Lucy Letby, a former neonatal nurse from the UK, has become the most notorious baby killer in modern times after she was convicted of murdering seven newborns and attempting to kill six others. The 33-year-old was convicted at Manchester Crown Court of the “persistent, calculated, and col-blooded” killings of premature infants at the Countess of Chester Hospital in verdicts read over several days, The Guardian reports. The jury deliberated for more than 110 hours over 20 days before reaching the verdict.
- The list of Letby’s victims was extensive. She killed two twin boys within 24 hours of one another, as well as a baby girl born 10 weeks early who Letby attempted to murder four times before finally succeeding.
- Letby knew exactly what she was doing. The nurse regularly killed her victims by injecting them with fatal doses of insulin or injecting their veins with air. The crimes happened between June 2015 and June 2016, though Letby wasn’t arrested until 2018.
- She got away with what she was doing for so long. While parents of the babies raised concerns about Letby, they were regularly dismissed as the hospital insisted she was doing her job. However, DCI Nicola Evans of Cheshire Constabulary believes that Letby relied on working “under a cover of trust” to get away with what she did. “Lucy Letby was operating in plain sight. She abused the trust of the people around her. Not just the parents that had entrusted her with their babies but also the nurses she worked with and the people that she regarded as friends,” she said.
- Letby has always denied the charges against her. She told the courtroom that she was “devastated” by being accused of murder. “I only ever did my best to care for them. I’m here to help andn to care, not to harm,” she said. However, evidence found in Letby’s home, including documents about the babies she’d killed and notes on which she scrawled confessions about being a killer, indicate otherwise.
- Lucy Letby is due to be sentenced on Monday, August 21. She’s expected to be only the third woman in UK history to be handed a whole-life sentence, meaning she will never get out of prison for the rest of her life.
