A trial court has reached a verdict in the case of nurse Lucy Letby, finding her guilty of the murder of seven babies. The landmark decision was handed down on Friday (18), following a lengthy legal process. Letby’s sentencing is scheduled for Monday (21).
The trial jury also declared Letby guilty of attempting to murder another six infants. However, their decision on the attempted murder charges for an additional four babies remained undecided.
The 33-year-old nurse, who had once been trusted with the care of premature infants, was branded by the jury as “persistent, calculated, and cold-blooded” in her actions. Her crimes spanned from June 2015 to June 2016, during her tenure at the Countess of Chester hospital in north-west England.
Letby was responsible for the deaths of two identical triplet brothers, both tragically killed within a span of 24 hours. Other victims included a newborn weighing less than 1kg (2lb), who met a fatal fate through the injection of air, and a girl born 10 weeks premature, whose life was cut short after four attempts.
Throughout the trial, harrowing details emerged about Letby’s methods of murder. Injecting air into the tiny bodies of newborns, in some cases causing the rupture of their diaphragms, or using a tube to suffocate an infant through their throat.
Letby laced the feeding bags of two babies with insulin while working on the Countess of Chester’s neonatal unit during the same period. It was only in 2017 that her actions were reported to the police, eventually leading to her arrest in 2018.
With this conviction, Letby has secured her place as the most prolific baby killer in modern British history and one of the country’s worst medical serial killers.
It is anticipated that she will become only the third living woman in the country to receive a whole-life term, ensuring that she will spend the rest of her life behind bars, The Guardian reported.
Despite the overwhelming evidence against her, Letby has consistently maintained her innocence in the face of the accusations. Notably, she refused to be present in court during the announcement of the later verdicts.
