Contents
- 1 Who was the nurse who intentionally killed patients
- 2 What did Lucy Letby do to the children
- 3 Why did Lucy Letby do that
- 4 Where is the nurse killer now
Who was the nurse who intentionally killed patients
In the medical field – Some people with a pathological interest in the power of life and death can be attracted to medical or related professions. Killers who occupy the role of a professional carer are sometimes referred to as “angels of death” or angels of mercy.
In this role they may kill their patients for money, for a sense of sadistic pleasure, for a belief that they are “easing” the patient’s pain, or simply “because they can”. The typical medical professional who murders kills two patients each month. One such killer was nurse Jane Toppan, who admitted during her murder trial that she was sexually aroused by death,
She would administer a drug mixture to patients she chose as her victims, lie in bed with them and hold them close to her body as they died. Another example is Harold Shipman, an English family doctor, who made it appear that his victims died of natural causes (disease).
- Between 1975 and 1998, he murdered at least 215 patients; he is suspected of having murdered 250 people. Dr.
- John Bodkin Adams, meanwhile, though acquitted in 1957 of the murder of one patient, is believed to have killed around 163 patients in Eastbourne, England,
- An example of a malignant hero serial killer was Richard Angelo, who was called the “angel of death”, or angel of mercy.
Angelo devised a plan where he would inject the patient with drugs, then rush into the room and attempt to “save” the patient so that he could be a hero to the patient’s family. This motive of excitement from inducing a health crisis for the patient has recently been labeled as a professional version of Münchausen syndrome by proxy, a type of factitious disorder,
Richard Angelo confessed to killing 25 of his patients. A number of medical murderers were involved in fraud, For example, H.H. Holmes was often involved in insurance scams and confidence tricks, Harold Shipman had a previous conviction for prescription fraud and forgery, for which he was fined £ 600.
More known “Angels of Death” include:
- Beverley Allitt, English nurse who murdered four child patients.
- Lucy Letby, English nurse convicted of the murder of seven babies and the attempted murder of six more.
- Kristen Gilbert, American nurse and convicted serial killer.
- Donald Harvey, American orderly and convicted serial killer.
- Aino Nykopp-Koski, Finnish nurse convicted of five murders and five attempts of murder.
- Michael Swango, American physician who poisoned over 30 patients and coworkers.
- Niels Högel, German nurse and convicted serial killer.
- Efren Saldivar, American respiratory therapist at Adventist Health Glendale in Glendale, California and convicted serial killer.
Who was the evil nurse who killed babies?
A British nurse who described herself as a “horrible evil person” was found guilty on Friday of murdering seven newborn babies and trying to kill another six in the neonatal unit of a hospital in northwest England where she worked. Lucy Letby, 33, was convicted of killing five baby boys and two baby girls at the Countess of Chester hospital and attacking other newborns, often while working night shifts, in 2015 and 2016.
The verdict, following a harrowing 10-month trial at Manchester Crown Court, makes Letby Britain’s most prolific serial child killer in modern history, local media said. She was found not guilty of two attempted murders while the jury, who spent 110 hours deliberating, were unable to agree on six other suspected attacks.
“We are heartbroken, devastated, angry and feel numb, we may never truly know why this happened,” the families of Letby’s victims said in a statement. Prosecutors told the jury Letby poisoned some of her infant victims by injecting them with insulin, while others were injected with air or force-fed milk, sometimes involving multiple attacks before they died.
- I killed them on purpose because I’m not good enough to care for them,” said a handwritten note found by police officers who searched her home after she was arrested.
- I am a horrible evil person,” she wrote.
- I AM EVIL I DID THIS.” Some of those she attacked were twins — in one case she murdered both siblings, in two instances she killed one but failed in her attempts to murder the other.
The youngest victim was just 1 day old. ‘Malevolent presence’ Lucy Letby, who was found guilty of murdering seven newborn babies and trying to kill another six, is pictured in this undated handout image obtained by Reuters from the Cheshire Constabulary on Aug.17, 2023. Letby will be sentenced on Monday and faces a lengthy prison term, possibly a rare full life sentence.
- Her actions came to light when senior doctors became concerned at the number of unexplained deaths and collapses at the neonatal unit, where premature or sick babies are treated, over 18 months from January 2015.
- With doctors unable to find a medical reason, police were called in.
- After a lengthy investigation, Letby, who had been involved in the care of the babies, was pinpointed as the “constant malevolent presence when things took a turn for the worse,” said prosecutor Nick Johnson.
Pictures of Letby on social media portrayed a happy and smiling woman with a busy social life, and in one photo she was seen cradling a baby. But, during months of often distressing evidence, her trial heard she was a determined killer. The jury was told how Letby had tried on four occasions to murder one baby girl before she finally succeeded.
- When another of the victim’s mothers walked in on her attacking twin babies, she said “Trust me, I’m a nurse.” At her home after her arrest, detectives found paperwork and medical notes with references to the children involved in the case.
- She had also carried out social media searches for the parents and families of the murdered babies.
Letby wept when she gave evidence over 14 days, saying she had never tried to hurt the babies and had only ever wanted to care for them, blaming unsafe staffing levels on the hospital ward and its dirty conditions. She also claimed four doctors had conspired to pin the blame on her for the unit’s failings and said she had written the “I am evil” message because she had felt overwhelmed.
- ‘They could have stopped it’ But the prosecution said she was a cold, cruel, calculating liar who had repeatedly changed her account of events and said her notes should be treated as a confession.
- Detectives said they had found nothing unusual about Letby’s life and could not determine any motive.
- Unfortunately, I don’t think we’ll ever know unless she just chooses to tell us,” said Detective Superintendent Paul Hughes, who led the investigation.
One senior doctor at the neonatal unit, Stephen Brearey, told the BBC that hospital bosses had failed to investigate allegations against Letby and failed to act on his and his colleagues’ concerns. “Our staff are devastated by what has happened, and we are committed to ensuring that lessons continue to be learned,” said Nigel Scawn, medical director at Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.
The government said it had ordered an independent inquiry, which would include how concerns raised by clinicians were dealt with. The father of twins who survived Letby’s attempts to kill the children demanded answers from the hospital. “They could have stopped it,” said the father, who cannot be named for legal reasons.
Police are carrying out further investigations into all the time Letby had worked as a nurse at the hospital and at another hospital in Liverpool where she had trained, to identify if there were any more victims. “There is a number of cases that are active investigations that parents have been informed of,” Hughes said.
What did Lucy Letby do to the children
Baby Q: Hung jury on attempted murder charge – Baby Q was born in late June 2016 and was “initially stable”. Jurors heard that the infant deteriorated and needed breathing support shortly after 09:00 on 25 June. Prosecutors said Letby injected air and fluid into the boy’s stomach via a nasogastric tube in an attempt to kill him.
Medical expert Dr Dewi Evans told jurors that vomit found on Baby Q on the morning of 25 June was evidence that liquid had been given to him by someone. Dr Evans said the subsequent respiratory problems experienced by Baby Q were likely caused by the fluid, which placed pressure on his diaphragm and prevented him from breathing normally.
The defence said there was no evidence that Ms Letby inflicted harm. Why not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram ? You can also send story ideas to [email protected]
Why did Lucy Letby do that
Letby wanted the attention of an anonymous doctor – The prosecution claimed Letby was having a secret relationship with a married doctor, who worked at the Countess of Chester hospital and cannot be named for legal reasons, though the nurse repeatedly denied this.
- Texts shown to the court revealed the pair messaged regularly, swapping love heart emojis, and met up several times outside work – including on a day trip to London – even after Letby was removed from the neonatal unit in July 2016.
- The nature of their relationship was said to be significant: he was one of the doctors who would be called when babies suddenly deteriorated.
