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Heartbroken parents fury at how Lucy Letby got away with crimes

A nurse has been found guilty of the mass killing of babies and attempting to kill others. Warning: Graphic content.

UK nurse found guilty of murdering seven babies

Warning: Graphic content.

A nurse has been found guilty of murdering seven babies and attempting to kill others - making her Britain’s most prolific killer nurse.

Lucy Letby, 33, used insulin and air to inject newborns in a year-long killing spree while working on the neo-natal ward at the Countess of Chester Hospital.

She was also found guilty of attempting to murder a further six babies as the families of some of her victims comforted each other in court.

Her reign of terror was finally uncovered after staff grew suspicious of the “significant rise” in the number of babies dying or suffering “catastrophic” collapses.

Letby was found to be the “common denominator” among the deaths and collapses.

Police searched her three-bedroom home in Chester on July 3, 2018, after she was arrested and discovered a chilling cache of evidence.

The nurse had scribbled haunting notes in diaries and on Post-It notes, including one that read: “I am evil I did this.”

The note added: “I don’t deserve to live. I killed them on purpose because I’m not good enough to care for them. “I am a horrible person.”

The heartbroken parents of Lucy Letby’s victims were left asking how she got away it “for so long”.

One father told The Sun simply: “I’m blaming the hospital”.

His twin boys — named only as Baby L and Baby M — miraculously survived Lucy Letby’s attempts to kill them.

Baby L still suffers from night sweats after being poisoned with insulin on April 9, 2016, The Sun reported.

On the same day, Letby is believed to have either injected Baby M with air or obstructed his airway, leaving the infant with brain damage.

The dad said: “Whatever sentence she gets is not going to be enough.

“It’s going to be justice, but it’s not going to be enough. She took everything — our joy, happiness, everything.”

British nurse Lucy Letby guilty of murdering seven babies
British nurse Lucy Letby guilty of murdering seven babies

He and his wife recalled feeling “over the moon” at having two healthy twins as their firstborns.

Nurse Letby had been present at their birth.

Baby M later collapsed. Letby was present again as staff treated him.

The mum said: “She was just standing there, very calm and cool.

“At the time I didn’t know her name. I only found out later. I was just praying to my god, asking what had happened to my child.

“I’ve not done anything wrong in my life to anybody, so why do I have to suffer?

“And then after 30 minutes he recovered.”

Letby appeared “more aggressive” towards them.

The mum said: “I think she was very annoyed with us because she didn’t succeed in killing our babies. She was very frustrated.”

And the parents said they are angry with Letby for “lying, lying, lying” every time she gave evidence

They have told the twins, now seven, that they were targeted by Letby rather than let them find out from someone else.

The mum, a part-time carer, said: “They make a joke of it. They say, ‘We’ll kick her, we’ll bite her, we’ll pull her hair, Mummy’. But they don’t understand yet.”

Letby being arrested at home in Chester on July 3, 2018. Picture: AFP PHOTO / Cheshire Constabular
Letby being arrested at home in Chester on July 3, 2018. Picture: AFP PHOTO / Cheshire Constabular

Their grandfather never got to see Letby convicted, dying last month — “always asking” about the trial.

It emerged during the ten-month trial that red flags were reported to bosses at The Countess of Chester Hospital just a month after Letby started her year-long killing spree.

There was proof Baby L had been poisoned with manufactured insulin, but the parents were not told.

The mum added: “As soon as two or three babies died … why did they wait until 17 babies were attacked?”

The couple are now demanding a public inquiry and said, in particular, then director of nursing Alison Kelly had questions to answer.

They are also concerned that the registrar Letby was in love with had forwarded her a confidential email about a review into the deaths of two triplets.

The mum said: “It’s surely a definite breach that needs to be investigated.”

The mum and dad have become close to the parents of Baby F, left severely disabled while twin, Baby E, was one of the seven to die.

That couple branded Letby a “hateful human being”.

The mother remembered the harrowing moments when she walked into a room to find Letby with Baby E who had blood around his mouth.

She said Letby had a “really calm demeanour about her” as she stood at the other side of the room while the mother frantically comforted her dying child.

She told the BBC: “You know when it feels like somebody wants to look busy, but they’re not actually doing anything?”

Parents are furious as to how this went on for so long. Picture: Cheshire Constabulary via Getty Images
Parents are furious as to how this went on for so long. Picture: Cheshire Constabulary via Getty Images

As the baby’s condition worsened, the heartbroken mum had to watch through glass as medics tried in vain to resuscitate him.

After the baby died, cold-blooded Letby handed his lifeless body to the distraught parents.

The mum said: “She bathed him and then she dressed him in a little woollen gown and gave him back to us, and we held him for a little bit longer.”

Letby had presented the parents with a memory box containing a lock of the baby’s hair, prints of his hand and foot, plus pictures she had secretly taken of him.

She even shared a picture of Baby F, rolled over and hugging his brother’s toy bear.

However, what they thought was a sweet gesture took a chilling twist when they learned that ­newborns cannot roll on to their fronts unaided.

Initially no post-mortem was carried out.

But experts have since ruled his death was a result of internal bleeding and an injection of air into his bloodstream.

Lucy Letby posed on a ward holding a babygro and described her love of the job. Picture: SWNS/PA
Lucy Letby posed on a ward holding a babygro and described her love of the job. Picture: SWNS/PA

Baby F had suddenly become ­critically ill within 24 hours of his brother’s death.

The mother, who remained by his cot all night, recalled: “I said to my husband, ‘Please, not again — we can’t do this again, this can’t be happening.’ ”

Medics managed to save him.

Two years later his parents learned his intravenous feedbag had been poisoned with insulin.

He has been left with “a lot of complex needs”.

The parents, who had struggled to conceive, told how they had struck up a friendship with Letby, often sharing stories about their personal lives.

The mum said: “Never in a million years did I think it would be someone that we felt we had a ­connection with.

“I think she’s a hateful human being.

“What she’s done has changed the course of our life forever.”

Original URL: https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/news-life/heartbroken-parents-fury-at-how-lucy-letby-got-away-with-crimes/news-story/c2f933693173e6fa29b783597d4053ae