British Nurse Found Guilty of Killing 7 Newborns in One Year
Lucy Letby, a 33-year-old British nurse, has been found guilty of murdering seven newborn babies and attempting to murder six others at the neonatal unit of the hospital where she worked. The trial, which began in October of last year, revealed that Letby injected her young victims with air, overfed them with milk, and poisoned them with insulin.
This makes Lucy Letby the most prolific child killer in the UK. The jury at Manchester Crown Court reached their verdicts after 22 days of deliberation. Letby was arrested following a series of baby deaths at the Countess of Chester Hospital’s neonatal unit in northwest England between June 2015 and June 2016.
The prosecution described Letby as a “calculating” woman who used methods of killing that left minimal evidence. She had consistently denied causing harm to the infants. The Senior Crown Prosecutor stated that Letby betrayed the trust placed in her, harming babies in an environment that should have been safe.
Colleagues raised concerns when they noticed that Letby was on duty during each of the babies’ collapses. Some infants were attacked shortly after their parents left their cots. Letby was said to have “gaslighted” her colleagues into thinking the deaths were coincidental.
Her last victims were twin boys referred to as babies O and P. Child O died shortly after Letby returned from vacation in June 2016, and child P died a day after their sibling. Letby was also accused of attempting to kill the third triplet, child Q, but the jury couldn’t reach a verdict on that charge.
Letby was arrested and released twice before her formal charge and custody in 2020. During a search of her home, police found hospital paperwork and a note in which Letby wrote, “I am evil, I did this.”
In her defense, Letby’s lawyer emphasized her dedication to her work and suggested that the neonatal unit was overstretched and understaffed. Letby herself argued that senior doctors blamed her to cover for the hospital’s shortcomings.
This case evoked memories of other notorious medical murderers in the UK, such as doctor Harold Shipman and nurse Beverley Allitt. Shipman, a general practitioner, killed around 250 patients with lethal morphine injections between 1971 and 1998. Allitt, known as the “angel of death,” was convicted of murdering children in her care and causing harm to others in 1993.
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