She harmed them, it was suggested, to get his “personal attention”. Letby denied this.
Which nurse killed the most patients?
Charles Cullen | |
---|---|
Charles Cullen in custody | |
Born | Charles Edmund Cullen February 22, 1960 (age 63) West Orange, New Jersey, U.S. |
Occupation | Nurse |
Spouse | Adrianne Baum ( m.1987; div.1993) |
Children | 2 |
Criminal penalty | 18 consecutive life sentences |
Details | |
Victims | 29 confirmed; several hundred more suspected and six more attempts |
Span of crimes | 1988–2003 |
Country | United States |
State(s) |
|
Date apprehended | December 15, 2003 |
Charles Edmund Cullen (born February 22, 1960) is an American serial killer, Cullen, a nurse, murdered dozens—possibly hundreds—of patients during a 16-year career spanning several New Jersey medical centers until being arrested in 2003. He confessed to committing as many as 40 murders at least 29 of which have been confirmed; though interviews with police, psychiatrists and journalists suggest he committed many more.
Who was the female serial killer who was a nurse?
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Kristen Gilbert | |
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Mug shot taken by the Federal Bureau of Prisons | |
Born | Kristen Heather Strickland November 13, 1967 (age 55) Fall River, Massachusetts, U.S. |
Other names | “The Angel of Death” |
Occupation | Nurse |
Criminal status | Incarcerated |
Spouse | Glenn Gilbert ( m.1988; div.1998) |
Children | 2 |
Motive | Attention seeking |
Conviction(s) | First degree murder (18 U.S.C. § 1111) (3 counts) Second degree murder (18 U.S.C. § 1111) Assault with intent to commit murder (18 U.S.C. § 113) (2 counts) |
Criminal penalty | Four consecutive life sentences without parole, plus 20 years |
Details | |
Victims | 4+ |
Span of crimes | 1995 – 1996 (Gilbert is suspected of deaths dating back to 1989) |
Country | United States |
State(s) | Massachusetts |
Imprisoned at | FMC Carswell |
Kristen Heather Gilbert ( née Strickland ; born November 13, 1967) is an American serial killer and former nurse who was convicted of four murders and two attempted murders of patients admitted to the Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC) in Northampton, Massachusetts,
She induced cardiac arrest in patients by injecting their intravenous therapy bags with massive doses of epinephrine, commonly known as adrenaline, which is an untraceable heart stimulant. She would then respond to the coded emergency, often resuscitating the patients herself. Prosecutors said Gilbert was on duty for about half of the 350 deaths that occurred at the hospital from when she started working there in 1989, and that the odds of this merely being a coincidence was 1 in 100 million.
However, her only confirmed victims were Stanley Jagodowski, Henry Hudon, Kenneth Cutting, and Edward Skwira.
Who was the nurse charged with killing 2 patients?
Pa. Nurse Accused of Killing Patients with Excessive Insulin, Saying Man Was ‘Better Off Dead’
A former registered nurse was arrested this month on homicide and other charges, authorities in Pennsylvania announced. Heather Pressdee, of Natrona Heights, is accused of having prescribed excessive amounts of insulin to patients, ultimately killing two patients and hospitalizing a third, Attorney General Michelle Henry said in a May 25 press release. Pressdee, 40, was arraigned on two counts of homicide, one count of attempted murder, one count of aggravated assault, three counts of neglect of a care-dependent person and three counts of reckless endangerment.
It’s unclear if Pressdee has entered a plea to the charges or retained an attorney to speak on her behalf. She is being held in Butler County Prison without bail and is expected back in court on June 6, court records show. Pressdee worked as a registered nurse at Quality Life Services, a skilled nursing facility in Chicora, from May 23, 2022, until Nov.28, 2022, during which time prosecutors claim she gave three patients too much insulin, resulting in hypoglycemia, low blood sugar, according to a criminal complaint.
According to the complaint, a 55-year-old man died on Dec.4, 2022 and an 83-year-old man died on Dec.25, 2022, after receiving lethal doses of insulin while under Pressdee’s care. A third alleged victim, a 73-year-old man, survived after “emergency hospitalization,” as a result of the “potentially-lethal dose of insulin he received on Aug.31, 2022,” according to Henry’s release.
Two of the three men were not diabetic, according to Henry. Henry alleged the nurse, whose role it was to care for her patients, killed them on purpose. “The allegations in this case outline the callous abuse of incredibly vulnerable patients by a professional nurse,” the AG said in the release.
“As the charges indicate, these were deliberate and intentional acts perpetrated by a care-giver who was trusted to care for these victims. Be assured, my office will zealously pursue justice for the families of those who were killed, as well as the third victim who is fortunate to have survived.” The complaint states an investigation began after a relative of one of the alleged victim’s claimed Pressdee improperly administered insulin to patients under her care.
During questioning about the fatal alleged victims, Pressdee allegedly said she “felt bad for their quality of life and she had hoped that they would slip into a coma and pass away,” the complaint states. According to a nurse at the facility, Pressdee allegedly told her that one of the patients who later died, identified in the complaint as J.B., “would be better off dead.” Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases.
Authorities also alleged in the complaint Pressdee told investigators that the surviving patient, identified as E.A., was in COVID isolation and had asked her to “kill him,” before she injected him in the stomach with “one syringe, approximately 100 units, of long-acting insulin.” “She stated that he began showing symptoms and that she did not address the symptoms, and the oncoming shift sent him to the hospital,” authorities said in the complaint.
Since 2018, Pressdee has worked brief stints as a nurse at about 11 facilities, including Quality Life Services, per the complaint. Authorities claimed they “identified a pattern of Pressdee being disciplined for abusive behavior towards patients and/or staff at each facility resulting in her resigning or being terminated.” Authorities say the investigation remains ongoing.
Does Lucy Letby have family?
Do Lucy Letby’s parents support her? – Lucy Letby’s parents are said to have supported her throughout the trial. They attended every court hearing and her dad stayed at her house the night she was arrested. They even relocated from Hereford to Manchester to be closer to Lucy during her long trial.
Lucy was the first person in her wider family to go to university and her parents have been described as ‘doting’. In messages obtained by the court, she is said to have told her colleagues that she felt ‘guilty’ for moving away from her parents who were always keen to maintain a close relationship with their daughter.
Lucy’s parents also helped her to buy a house, close to the Countess of Chester Hospital where she worked as a neonatal nurse.
Was Lucy the nurse accused of killing babies?
Lucy Letby | |
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Letby following her arrest in 2018 | |
Born | 4 January 1990 (age 33) Hereford, Herefordshire, England |
Occupation | Neonatal nurse |
Conviction(s) | Murder (7 counts), attempted murder (7 counts) |
Criminal penalty | 14 life sentences ( whole life order ) |
Details | |
Span of crimes | 2015–2016 |
Country | United Kingdom |
Killed | 7 |
Injured | 6 |
Date apprehended | 3 July 2018 |
Imprisoned at | HM Prison Low Newton |
Lucy Letby (born 4 January 1990) is a British serial killer and former neonatal nurse who murdered seven infants and attempted to murder six others at the Countess of Chester Hospital between 2015 and 2016. Letby was the focus of much suspicion as the outbreak of unexpected collapses and infant deaths commenced shortly after she was qualified to work with children in the hospital’s intensive care unit and was consistently on duty when each incident took place.
- As soon as Letby was removed from duties in June 2016, the suspicious incidents stopped.
- Letby was charged in November 2020 with eight counts of murder and ten counts of attempted murder,
- During her trial, which lasted from October 2022 to August 2023, it was revealed that Letby’s methods included injecting the infants with air or insulin, overfeeding them or physically assaulting them.
