A nurse has been found guilty of mu*rdering seven infants and attempting to mu*rder six others between June 2015 and June 2016 while working on the neonatal unit of a hospital.
Lucy Letby, who was in her mid-20s and employed at the Countess of Chester Hospital at the time of the mu*rders, is now the most prolific child mu*rderer in the history of the United Kingdom.
She was found guilty through a series of partial verdicts handed down several days apart, with the judge imposing reporting restrictions until the conclusion of the trial.
Letby was found guilty of seven counts of attempted mu*rder, including two counts involving the same infant.
Letby wept during certain verdicts, while the families of her victims wept and consoled one another as the jury read its findings. Additionally, one juror wept and held her head in her hands.
Additionally, she was found not guilty of two counts of attempted mu*rder. The jury could not reach a decision on six additional counts of attempted mur*der.
Susan, the mother of Letby, burst into tears as her daughter was led away from the dock after the first set of verdicts, whispering into her husband’s arms, “You can’t be serious, this can’t be right.”
At today’s conclusion of the trial, neither Letby nor her parents were present.
Letby refused to leave her cell during a later round of verdicts, and she was found guilty of additional mur*ders in her absence.
Now, the government has ordered an independent investigation into the mu*rders.
All of the children have been granted anonymity, despite the fact that their names were read aloud during the nine-month trial.
Child L and M, two of her victims, were twin brothers.
In April 2016, Letby attempted to mu*rder them within hours of each other. They had been born prematurely and were just days old.
After attempting to mu*rder Child M with an injection of excessive air, the boys’ parents described the ki*ller nurse as “very cool and calm” in their first public statement.
“At that time, her body language and behavior changed drastically,” the mother of the twins explained.
“She was extremely irritated with us. She believed, “I couldn’t ki*ll your baby.”
As he observed doctors “pumping his heart like a rag doll” in an attempt to resuscitate Child M on the ward, the father of the boys reportedly broke down in tears.
“As first-time parents, we had no idea what was going on,” he explained. At the time, neither parent suspected Lucy Letby.
Both Child M and Child L survived Letby’s attempts to poison them with insulin.
The brain damage suffered by Child M, according to his parents, may cause him to “deviate from his peers” as he ages.
The parents of the boys, who joined other families in the courtroom, deemed it “horrendous” to hear Letby repeatedly deny harming their children during weeks of cross-examination.
“I had to listen to her lie, lie, lie,” their mother said. “I cannot stress this enough: do not lie.”
Whatever sentence she receives will not be sufficient.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) stated that Letby, who was described as “devious” and “cold-blooded,” “completely perverted her learning” and “weaponized whatever was at her disposal.”
During day and night shifts on the hospital’s neonatal ward, the nurse allegedly abused medical equipment and medications, causing infants to collapse unexpectedly.
Many of her preterm-born male and female victims were born prematurely.
Two of her most recent victims were boys named Children O and P, who were two of three identical triplets. Both infants died within their first week of life, and Child O was discovered to have severe liver damage.
Pascale Jones of the CPS stated that Letby “betrayed the faith that individuals and families had in the NHS”
“Behind that angelic smile, there was a much darker side to her personality,” she continued.
Letby was accused of mu*rdering seven infants at the Countess of Chester Hospital and attempting to m*urder ten others.
The Hereford nurse denied all allegations.
However, the court heard that Letby’s coworkers harbored suspicions well over a year before hospital administrators contacted the police.
A nursing assistant who worked at the hospital told Sky News that when nighttime alarms would sound, people would use a particular phrase.
Lynsey Artell reported that coworkers would inquire, “I wonder if Lucy’s working tonight?”
Ms. Artell is also concerned that Letby assaulted her prematurely born son, Asa, who was cared for on the hospital’s neonatal ward.
She is requesting that the police reinvestigate her and other parents’ claims.
Following the verdicts, Cheshire Police have confirmed that they are now investigating whether Letby attacked other children in her care prior to June 2015.
This includes the additional years Letby worked at the Countess of Chester Hospital and the time she spent on training placements at the Liverpool Women’s Hospital.
Dr. Nigel Scawn, medical director of the Countess of Chester, stated, “We are extremely sorry that these crimes were committed at our hospital, and our thoughts remain with the families and loved ones of the infants who were injured or lost their lives.” We cannot even begin to comprehend what they have endured.
“Since Lucy Letby worked at our hospital, we have made significant changes to our services, and I want to reassure every patient that they can have faith in the care they will receive.”
DCI Nicola Evans, the case’s deputy senior investigating officer, told Sky News that it remains “extremely difficult to accept that somebody would harm babies in that environment.”
“It is completely illogical for anyone to believe that,” she added.
Before Letby was charged in November 2020, the Cheshire Police investigated the dea*ths of the infants for two years.
Officers report examining over 500,000 medical and digital records and assisting victims’ families, many of whom attended court proceedings in person.
DCI Evans stated, “I don’t believe anyone who has participated in this investigation will emerge unchanged.”
“It has been heartbreaking.”
During the trial, Letby argued that she was being falsely accused in order to conceal hospital shortcomings.
No motive has ever been determined, which DCI Evans remarked “must be extremely difficult for families to accept.”
The officer added, “I don’t know if we will ever be able to answer that question, and only Lucy Letby knows the answer.”
It is believed that Letby’s mur*der trial is one of the longest in British legal history; it began on October 10, 2022, 315 days or more than 10 months ago. It sat for a total of 167 days. In 1990, however, the trial for the mu*rder of Lynette White lasted longer, a total of 197 days.
