Staff Writer
For murdering seven newborn babies and attempting to kill six more while they were in her care, a British nurse was sentenced to life in prison on Monday.
After being found guilty of murdering five baby boys and two baby girls, Lucy Letby, 33, became the UK’s most prolific child serial murderer in modern times.
Between June 2015 and June 2016, a number of infant deaths occurred at the newborn section of the Countess of Chester Hospital in northwest England. This led to her arrest.
According to the prosecution, Letby preyed on her helpless victims who were born prematurely and frequently worked overnight shifts by either injecting them with air, overfeeding them with milk, or poisoning them with insulin.
A jury at Manchester Crown Court completed its deliberations on Friday following a trial that began in October.
When the jury handed down the first guilty verdicts earlier in August, Letby was in the dock.
She did not, however, sit in the dock for the final decisions, and on Monday, when she was to be sentenced, she remained in the cells.
Judge James Goss addressed Letby in her absence, saying, “You acted in a way that was completely contrary to the normal human instincts of nurturing and caring for babies.”
She acted with “deep malevolence bordering on sadism,” according to him, and with “premeditation, calculation, and cunning.”
The court told her, “You have no remorse,” and commanded that she receive a written copy of the sentencing remarks and the victim impact statements from the families.
There aren’t any mitigating circumstances.
According to Goss, the early release rules do not apply because of the very high nature of your offenses.
As a result, the judge remarked, “The order of the court is a whole life order on each and every offense, and you will spend the rest of your life in prison.”
‘Cowardly’
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak declared it was “cowardly that people who commit such horrendous crimes do not face their victims” when Letby declined to attend the sentence.
Keir Starmer, the former chief prosecutor and leader of the main opposition Labour party, pledged to address the “shamefully exploited loophole” if his party were to win power.
The victim impact statements from the families regarding how Letby’s crimes affected them were heard prior to the sentencing, although Letby was not there.
In a statement read in court, the mother of twin boys and girls who were attacked in June 2015 stated, “You thought it was your right to play God with our children’s lives.”
While his older sister survived a murder attempt, the baby boy was killed.
The father of two brothers who were part of a set of triplets who were killed by the nurse remarked, “Lucy Letby has destroyed our lives.”
In a pre-recorded video statement given to the court, he declared, “The anger and hatred I have towards her will never go away.”
Letby was removed from the neonatal unit and assigned to administrative responsibilities following the deaths of the two triplets in June 2016.
She was detained for the first time in July 2018, which was two years later. Letby was officially charged and taken into custody following her third arrest in November 2020.
motive unknown
Letby’s motivations are still unknown. The prosecution claimed throughout the trial that Letby “gaslighted” her colleagues into thinking the increase in infant deaths was “just a run of bad luck”.
The court was informed that Letby conducted unusually in-depth online searches for the families of her victims.
The parents of a child she was subsequently found guilty of killing received a sympathy card from her as well.
One of the pieces of evidence that the court saw was a handwritten note with the words “I am evil I did this” written in capital letters that was discovered during police searches at Letby’s residence.
In addition, the jury found Letby not guilty on two counts of attempted murder and deadlocked on six additional charges.
Letby consistently denied torturing the infants.
The UK government has announced an independent investigation into the matter that would examine how hospital administration handled the concerns of the medical staff.
The hospital’s leadership have come under scrutiny for their slow response to senior doctors’ apparently raised concerns about Letby as early as 2015.