She also stole over 250 confidential documents relating to the children’s care to keep as mementoes of her crimes and falsified patient records to avert suspicion. Several parents and staff members had also walked in during, or just after, Letby’s attacks on victims.
On 21 August 2023, Letby was sentenced to life imprisonment with a whole life order, She has announced her intention to appeal, while a retrial of one count of attempted murder is also planned. Letby is the most prolific serial killer of children in modern British history; the Cheshire Constabulary now suspects that she may have claimed more victims, including at Liverpool Women’s Hospital, where two babies died while she was training there.
Management at the Countess of Chester Hospital were criticised for ignoring warnings about Letby that could have prevented some of the killings. The British government has since announced that an independent statutory inquiry would be held into the circumstances surrounding the murders.
Does Lucy Letby have Munchausen?
Raising serial killer Lucy Letby – inside ‘suffocating’ and ‘close knit’ family Monster will die behind in after being hit with a for killing seven while working as a nurse at an, We take a closer look at the upbringing which led her to become a, The 33-year-old was born in Hereford – which is between Wales and Birmingham – on January 4, 1990. Lucy Letby refused to face the parents of her victims in court. (Image: Getty) She got her first part-time job when she was as a teenager, working in a branch of WH Smith, and became the first member of the family to graduate. She secured a Bachelor of Science degree in Child Nursing from the University of Chester in 2011, and her parents were so delighted with the feat that they took out an advertisement in the local paper.
- And while they were said to be unhappy about her moving away from Hereford to start her new job, they helped Letby buy her first home – a £179,000 three-bedroom semi.
- The property was just a mile from the Countess of Chester Hospital, where she lived alone with her two rescue cats, Tigger and Smudge.
- But her dad, now 77, and mum, 63, “hated it” when their only child did not return home after graduating from university, something she admitted made her feel “constantly guilty”.
Lucy Letby will spend the rest of her life behind bars (Image: SWNS) The close bond the trio shares can be seen in Letby’s correspondence with friends, telling them her parents found it “hard” being away from her and “worry massively”. Speaking to a friend who was emigrating to New Zealand, Letby said: “I couldn’t leave my parents.
She told another: “My parents worry massively about everything and anything, hate that I live alone etc. I feel bad because I know it’s really hard for them especially as I’m an only child, and they mean well, just a little suffocating at times and constantly feel guilty.” It could be that this feeling of “suffocation” led to Letby seeking attention elsewhere when she was 100 miles away from her parents. Countess of Chester Hospital in Chester, where Lucy Letby attacked and killed babies in her care (Image: SWNS) After killing her first victim, Baby A, in June 2015, a fellow nurse texted her: “I hope you are OK, you were brilliant.” Letby replied: “It was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do.
Just a big shock for us all. Hard coming in tonight and seeing the parents.” Lecturer in criminology at Loughborough University Dominic Wilmott said he believes some of the nurse’s texts suggest she wanted to ‘garner sympathy’ after the babies’ deaths. He said last week that she may have been motivated by a ‘pathological desire for attention and sympathy’.
The prosecution argued throughout the trial that Letby also wanted to gain the sympathy of a doctor she had become “infatuated” with. There are claims that she was animated after some of the murders, as if revelling in the drama she had created. It was believed Letby may have been suffering from Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy.
The condition can see carers intentionally harm children in order to gain attention for themselves. Her parents appear to have been in complete denial of their daughter’s crimes throughout the trial. They were quick to leap to her defence and she had leaned on them when she had a key meeting with hospital bosses in January 2017.
The parents went to the meeting alongside their daughter, six months after she was removed from her role. Two triplet boys had died at the neonatal unit where she worked. The meeting helped her secure a letter of apology from senior doctors who had raised concerns about Letby.
- She was eventually arrested on July 4, 2018.
- Dad John watched as she was led away from her house by police after he had stayed the night when driving her home after one of the family’s holidays to Torquay.
- Close to tears, Letby told the courtroom during the trial how Mr Letby had made her bed following her arrest.
Stuffed toys and fairy lights adorned her room, which the jury saw from photographs shown in court, while there were notes in her kitchen from her cats. They read ‘Happy Birthday Mummy’, and had been sent by Susan, her mum. Her mum was such a devoted parent she pleaded with officers: “I did it. John and Susan Letby, parents of Lucy Letby, arriving at Manchester Crown Court for their daughters murder trial. (Image: PA.) They were seen making loving glances to their daughter as she sat in the dock. They were a constant presence, often seen smoking on the court steps during breaks and even going as far as criticising journalists for their coverage.
- They complained about the length of the trial as they had to extend their rent on the flat close to Manchester Crown Court.
- Their faith in their daughter remains unshakeable, even when the jury convicted her.
- Mrs Letby’s disbelief was laid bare in court when she collapsed sobbing into her husband’s arms, at one point shouting: “You can’t be serious.
This cannot be right.” In a final sign of solidarity with their daughter, they were not in court for sentencing. She was given a whole life order while cowerng in her cell. They did not hear the heart-wrenching words of parents who had lost their babies, nor did they listen to Mr Justice Goss declare that she will now spend the rest of her life behind bars.
- She will now spend the rest of her days in HMP Low Newton in Durham, which has also caged Baby P’s mum and Rose West among other villains.
- Her victims’ parents called her decision to stay in her cell and refuse to face justice and the families whose lives she had torn apart a ‘cowardly’ move.
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: Raising serial killer Lucy Letby – inside ‘suffocating’ and ‘close knit’ family
Where is Lucy Letby now?
Lucy Letby to face retrial on charge of trying to murder baby girl, court told Lucy Letby will face a retrial on a charge of attempting to murder a newborn baby girl, a court has been told. The former nurse, 33, was found guilty in August of murdering seven babies and attempting to kill a further six at the Countess of Chester hospital in north-west England.
- Prosecutor Nick Johnson KC told Manchester crown court on Monday that the prosecution would retry Letby on one of those allegations – the attempted murder of a baby girl in February 2016 – but not on the remaining counts.
- Mr Justice Goss KC said the first available date for a new trial was 10 June 2024 due to the “huge backlog of cases” in the courts.
- Nevertheless, he said any new trial should not take place before judges had decided whether to give Letby permission to appeal against the convictions from her first trial.
- Letby will spend the rest of her life in prison after being sentenced to multiple whole-life terms – one for each offence – becoming only the fourth woman in UK history to receive such a sentence.
Letby, who refused to attend her sentencing and the final days of her trial, watched the proceedings via a video-link to a conference room at HMP New Hall, near Wakefield in West Yorkshire. She confirmed her name to the court and that she could hear the legal discussions.
- A court order prohibits reporting of the identities of the surviving and dead children who were the subject of the allegations.
- Tamlin Bolton, of law firm Switalskis, which represents seven families, said: “At Switalskis, we are disappointed with the CPS decision to not proceed with a retrial on all of the cases.
- “We believe that the families of the further alleged victims still have questions that are unanswered and they deserve to know what happened to their children.
- “On the back of the CPS decision, those families will need to pursue other channels to get the answers.”
- Afterwards, Jonathan Storer, the chief crown prosecutor at CPS Mersey-Cheshire, said: “These decisions on whether to seek retrials on the remaining counts of attempted murder were extremely complex and difficult.
“Before reaching our conclusions we listened carefully to the views of the families affected, police and prosecution counsel. Many competing factors were considered including the evidence heard by the court during the long trial and its impact on our legal test for proceeding with a prosecution.
Was Lucy Letby jealous?
Holding up a tiny babygrow with a flower pattern printed on it, Lucy Letby presents a wide smile for the camera in what would become the defining image of the killer nurse. Dressed in her blue nursing uniform with her name badge pinned proudly on her chest, the young, blonde girl in her mid-20s is now the UK’s most notorious child killer.
- Described as non-descript and normal by police, few could envisage the horror she would inflict on innocent families.
