Lucy Letby: from nurse to child murderer

The trial of nurse Lucy Letby, who was on Friday found guilty of murdering seven babies and attempting to kill another six, was one of the longest in British criminal history.

Here are some of the key points.

– Lucy Letby –

Originally from Hereford in western England, Lucy Letby studied nursing at the University of Chester.

“I have always wanted to work with children,” she told Manchester Crown Court during her trial.

Letby graduated in 2011 and started full-time at the Countess of Chester Hospital the following year, joining the neo-natal unit.

In 2015, she qualified to work on intensive care babies, which would have allowed her to work with the sickest babies in the unit.

She had an active social life, attended salsa classes, travelled and went to the gym, the court heard.

– Victims –

Letby was accused of harming 17 babies, some of them just days old, between June 2015 and June 2016.

In the majority of cases she is believed to have injected them with air but prosecutors also accused her of introducing insulin or too much milk.

The jury found her guilty of murdering seven babies and attempting to kill six others on the 22nd day of deliberations.

She was found not guilty on two counts of attempted murder and the jury could not reach a verdict on six attempted murder charges.

Among her victims were a twin brother and sister and two triplet boys.

The names of the babies were not allowed to be reported and are instead referred to as baby A through to Q.

Letby is said to have on several occasions carried out Facebook searches for the parents of babies that she allegedly attacked.

She said she would look up people when she was thinking about them.

– Suspicion –

The neo-natal unit saw a “significant” increase in the number of babies dying and suffering serious collapses during the period in question, prosecutor Nick Johnson said at the trial.

A search for the cause revealed “one common denominator” and that was Letby, he added.

Following the deaths of two triplets in June 2016, Lucy Letby was removed from the neo-natal unit and placed on clerical duties.

“It was life-changing, in that moment I was taken away from the support system I had on the unit, I was put in a role I did not enjoy and I had to pretend it was voluntary,” Letby told the court.

Letby said it was “devastating” when she received a letter from the Royal College of Nursing that blamed her for the deaths of the babies.

She told the court she was prescribed anti-depressants, which she is still taking, and admitted to having thoughts of harming herself.

– Arrests & search –

Letby was arrested and released twice, her first arrest  in July 2018. On her third arrest in 2020 she was formally charged and placed into custody.

Among the items found during a search of Letby’s home was a Post-it note on which she wrote: “I don’t deserve to live. I killed them on purpose because I’m not good enough to care for them”.

“I am evil I did this,” she wrote in capital letters.

Lucy Letby claimed the note was written around the time she was removed from the neo-natal unit, leaving her feeling like she “had done something wrong”.

The prosecution said police also found a “large quantity” of hospital paperwork relating to several of the children that she is accused of harming.

– Letby’s defence –

Representing Letby, lawyer Ben Myers said it’s important that “blame is not heaped on that woman”, while there may be others who made mistakes or systems that had failed.

He described Letby as a “dedicated nurse”, who “cared deeply” for the babies and their families.

Myers also said there was “no direct evidence” of Letby committing the crimes and pointed to the condition of the babies at birth, saying they were “clinically fragile”.

He also said the unit had staffing issues at the time.

Letby has repeatedly denied hurting or wanting to hurt the babies, saying “that’s completely against what being a nurse is”.

She had suggested that a “gang” of four hospital consultants had conspired to pin the blame on her “to cover failings at the hospital”.