In August 2023, Lucy Letby (born 4 January 1990), a British former neonatal nurse, was found guilty on each of seven counts of murdering seven infants and attempting to murder seven others between June 2015 and June 2016, and sentenced to life imprisonment with a whole life order. An application to appeal her conviction was refused by the Court of Appeal in May 2024. In a retrial in July 2024, where she was further convicted of attempting to murder another child at the hospital. The jury at her original trial had failed to reach a verdict on the charge.
Letby came under suspicion following a high number of infant deaths which occurred at the neonatal unit of the Countess of Chester Hospital shortly after she began working with children in the hospital’s intensive care unit.
Letby was charged in November 2020 with eight counts of murder and ten counts of attempted murder, and pleaded not guilty. Prosecution evidence included test results showing some victims had been injected with insulin, Letby’s falsification of patient records, her removal of sensitive nursing handover sheets from her workplace, and her behavior and communications.
Management at the Countess of Chester Hospital were criticized for ignoring warnings about Letby that could have prevented some of the killings. The British government has commissioned an independent statutory inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the murders.
Lusy Letby murdered infants by poisoning the baby with insulin, injecting air into the latter’s bloodstream, stomach and overfeeding milk.
She is the only child of her parents. Letby pursued her education in nursing at the University of Chester, where she also worked as a student nurse during her three years of training, carrying out placements at Liverpool Women’s Hospital and the Countess of Chester Hospital. She graduated in September 2011.
Experts expressed concern about the evidence presented in her trial.
The New Yorker published in the print edition of the May 20, 2024, issue, with the headline “Conviction.” the following: ‘’In September, 2022, a month before Letby’s trial began, the Royal Statistical Society published a report titled “Healthcare Serial Killer or Coincidence?” The report had been prompted in part by concerns about two recent cases, one in Italy and one in the Netherlands, in which nurses had been wrongly convicted of murder largely because of a striking association between their shift patterns and the deaths on their wards.’’ The prosecution presented only deaths of infants during the interval she worked at the unit, but not how many infants died prior and after her work their that unit does not take care of premature born babies anymore. There are many factors which must be included in a statistical research. Premature born babies are fragile and the risk of infection for the babies is great, so conditions in hospital are of crucial importance, as well as education of nurses who work with babies, whether they have enough stuff etc. Everything must be included.
Notes used in her trial don’t indicate that she murdered anyone. This is one more problem for experts. I had read them and was stunned to find out it was a sort of confession. Infants were dying, she was removed from the unit after they had suspected her which was additional reason for being in terrible state of mind. She said she blamed herself that she hadn’t done enough to save them and that she thought that she had missed something, actually not being competent. She suffered from depression and asked for a treatment. Maybe, those were the reasons why she wrote those notes. She was crying, was very upset due to infants’ death according to her colleagues’ recollection.
“I haven’t done anything wrong”; “we tried our best and it wasn’t enough”;
“I am evil, I did this” and “I killed them on purpose because
I’m not good enough to care for them”.
“I don’t want to do this anymore”.
Another document that was presented said “I don’t know if I killed them. Maybe I did. Maybe this is all down to me”.
Her life in general and her interpersonal relationships had been great. Friends and infants’ families described her as nice, tender, kind, committed etc. She was dancing salsa, going out with friends, wanted to buy a house, travelling to Spain on vacation. Possible motive was her affair with a married doctor. The problem is she doesn’t fit the profile of a serial murderer. After all that happened, she was diagnosed with PTSD as well.
Insulin poisoning was questionable according to even leading expert in Europe.
Prosecution’s expert Evans was accused of adjusting the explanations to the prosecution case and based on stories they told him. So, for example, when they told him she couldn’t injected air into the stomach, he said she smothered a child.
All these arguments do not mean she is innocent, but questioning whether they proved she did it and whether she got a fair trial. One might commit a crime, but if a court can not prove it, a person must be found not guilty. ”Not guilty” does not mean ”innocent”, it means that the prosecution could not prove guilt. Every person has the right to a fair trial. It is a fundamental right and without it, it is a witch hunt. Experts must be heard, so that miscarriage of justice be prevented.
A panel of experts has disputed the medical evidence used to convict British nurse Lucy Letby of murdering seven newborns and trying to kill seven others, a doctor who led the examination said Tuesday. Dr. Shoo Lee, a retired neonatologist from Canada, said the group of 14 doctors concluded the newborns either died of natural causes or from bad medical care.
“In summary then, ladies and gentlemen, we did not find murders,” Lee said at a London news conference.