- Born in Hereford on 4 January 1990, Letby is the only child of John and Susan Letby, a retail boss and accounts clerk who are now both retired.
- After attending a local school and sixth-form college, Letby qualified as a children’s nurse at the University of Chester in 2011.
She completed training placements in Liverpool Women’s Hospital before joining the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital on 2 January 2012, just two days before her 22nd birthday. Her life at this point was extraordinarily normal. She lived in several houses, before buying her suburban, red-brick, semi-detached home in 2016 which was around a 20-minute walk from the ward. Image: Lucy Letby’s bedroom Told colleagues she was bored Letby owned two cats, Tigger and Smudge, and was close with her parents, saying in messages she felt “guilty” for not visiting them more often. She had friends and an active social life, holidaying in Ibiza, going on nights out and attending weekly salsa dancing classes.
- Letby used social media regularly to keep in contact with colleagues, friends and family and even exchanged messages with management on the neonatal ward.
- At work, she was trusted and dedicated, having completed specialist training in March 2014 and regularly working in what was called nursery one – where the most ill children were cared for.
It was known as the “hot room” – an average-looking room with yellow walls alongside paintings of owls and teddy bears. She would text colleagues when working in the lower-risk nurseries – two, three and four – that she was bored and wanted to work in nursery one – which the prosecution later said was a trigger for Letby to carry out attacks. Image: A corridor within the neonatal unit ‘Beige or vanilla’ It was speculated that Letby had a romantic crush on a married doctor on the ward, having exchanged hundreds of messages with him. The pair had also gone out for meals, been on a trip to London together and spent time at her home.
- But while the details of her life may seem banal, the Crown Prosecution Service alleged there was a “much darker side to her personality”.
- A member of the prosecution team described her as “devious, calculated and cold-blooded”.
- There isn’t anything outstanding or outrageous about her.
- She was a normal, 20-something-year-old,” DCI Nicola Evans from Cheshire Police said.
“She had a normal job, she was average in that job, she had a group of friends and a family and a social life, nothing that you wouldn’t expect from someone of her age at that time. “The fact she was non-descript and average in work allowed her to go under the radar and commit these offences. Image: Det Chief Insp Nicola Evans (left) and senior investigating officer Det Supt Paul Hughes The start of the attacks Letby had worked at the Countess of Chester hospital for more than three years when the mortality rate of the neonatal unit began to rise in 2015.
Her first attack came on 8 June 2015 when Child A died less than 90 minutes into Letby’s overnight shift. Letby used several methods to kill or severely injure the helpless victims – including physical assaults, overfeeding with milk, forcing air into their stomachs, and injecting air into their bloodstreams.
Two victims survived after Letby poisoned their IV drip bags with insulin. Read more: How the police caught Lucy Letby Will she ever be released from prison? The prosecution accused Letby of varying her methods to avoid detection. Some babies were subjected to repeated attempts by her to kill them.
- The jury heard Letby would use medicines and equipment readily available to her to cause babies to unexpectedly collapse across day and night shifts.
- Her victims included both boys and girls, many of whom were born prematurely.
- After she had killed the infants, Letby searched for 11 of the victims’ families on social media and even sent one set of parents a sympathy card on the day of their baby’s funeral.
She took a photo of the sympathy card before she posted it. Image: A sympathy card that was shown to the jury in the Lucy Letby murder trial Letby was said to be relaxed and collected despite the rising number of deaths. The parents of Child L and M – twin brothers who were just days old when Letby tried to kill them in April 2016 – said she was acting “very cool and calm” after she injected Child M with an injection of excessive air.
But Child M survived, after which “her body language and her behaviour totally changed”, the twins’ mother said. “She was very annoyed with us. She thought that ‘I couldn’t kill your baby’.” She also made unusual comments which aroused suspicion at this time. As Child P was being readied to be moved to another hospital in June 2016 after Letby pumped excess air into his stomach, she said: “He’s not leaving here alive, is he?” She had made a similar remark when Child C fatally collapsed a year earlier.
Exclusive: Mother fears Letby attacked her baby too Letby was accused of committing the murders in a one-year period – between June 2015 and June 2016 – out of her five-year career. But Cheshire Police said it is investigating whether Letby could be responsible for any further attacks before June 2015, both at Countess of Chester Hospital and Liverpool Women’s Hospital. Image: A Morrisons carrier bag found by police in Lucy Letby’s bedroom containing a number of hospital shift handover sheets and other medical notes Letby scribbled all kinds of messages but on some she had written: “I am evil”, “I did this” and “I don’t deserve to be here because I’m evil”. Prosecutors said the notes illustrated a woman in turmoil, grappling with the guilt of her actions. But Dr Sohom Das, a consultant forensic psychiatrist, said Letby doesn’t fit any “typical” killer profiles. ‘Low self-esteem and self confidence’ He says women who kill babies are usually driven by psychotic beliefs. “I’ve seen at least two or three patients who have had delusional beliefs related to schizophrenia, for example, where they believe children are marked by the devil, that they’re somehow saving them from hell or damnation,” he told Sky News.
“Letby doesn’t fit into that category. I’ve also met serial killers and they tend to be antisocial, angry, they tend to have a long criminal history of violence. Again, Letby doesn’t fit that kind of motivation.” Beatrice Yorker, a professor emerita of nursing and criminal justice and criminalistics at California State University in Los Angeles, said Letby also does not fit the profile of an attention-seeking killer like Angel of Death nurse Beverley Allitt.
“I haven’t read anything about Lucy Letby that indicates she wanted to be the centre of attention, that she enjoyed resuscitation of the infants. She seemed much more clandestine and deceitful. Kind of sadistic, maybe.” Dr Das said Letby suffered from low self-esteem and self-confidence which may have manifested a degree of jealousy. Image: Pic: Cheshire Constabulary ‘The most cowardly act’ In one note, Letby wrote she had an “overwhelming fear. I’ll never have children or marry. I will never know what it’s like to have a family. despair”. Dr Jane Carter Woodrow, a screenwriter and member of the British Society of Criminology who has written several books about murderers and serial killers, said it is likely Letby may fit the profile of a psychopath.
The NHS defines a psychopath as someone with an antisocial personality disorder meaning they are manipulative, lack empathy, and often have a total disregard for the consequences of their actions. “How could she not be to be able to do those things,” she said. “It’s the most cowardly act of all killers, a child or an elderly person.” Read more: Inside the mind of a serial killer – the psychology behind healthcare murderers Spreaker This content is provided by Spreaker, which may be using cookies and other technologies.
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- Click to subscribe to the Sky News Daily wherever you get your podcasts ‘Trust me, I’m a nurse’ Dr Carter Woodrow says that “once you’ve crossed that line” and “murdered for the first time, I think it gets easier.
And you see she feels emboldened as time goes on and the cases kind of escalate, particularly towards the end”. The fact Letby pleaded not guilty also shows psychopathic traits, she says. “She could have pleaded guilty and not put the parents through this terrible trauma again.
She could have spared them all these details they’ve had to sit through.” During the trial, the jury heard how Letby told one mother, “trust me, I’m a nurse”, as she killed one baby. “I think this was about power,” says Dr Carter Woodrow. “Saying, ‘trust me, I’m a nurse’, all the time knowing what she was going to go and do.
it’s like somebody with a card up their sleeve that they’re almost laughing about.” Suspicions increase Colleagues became suspicious of Letby within weeks of the first attack. Dr Stephen Brearey, the head consultant on the neonatal unit, reviewed the deaths of Child A, C and D in June 2015.
He found Letby was the only nurse on shift for each of the deaths. In October 2015, consultants became increasingly concerned when they saw a spike in deaths that were “unexplained and unexpected” – a highly unusual occurrence in neonatal wards meaning there was no prior indication in the 24 hours before that death may occur.
