British nurse Lucy Letby guilty of murdering seven babies

A nurse, dubbed the “angel of death”, has been found guilty of murdering seven newborns and trying to kill six others.

British nurse Lucy Letby guilty of murdering seven babies.

A British nurse has been found guilty of murdering seven newborn babies and trying to murder six others at the hospital neonatal unit where she worked.

Lucy Letby, known as the “angel of death” has become the UK’s most prolific killer of children.

She attacked some of the babies in a hospital in Cheshire, in England’s north west, just as their overjoyed parents had left the ward.

The court heard that Letby smiled at the mum of a baby she murdered on the fourth attempt and sent a sympathy card.

In a search of her home, police found a note saying: “I am evil, I did this”.

The 33 year old injected her young victims, who were either sick or born prematurely, with air, overfeeding them milk and poisoning them with insulin.

Former nurse Lucy Letby has been found guilty of murdering seven babies (Handout Photo by Cheshire Constabulary via Getty Images)

The jury at Manchester Crown Court reached all of its verdicts on Friday, UK time, after deliberating for 22 days.

Letby was found not guilty of two counts of attempted murder. While the jury could not decide on the attempted murder of a further four children.

She will be sentenced on Monday.

“We are heartbroken, devastated, angry and feel numb. We may never truly know why this has happened,” said Janet Moore, a family liaison officer with Cheshire Constabulary.

Letby was arrested following a string of baby deaths at the neonatal unit of the Countess of Chester Hospital, in Chester near the Welsh border, between June 2015 and June 2016.

Described by the prosecution as a “calculating” woman who used methods of killing that “didn’t leave much of a trace”, Letby had repeatedly denied harming the children.

“Lucy Letby was entrusted to protect some of the most vulnerable babies. Little did those working alongside her know that there was a murderer in their midst,” Senior Crown Prosecutor Pascale Jones said in a statement.

“Time and again, she harmed babies, in an environment which should have been safe for them and their families,” the prosecutor added, calling the killings “a complete betrayal of the trust placed in her”.

All the babies died while Letby was on shift.

She denied all the charged. Picture: SWNS.

‘Playing God’

The court heard that colleagues raised concerns after noticing that Letby was on shift when each of the babies collapsed, with some of the newborns attacked just as their parents left their cots.

Prosecutor Nick Johnson said Letby “gaslighted” her colleagues into believing the string of deaths were “just a run of bad luck”.

Letby’s final victims were two triplet boys, referred to in court as babies O and P.

Child O died shortly after Letby returned from a holiday in Ibiza in June 2016, while child P died a day after their sibling.

Letby was also said to have attempted to kill the third triplet, child Q, but the jury was unable to reach a verdict on the charge.

The deaths took place at the Countess of Chester Hospital in Chester, England. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

Smiled at grieving mother

Mr Johnson said that by that time Letby was “completely out of control”, adding that “she was in effect playing God”.

Manchester Crown Court heard at one point how Letby allegedly tried to kill one baby – so called Child I – four times.

After her death, the baby’s mum told how Letby was “smiling and kept and kept going on about how she was present at Child I’s first bath and how much Child I had loved it”, it was said.

The court was also told she sent a sympathy card to the grieving parents, which was “not normal”.

Child I was said to be “in good condition” despite her size and was described as “resilient”.

Prosecutor Nick Johnson KC told jurors Letby succeeded on the fourth attempt to murder the baby.

He added: “It was persistent, it was calculated and it was cold-blooded.”

‘I’m evil’

Letby was arrested and released twice. On her third arrest in 2020 she was formally charged and held in custody.

During searches at her home, police found hospital paperwork and a handwritten note on which Letby had written: “I am evil, I did this”.

Letby later tried to explain the note by saying she wrote it after being placed on clerical duties following the death of the two triplets.

Letby was found guilty at Manchester Crown Court. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

‘Something wrong’

She said that decision to remove her from medical duties had left her feeling like she had “done something wrong”.

Barrister Ben Myers, defending Letby, told the court she was “hardworking, deeply committed” and “loved her work”.

He pointed to the fragile health of the babies, many of whom were born prematurely, and said the neonatal unit was overstretched and understaffed.

Letby also suggested that a “gang” of four senior doctors pinned blame on her to cover for the hospital’s failings.

Lucy Letby was found not guilty on two counts of attempted murder.

When Letby took the stand at her trial, she insisted she “always wanted to work with children” and said it was “devastating” to find out she was blamed for the deaths.

The case revived memories of two of Britain’s infamous medical murderers, doctor Harold Shipman and nurse Beverley Allitt.

Shipman, a general practitioner, hanged himself in prison in 2004, four years after being convicted of killing 15 of his patients.

A later public inquiry concluded he killed about 250 patients with lethal morphine injections between 1971 and 1998.

Allitt was jailed for life in 1993 after being convicted of murdering four young children in her care, attempting to murder three others and causing grievous bodily harm with intent to six more.