff rosters which showed that she was the only one always present at the sudden deaths on the ward. The police also found diaries in her home in which she wrote about her actions. For example, she described herself several times as “devilish” and wrote: “I killed them on purpose because I am not good enough to take care of them”.
Severely handicapped
Letby was almost always present at the beginning of the trial, but she stopped showing up in recent days. Also Monday, the day her sentence was announced and the families of all the babies were allowed to present their testimony, Letby refused to leave her cell.
During the testimony, the parents of the deceased babies tell how Letby’s actions have marked their lives. Other parents say their children who survived the assassination attempts are now severely disabled. For example, the parents of twins A and B tell how they no longer dared to leave their second child alone with medical staff after Baby A was killed by Letby. Baby D’s mother said she wanted to feel, smell, cuddle her child. I was desperate to keep her safe.”