Consultant Dr Ravi Jayaram alerted management but was told “not to make a fuss”. He was even forced to apologise to Letby and attend mediation for accusing her of wrongdoing, news outlets reported. Other colleagues who reported Letby were told there was no evidence against her. Image: Dr Ravi Jayaram. Pic: Rex/ITV/Shutterstock ‘A lot of suspicion’ Speculation grew as Letby would be on shift or near a child during every suspicious death. Her reputation became so infamous that one staff member who worked at the hospital told Sky News: “There was a lot of suspicion when alarms would go off, during the night especially, there would be a phrase colleagues would use – ‘I wonder if Lucy is working tonight’.” “That’s exactly how it was, so people knew exactly what was going on,” nursing assistant Lynsey Artell said.
- Then and now, all evidence against Letby was circumstantial – there is no CCTV, no witnesses to her crimes.
- But by July 2016, after several more warnings by senior consultants, Letby had been moved off the neonatal ward and put into an administrative role.
- An internal NHS investigation followed.
- But the hospital only contacted police in early 2017, asking whether they thought an investigation was necessary – almost two years since the prosecution said Letby first attacked and well over a year after colleagues first became suspicious.
Letby caught Letby was arrested more than three years after her killing spree started. On that day in July 2018, she was relaxed and speaking in a calm, quiet tone after officers knocked on her door. She let them in, wearing a blue hoodie with white and pink writing, as well as blue tracksuit bottoms. Her shoulder-length mousy blonde hair was hanging down around her face. Ten minutes later, police bodycam footage recorded Letby being escorted out of the house in handcuffs and put into a police car where she told officers she just had knee surgery. Image: Lucy Letby’s arrest During a police interview that same day, she remained calm. When asked if she had been concerned about a rise in mortality rates at the hospital, she said: “I think we’d all just noticed as a team in general, the nursing staff, that this was a rise compared to previous years.” She was released after her first arrest but was rearrested in June 2019 when she was bailed pending further inquiries. Image: Letby is questioned by police Letby was rearrested and charged in November 2020 three years after the investigation – named Operation Hummingbird – started. Letby on trial Letby on trial was a very different person to Letby the quiet nurse. She was now 33 – eight years on from her first attack.
- She was smartly dressed, her hair now dark brown and longer than in pictures used by the media.
- Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player The police investigation into Letby She was seated in the glass-fronted dock – her parents were seated in the gallery opposite her in courtroom seven at Manchester Crown Court.
Her mother frequently made eye contact with her daughter and mouthed “I love you” as the gruelling trial went on. Image: Susan Letby Spoke quietly and calmly When Letby was called to give evidence in May, she spoke quietly and calmly and was asked repeatedly to raise her voice. At times she was vigorous in her defence and firmly denied the charges. She pointed the finger at other colleagues and blamed general hospital failings. Image: Court artist Elizabeth Cook drawing outside Manchester Crown Court Letby cried when speaking about the impact of the arrest and trial on her, when photographs of her bedroom were shown and when speaking about her cats. But, as the prosecution pointed out, the tears stopped when the topic of the deaths arose.
Britain’s worst child serial killer She bowed her head and cried again when the first verdicts were delivered. Susan Letby broke down sobbing as her daughter was led away from the dock, whispering “you can’t be serious, this can’t be right”, into her husband’s arms. During the second set of verdicts, when she was found guilty of murdering four babies and attempting to murder two more.
As the jury delivered the outcome of its deliberations she was emotionless, but her shoulders began to shake as she stood to be taken back down to the cells. Letby refused to leave the cells and appear in court for the third set of verdicts when she was found guilty of three more murders and three more attempted murders. Image: John and Susan Letby The verdicts were delivered after more than 100 hours of deliberations by the jury of seven women and four men. For her sentencing on Monday, Letby made it clear she would refuse to appear in person or via video link. Who is Lucy Letby? Letby has never explained her transition from a very ordinary woman to Britain’s most prolific child killer. It is something her victims’ families will have to fathom in the coming months and years as they grapple with a public inquiry and their harrowing grief. Deputy senior investigating officer at Cheshire Police Nicola Evans said this “must be really hard for families to accept”. “I don’t know whether we will ever be able to answer that question, and only Lucy Letby can answer that.”
What will happen to Lucy Letby?
The prisoner – Letby has been in custody since November 2020. On Monday, she was sentenced to a “whole life order” meaning she will die in prison. She is only the fourth female criminal in British history to have no hope of parole. Letby is expected to be categorised as a “restricted status” prisoner – the female equivalent of a Category A inmate – which is imposed to minimise the possibility of escape and protect the public from harm.
- There are only three prisons in England and Wales where restricted status prisoners are held – HMP Low Newton in Co Durham, HMP Bronzefield in Surrey and HMP New Hall in Yorkshire.
- Tom Nicholson, a criminal barrister, told the BBC that whole life term prisoners mean “maximum security conditions, visiting restrictions and restrictions on how they operate in prison.” There would be “specific conditions that will apply in order to minimise the chances of them escaping”, he added.
He said that the prison governor would also have to consider what risk the prisoner had of being harmed by other inmates. Media caption, Watch moment Lucy Letby is sentenced
How did Lucy Letby get caught?
July 2018: Lucy Letby’s arrest – Letby was arrested on July 3 2018, at her home in Westbourne Road, Chester, at 6am, and officers searched the three-bedroom property. Searches also took place at her parents’ home in Hereford, and at her place of work in the hospital’s Risk and Patient Safety Office.
What did Lucy Letby write about?
How chilling handwritten notes brought baby killer nurse to justice Published: 16:07 BST, 18 August 2023 | Updated: 18:06 BST, 18 August 2023 Lucy Letby wrote a ‘confession’ in which she described herself as a ‘horrible evil person’ and said: ‘I DID THIS.’ The note was discovered in her diary by police when they raided her home following her arrest.
- Other strange and chaotic writings were also recovered from her handbag and garage.
- She insisted that the green note was not evidence that she had killed and harmed the children, but that she had written it when she was ‘struggling’ mentally because she thought she could have made mistakes at work and had accidentally hurt the babies.
- But the jury dismissed her claims and agreed with the prosecution that it should be read ‘literally.’
- Last night handwriting expert Adam Brand, who analysed Letby’s notes for the Mail, said her writing style was evidence of a ‘manipulative and dishonest’ individual.
Homicidal nurse Lucy Letby wrote a ‘confession’ in which she described herself as a ‘horrible evil person’ in a series of handwritten notes found after she went on a killing spree In one ‘confession’ in which she described herself as an ‘awful person’ before writing ‘I AM EVIL I DID THIS’ (pictured) In other notes seized by police, Letby had written ‘hate my life’, ‘can’t do this anymore’ and ‘HELP’ Handwriting expert Adam Brand, who analysed Letby’s notes for the Mail, said her writing style was evidence of a ‘manipulative and dishonest’ individual.
In this, he breaks down what her writing represents Other features of her handwriting, however, indicated she could also be ‘charming’ and ‘kind’ at the same time, he said. Mr Brand said Letby was a fascinating case because her writing style displayed traits of antisocial behaviour disorder – impulsiveness, dishonesty, rejection of discipline and manipulation – while it also showed she was capable of ‘integrating’ into society and making friends.
He said the handwriting in Letby’s 2016 diary, which was recovered by police, was ordered and appeared to be written by someone in control. But it was in great contrast to the other coloured notes, which were all shown to the jury and appeared to be much more chaotic and disturbed.
- ‘Her writing shows she is a charming person who can do some terrible deeds,’ he said.
- Mr Brand likened Letby to Jeffrey Dahmer, the US serial killer who murdered and dismembered 17 men over 13 years in Milwaukee, USA.
- ‘He has been described as an integrated anti-social and I see her like that,’ he said.
‘She is somebody who can occasionally be very friendly, other times manipulative, secretive and cold.’
- Mr Brand highlighted several ‘disturbances’ in her handwriting style.
- The way she had written HATE, PANIC, FEAR, LOST on the green ‘I am evil’ note could be viewed as attention seeking, it suggested she wanted to be listened to and not ignored, he said.
- While the ‘continuous loopings’ on the yellow note and repetition of her name or signature on the white A4 note, both showed she was obsessive, Mr Brand said.
- The way her writing does not slant one way or the other – it doesn’t lean to the right or the left consistently but has a varying slant – and sometimes ‘suddenly’ changes direction in the middle of a word, is highly unusual and demonstrates she suffered ‘horrific’ mood swings and had difficulty fitting into a team, Mr Brand said.
Last night handwriting expert Adam Brand, who analysed Letby’s notes for the Mail, said her writing style was evidence of a ‘manipulative and dishonest’ individual He said the handwriting in Letby’s 2016 diary, which was recovered by police, was ordered and appeared to be written by someone in control.
- ‘Mood swings are shown by sudden changes of slant, you go from left slant to right slant,’ Mr Brand said.
- ‘This is a clear mood change, you can feel that change of emotion, it is very rapid when it is within a word itself.’
- The lack of consistency in the height of her letters also suggested she has self-esteem issues, while ‘hooks’ at the start of vowels was symbolic of evasiveness, Mr Brand said.
Shaded boxes and grid doodles also signified repressed anger and that she felt trapped, he added. Anger was also evident in the slashes which she used instead of dots to ‘dot her i’s’, he said. While the ‘overlapping’ of words and sentences symbolised an inability to plan or think clearly, Mr Brand added.
Referring to the back of one of the yellow notes, Mr Brand said: ‘If you look at the doodling that’s going on, it’s quite remarkable. Incredibly heavy, you can see the anger, the anxiety, the stress. Another thing you see is the constant circling – there’s a compulsion in the writing, that compulsiveness you see in another of the sheets where her name is constantly being written, all over the place.
‘It is full of repetition and compulsion which means there is some disturbances going on. ‘The trapped feeling of the squares, the anxiety of that, the compulsion of the circles, the fact that the lines overlap, very unclear thinking. No margin, so you can see this person is invasive, you don’t even have to look at the content, from a graphological point of view these things hit you, it says, ‘there is trouble here.’ Speaking of Letby’s notes, Mr Brand added: ‘Her writing shows she is a charming person who can do some terrible deeds.’ Mr Brand likened Letby to Jeffrey Dahmer, the US serial killer who murdered and dismembered 17 men over 13 years in Milwaukee, USA Other features of her handwriting style demonstrated she had dishonest personality traits, Mr Brand said.
- ‘The other issue that comes through strongly is the fact that her writing is dishonest,’ he added.
- ‘Letters that look like other letters and missing letters within words themselves.
- ‘b’s’ that have an open bottom and look more like ‘h’s’ – it is the symbolism, it says, ‘I can’t be bothered.’ ‘Then there are little, tiny movements, which are slightly worrying.
Such as a ‘shark’s tooth’, which happens when you have an ‘m’ where the final stroke is a ‘c’ shape, that is somebody able to manipulate, abuse and use people. The other one is known as a ‘spoon e,’ that again is an ability to manipulate and use people.
- ‘Her forms of connection – how you connect letters together – are all so inconsistent.’
- Letby’s thread, or the way she joins letters together, indicate cunning, while the angle of her writing suggested someone who could be cold and persistent,’ Mr Brand added.
- The arcade or bridge of her letters, for example the way she writes an ‘m’ is also indicative of secrecy or scheming, he said.
- But the ‘garlands’ or ‘bowls’ of her handwriting, found in the ‘w’s’ and ‘l’s’, indicated she could be both lazy but also kind, he added.
- ‘Here we have somebody who occasionally can be very friendly, draw people in and cooperate, at other times she is scheming, secretive, sometimes very cold and at other times quite persistent,’ Mr Brand said.
: How chilling handwritten notes brought baby killer nurse to justice
Is the nurse on Netflix true story?
The Nurse spoilers follow. Much like Netflix’s The Good Nurse before it, the streaming platform’s new Scandi mini-series The Nurse dramatises the disturbing true story of one rookie nurse’s connection to a series of deaths at her hospital and how her crimes were brought to light.
- In the new Netflix sleeper hit, Pernille (Fanny Louise Bernth) has just put on scrubs for her first job at a Denmark hospital much in need of some TLC, when she meets resident nurse extraordinaire Christina (Josephine Park).
- Everyone loves Christina here in Falster,” Pernille is told.
- She’s charming, charismatic and quickly takes nervous Pernille under her wing.
“You won’t find a better teacher,” another nurse tells Pernille and after the pair save a patient who has gone into cardiac arrest, their colleagues label them ‘The Dream Team’. However, Pernille quickly realises that working the graveyard shift with Christina in the hospital is never a quiet one.
- Within the first episode of the four-part series, she has already spotted something suspicious in the room of a young patient who very suddenly died overnight.
- The Nurse goes on to tell the story of how Pernille was crucial in uncovering Christina’s actions, leading to her real-life conviction on four counts of attempted manslaughter.
The show bills the dramatised events as “the biggest murder case in Danish healthcare history”, but what really happened to the two nurses at the heart of this true story? Netflix
Where is the nurse killer now
Where is Charles Cullen now? – Image: JoJo Whilden / Netflix. Where is Charles Cullen now? Cullen, a registered nurse and serial killer, was arrested at a restaurant in New Jersey on December 12, 2003, and was charged with one count of murder in the case of Florian J. Gall and one count of attempted murder in the case of Jin Kyung Han.
- Both Gall and Han were patients at Somerset Medical Center in Somerset, New Jersey, where Cullen worked from September 2002 to October 2003.
- Two days after his arrest, Cullen confessed to law enforcement officials that he had murdered Gall and attempted to murder Han.
- In April 2004, Cullen pleaded guilty to Judge Paul W.
Armstrong in New Jersey of murdering 14 patients and attempting to murder two patients by lethal injection of medications like insulin and digoxin while he worked as a nurse at Somerset. As part of his plea deal agreement, Cullen agreed to cooperate with authorities to avoid the death penalty for his crimes.
A month after his first guilty plea, Cullen pleaded guilty to the murder of three more patients in New Jersey. In November 2004, Cullen pleaded guilty to murdering six more patients and attempting to murder three others. During his trial, Cullen was restrained and gagged by law enforcement officials after he continued to interrupt the proceedings and taunt the judge by chanting, “Your Honor, you need to step down.” On March 2, 2006, Judge Armstrong sentenced Cullen to 11 consecutive life sentences.
He is not eligible for parole until June 10, 2388. Cullen’s sentencing hearing was on March 10, 2006. When he was brought into the courtroom, Cullen, upset with the judge, continued to taunt him by chanting, “You’ Honor, you need to step down” for 30 minutes until he was gagged with a cloth and duct tape.
The judge gave Cullen, who continued the chant even after he was gagged, six additional life sentences for a total of 16 consecutive life sentences. Throughout his trial, Cullen confessed to murdering around 40 patients but law enforcement officials could only confirm 29 victims. The real number of his victims is believed to be around 400, which would make Cullen one of the most deadly serial killers in United States history.
Cullen is still alive and currently held at the New Jersey State Prison in Trenton, New Jersey. In an interview from prison in 2013, Cullen claimed he murdered his victims to prevent them from “suffering anymore” from their illnesses. “I thought that people aren’t suffering anymore, so in a sense, I thought I was helping,” he said at the time.
- My goal here isn’t to justify.
- You know what I did there is no justification.
- I just think that the only thing I can say is that I felt overwhelmed at the time.” The motive, however, didn’t fit with at least one victim, Florian J.
- Gall, who was recovering from pneumonia and was set to make a full recovery when Cullen injected him with a lethal dose of digoxin.
In an interview with AV Club, Eddie Redmayne, who played Cullen in Netflix’s 2022 movie The Good Nurse, explained what it was like to play Cullen’s relationship with Amy Loughren, his co-worker and friend who was crucial to his arrest. “The fact that he didn’t seem to fulfill the stereotypes necessarily, but also having spent time with the real Amy beforehand, she really emphasized the truth of their friendship, the depth of their friendship,” Redmayne said.
- The fact that he saved her life.
- His humor, but like his dry humor and the fact that he would always use how screwed up his home life was as a sort of self-deprecating thing.
- But the fact that her love for him was very real.” He continued, “And that was intriguing because it meant that for Jessica and I, when she was so strong about that, that that became the thing.
But she was also really interesting in that she described him as she only ever saw this monster twice, and that it was a different human being and that this thing glazed over him. She describes it as dissociative, and so even though I’d read all about his background and his upbringing, which is woven with trauma, hearing this person that was so close to him was two different people was an insight.” Image: Courtesy of Twelve.
What is the angel of death syndrome?
Edit. An Angel of Death (also called an Angel of Mercy) is a type of killer who is employed as a caregiver and kills the people they care for. Or the term can refer to killers who kill because they believe they are ending their victims’ suffering (real or perceived).
What did Nurse Letby do to the babies?
British nurse Lucy Letby imprisoned for life for the murders of 7 babies LONDON – A former neonatal nurse convicted of murdering seven babies in her care and trying to kill six others at a hospital in northern England was sentenced Monday to life in prison with no chance of release by a judge who said she was cruel, cunning and callous, and acted with “malevolence bordering sadism.” Lucy Letby, who refused to appear in court for sentencing or to face an outpouring of anger and anguish from grieving parents, was given the most severe punishment possible under British law, which does not allow the death penalty.
Justice James Goss said the number of killings and attempts and the nature of the murders by a nurse entrusted with caring for the most fragile infants provided the “exceptional circumstances” required to impose a rare “whole-life order.” Only three other women have received such a harsh sentence in the U.K.
“There was a deep malevolence bordering on sadism in your actions,” Goss said, addressing the absent defendant, who will be given a transcript of the proceedings. “During the course of this trial, you have coldly denied any responsibility for your wrongdoing.
You have no remorse. There are no mitigating factors.” A Manchester Crown Court jury that deliberated 22 days convicted Letby, 33, of murdering the seven babies over a yearlong period that saw her prey on the vulnerabilities of sick newborns and their anxious parents. Eight jurors showed up to watch the sentencing.
Letby sickened babies by injecting intravenous lines with air, poisoning some with insulin and force-feeding others milk. After killing them, she sometimes sobbed in grief, made keepsakes for parents and bathed the little bodies and dressed them for burial.
- The victims, who were given anonymity and listed only by letters, such as Child A and Child B, died in the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital in northwest England between June 2015 and June 2016.
- “I don’t think we will ever get over the fact that our daughter was tortured till she had no fight left in her and everything she went through over her short life was deliberately done by someone who was supposed to protect her and help her come home where she belonged,” the mother of a girl identified as Child I said in a statement read in court.
- The judge said no one but Letby knows what drove her, though some parents ventured theories: she wanted to play god; she needed attention, drama and sympathy in her life; or she wanted to be remembered.
- Prosecutor Nicholas Johnson said Letby deserved a “whole-life tariff” for “sadistic conduct” and premeditated crimes.
- Defense lawyer Ben Myers said Letby maintained her innocence and that there was nothing he could add that would be able to reduce her sentence.
A mother who conceived her twin boys through in vitro fertilization said there were “no children in the world more wanted than them” and didn’t know if she would have others. Letby killed one, Child E, and left Child F with learning deficiencies his mother attributes to insulin poisoning.
- She became emotional as she described the regret she has every day for letting Letby spend the final moments of Child E’s life bathing and clothing the boy in a woolen gown.
- “He was buried in that gown, a gift from the unit chosen by Lucy,” she said.
- Other families also suffered multiple tragedies since Letby targeted three sets of twins and a set of triplets.
- Another mother of twins was left to grieve the loss of a son and blame herself when her family members — who had been vigilant to watch over the second infant after the first one’s death — let their guard down and Letby struck again, harming the boy’s sister, who survived.
- “Little did we know you were waiting for us to leave so you could attack the one thing that gave us a reason to carry on in life,” the mother said.
The parents of triplets lost two of their babies, and the third survived after being transferred to another hospital. The couple said in a video played in court that Letby had ruined their lives. “The anger and the hatred I have towards her will never go away,” the father said.
- It has destroyed me as a man and as a father.” One father called Letby “the devil” and said she had tried to kill his daughter twice.
- The nurse didn’t succeed but the girl was left blind, with brain damage and having to be fed through a tube.
- Every day I would sit there and pray.
- I would pray for God to save her,” the father of Child G said.
“He did. He saved her, but the devil found her.”
- Letby’s absence, which is allowed in British courts during sentencing, fueled anger from the families of the victims, who wanted her to listen to statements about the devastation caused by her crimes.
- Politicians and victim advocates have called for changes in the law to force criminals to appear for sentencing after several high-profile convicts chose not to face their victims in recent months.
- British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who called the crimes “shocking and harrowing,” said his government would bring forward in “due course” a plan to require convicts to attend their sentencing hearings.
- “It’s cowardly that people who commit such horrendous crimes do not face their victims and hear first-hand the impact that their crimes have had on them and their families and loved ones,” Sunak said.
Also planned is an independent inquiry into what happened at the Countess of Chester Hospital and how staff and management responded to the spike in neonatal unit deaths. However, there are calls for a more formal inquiry led by a judge, who could order people to testify.
During Letby’s 10-month trial, prosecutors said the hospital started to see in 2015 a significant rise in the number of babies who were dying or suffering sudden declines in their health for no apparent reason. Some suffered “serious catastrophic collapses” but survived after getting help from medical personnel.
Letby was on duty in all of the cases, with prosecutors describing her as a “constant malevolent presence” in the neonatal unit when the children experienced medical distress or died. The nurse harmed babies in ways that were difficult to detect, and she persuaded colleagues that their collapses and deaths were normal, they said.
- Senior doctors said over the weekend that they had raised concerns about Letby as early as October 2015 and that children might have been saved if managers had taken their concerns seriously. Dr.
- Stephen Brearey, the head consultant at the Countess of Chester Hospital’s neonatal unit, told the Guardian newspaper that deaths could arguably have been avoided as early as February 2016 if executives had “responded appropriately” to an urgent meeting request from concerned doctors.
Letby was finally removed from front-line duties in late June 2016. She was arrested at her home in July 2018. Police found records she had taken home from the hospital on babies who had collapsed. Investigators learned Letby had performed thousands of searches online for information about the parents after the killings.
They also found a note in her house that served as a chilling confession: “I killed them on purpose because I’m not good enough to care for them,” she wrote. “I am a horrible evil person.” The mother of Child C wept on the witness stand as she spoke of the loss of her firstborn, a “feisty” and “defenseless baby boy.” She had worn her son’s hand and foot prints around her neck to remember him.
The later realization that the person who took those prints — Letby — was the same person who took his life tainted the memory, she said. “There is no sentence that will ever compare to the excruciating agony that we have suffered as a consequence of your actions,” she said.
Who is the serial killer girl nurse?
Jolly Jane Toppan killed at least 31 people between 1880 and 1901, but the doctors who hired her thought she was one of their best nurses. Jane Toppan Today, psychiatrists say she was one of the most unusual serial killers in history. Like many serial killers, she had an unstable childhood. Unlike most female serial killers, she did it for the sexual thrill. As her victims lay dying, she got a powerful erotic charge from holding and caressing them.
What was in Lucy Letby diary?
Lucy Letby used a secret code to record her murders in a diary Published: 07:43 BST, 24 August 2023 | Updated: 09:48 BST, 24 August 2023 used a secret code to record the dates of her horrific crimes in a diary she kept in her bedroom, police have revealed.
- Detective Inspector Rob Woods said Britain’s most prolific child killer was a ‘copious writer of notes’, with dozens of Post-it notes and scraps of paper found in her Cheshire home.
- Officers also uncovered her 2016 diary.
- Among jottings in coloured pens and childlike illustrations of animals were a series of asterisks that police believe referred to ‘significant events’.
Dates marked include June 23 and 24. The first is she murdered Baby O, one of three triplets, while the second corresponded to her fatal attack on his brother, Baby P. Lucy Letby used a ‘code’ to mark the dates of her crimes in a diary, police said. Dates marked include June 23 and 24.
- Detective Inspector Rob Woods, speaking in a documentary made by Cheshire Constabulary, said: ‘The amount of material we found at her home address was, I think, a massive surprise to us when she was first arrested.
- ‘It gave us a really good steer for the second occasion as to what sort of things we were looking for.
- ‘Something that’s been very useful to the enquiry has been Miss Letby’s diaries.
- ‘They appeared to be and it became clear later that it was almost a code of coloured asterisks and various other things put in a diary that marked significant events.’
- DI Woods said it became apparent that the dates Letby highlighted were significant events related to her crimes.
- The nurse unwittingly helped the police further by continuing to make notes even after she was arrested.
Detective Inspector Rob Woods said police were helped by the fact Letby (pictured) was a ‘copious writer of notes’ In one ‘confession’, Letby described herself as an ‘awful person’ before writing ‘I AM EVIL I DID THIS’ In other notes seized by police, Letby had written ‘hate my life’, ‘can’t do this anymore’ and ‘HELP’ ‘We knew she was a copious writer of notes,’ DI Woods said.
- ‘Now we thought that perhaps having been arrested she might stop doing that.
- ‘It turned out when we searched that second time, she had continued to write her thoughts and all sorts of processes about the investigation about the events that she was being investigated for.’ On one note, Letby wrote a ‘confession’ in which she described herself as a ‘horrible evil person’ and said: ‘I DID THIS.’ On the green Post-it, found inside the diary in her bedroom, she wrote: ‘I killed them on purpose because I’m not good enough.
I will never have children or marry or know what it’s like to have a family.’ Other strange and chaotic writings were also recovered from her handbag and garage. She insisted that the green note was not evidence that she had killed and harmed the children, but that she had written it when she was ‘struggling’ mentally because she thought she could have made mistakes at work and had accidentally hurt the babies.
- But the jury dismissed her claims and agreed with the prosecution that it should be read ‘literally.’
- Adam Brand, who analysed Letby’s notes, said her writing style was evidence of a ‘manipulative and dishonest’ individual.
- It comes as former executives at the Countess of Chester Hospital faced continued scrutiny over the way they dealt with complaints against Letby.
- Today, a lawyer representing the parents of Letby’s victims said they had received a ‘total fob off’ from the hospital’s medical director after raising concerns.
- Ian Harvey was medical director at the Countess of Chester Hospital at the time the 33-year-old nurse carried out her crimes, murdering seven babies and attempting to kill six others, but he retired in August 2018, a month after she was first arrested.
- Richard Scorer, from law firm Slater and Gordon which is representing two of the families, accused Mr Harvey of a ‘shameful’ failure to address parental concerns.
- His claims come as the NHS ombudsman and former home secretary Jack Straw joined those calling for an inquiry into Letby’s crimes to be upgraded so witnesses could be compelled to attend.
More scrawled notes that Letby wrote during her killing spree On other notes she wrote ‘I can’t do this anymore’ and ‘everything is manageable’
- Mr Scorer said: ‘Our clients received a series of anodyne letters from Harvey containing no proper explanation or clarification.
- ‘The letters invited them to contact Harvey for more explanation and they tried to contact him repeatedly, but despite many attempts to get through to him they never received a return call.
- ‘Our clients have described his response as a ‘total fob off’.
- ‘It seems that Harvey had little interest in passing any meaningful information to the parents, responding properly to any of their concerns, or complying with any duty of candour to them.
- ‘In our view this failure to address parental concerns was shameful and another matter which needs to be investigated by a statutory inquiry with the power to compel witnesses and the production of documents.’
- In a statement to the Guardian newspaper, Mr Harvey said: ‘Having read the heart-rending victim impact statements, I know how desperate the parents are for answers and I will help them as best I can at the inquiry.
Handwriting expert Adam Brand, who analysed Letby’s notes, said her writing style was evidence of a ‘manipulative and dishonest’ individual. In this, he breaks down what her writing represents ‘I’m sorry they felt fobbed off. I wanted to give detailed and accurate answers, but this was difficult while the reviews and investigations were taking place.
Once the police were involved, we were advised by them not to say or do anything that might jeopardise their investigation.’ The Daily Telegraph reported that Mr Harvey was referred to the General Medical Council (GMC) in 2018 following allegations he ‘misled the public in media statements’, encouraged ‘an atmosphere of secrecy and fear’ and failed to act ‘appropriately or in a timely manner’ when consultants raised concerns.
Anthony Omo, director of fitness to practise and general counsel at the GMC, said: ‘In 2018 we received a complaint about Ian Harvey which we promoted for a full investigation. During our investigation, we liaised with the police, obtained an independent expert report and a witness statement, and thoroughly examined all relevant information.
- ‘At the conclusion of our investigation, our senior decision makers considered all of the evidence and decided that the case did not reach the threshold for referral to the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service for a hearing.’
- The hospital saw a significant rise in the number of babies suffering serious and unexpected collapses in 2015 and 2016.
- Letby’s presence when collapses took place was first mentioned to senior management by the unit’s head consultant in late June 2015.
- Concerns among some consultants about the defendant increased and were voiced to hospital bosses when more unexplained and unusual collapses followed, her trial at Manchester Crown Court heard.
- But Letby was not removed from the unit until after the deaths of two triplet boys and the collapse of another baby boy on three successive days in June 2016.
Countess of Chester Hospital’s neo-natal unit, where Letby went on a killing spree
- She was confined to clerical work but registered a grievance procedure, which was resolved in her favour, and was due to return to the unit in March 2017.
- The move did not take place as soon after police were contacted by the hospital trust.
- Today, former home secretary Jack Straw joined those calling for an inquiry into Letby’s crimes to be given a statutory footing, which would mean witnesses would be compelled to attend to give evidence.
- He told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: ‘You can shame a lot of (witnesses) but you can’t shame them all, and there may be witnesses in the Letby case who really ought to be on the stand, who are the most vulnerable in terms of the positions they have taken, and who won’t be bothered about being shamed – they would rather be shamed for their absence than actually appear on the stand.’
- In a letter, Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman Rob Behrens told Health Secretary Steve Barclay: ‘Only a statutory inquiry can provide the strong legal powers necessary to compel witnesses and the release of evidence.
‘The inquiry should have all possible levers available to it to get to the truth. The families involved deserve no less.’ : Lucy Letby used a secret code to record her murders in a diary
Is there a documentary about Lucy Letby?
Chilling documentary about the children’s nurse – the UK’s most prolific child killer of modern times. Her actions shook families and medics to their core. Who is Lucy Letby?