Police footage shows neonatal unit in hospital where Lucy Letby worked
For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails
Sign up to our free breaking news emails
Lucy Letby, the most prolific child serial killer in modern British history, is expected to be told she will spend the rest of her life behind bars when she is sentenced later today.
The nurse murdered seven babies and tried to kill six more while working at the Countess of Chester Hospital neonatal unit between 2015 and 2016.
Letby may attend court although she previously indicated she did not intend to return to the dock, did not want to take any part in her sentencing hearing, and would not follow the hearing via video-link from prison.
Judge Justice Goss said the court has no power to force a defendant to attend a sentencing hearing but a government source suggested “lawful enforcement” could be used as a last resort to ensure Letby attends if it is considered necessary, reasonable and proportionate.
“Lucy Letby should be in court to hear society’s condemnation of the enormity of her crimes, expressed by the judge,” the source told the PA news agency.
“If that requires the use of lawful enforcement, so be it. If she continues to refuse, that will only strengthen our resolve to change the law as soon as we can.”
ICYMI: Lucy Letby awaits sentencing after being found guilty
Last Friday, jurors completed their deliberations of 110 hours and 26 minutes - spanning 22 days - following a trial which began last October.
The jury of seven women and four men convicted Letby of seven counts of murder and seven counts of attempted murder in relation to six other infants.
Cheshire Police say they are continuing to review the care of some 4,000 babies who were admitted to the Countess of Chester, and also at Liverpool Women’s Hospital when Letby had two work placements, during her employment from 2012.
‘Literal notes of confession’ among discoveries made at Letby’s home
During searches of Lucy Letby’s address, a number of closely written notes were discovered.
On one note 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 a horrible evil person” and in capital letters “I am evil I did this”.
Prosecutor Nick Johnson KC invited the jurors to read the note “literally” as a confession.
In this frame from a police body-camera video provided by Cheshire Constabulary, Lucy Letby is arrested on 3 July 2018 in Chester, England
Her “voyeuristic tendencies” drove her to carry out numerous Facebook searches for parents of children she attacked, he said.
She used various ways to harm the babies, including injecting air into the bloodstream, injecting air into the stomach, overfeeding with milk, physical assaults and poisoning with insulin.
Letby, who denied all the allegations, falsified medical notes to cover her tracks and gaslighted doctors and nurses to persuade them the collapses were “just a run of bad luck”.
Alarm against Letby raised back in 2015
Consultants who raised concerns about Lucy Letby as far back as 2015 have said babies could have been saved if hospital management had listened and acted sooner.
The Countess of Chester Hospital’s neonatal unit head consultant, Dr Stephen Brearey, first raised Letby’s association with an increase in baby collapses in June 2015.
A general view of the Women and Children’s Building at the Countess of Chester Hospital on 18 August 2023 in Chester, England
He told the Guardian that deaths could arguably have been avoided from as early as February 2016 if executives had “responded appropriately” to an urgent meeting request from concerned doctors.
Police were contacted only in 2017.
Letby was arrested at her semi-detached home in Westbourne Road, Chester, at 6am on 3 July 2018.
Calls for judge-led statutory inquiry into Letby’s crimes
The Conservative chairman of the Health Select Committee has called for a judge-led statutory inquiry to examine Letby’s crimes.
Steve Brine expressed concern that the non-statutory independent inquiry, announced by the government, will not have the power to compel witnesses, and could drag on for years and “disappear down a rabbit hole”, he told BBC Radio 4’s Broadcasting House.
Police have also been urged to investigate hospital bosses for potential corporate manslaughter.
The prosecution’s lead medical expert, retired consultant paediatrician Dewi Evans, says he will write to Cheshire Constabulary to ask them to investigate “grossly negligent” bosses for not acting on fears about Letby while she was on a killing spree, the Observer reported.
Government looks at changing law so criminals are compelled to attend sentencing hearings
Justice secretary Alex Chalk said the government is “committed” to changing the law so criminals are compelled to attend their sentencing hearings.
Former justice secretary Robert Buckland called for the sentencing to be played into Letby’s cell if she does not attend, regardless of her wishes, and said she should have to listen to the victim statements from the families of the babies she murdered.
File: Robert Buckland arrives to attend the weekly cabinet meeting at 10 Downing Street, in London
“She needs to hear the victim’s personal statements, as impact statements that will really bring home I think, to the wider world, the appalling devastating impact of the loss of these innocent children, these innocent babies, have had upon dozens of families,” Mr Buckland told GB News.
Government considers using ‘law enforcement’ after Letby indicates reluctance to attend sentencing hearing
Lucy Letby may attend court although she previously indicated she did not intend to return to the dock, did not want to take any part in her sentencing hearing, and would not follow the hearing via video-link from prison.
Judge Justice Goss said the court has no power to force a defendant to attend a sentencing hearing but a government source suggested “lawful enforcement” could be used as a last resort to ensure Letby attends if it is considered necessary, reasonable and proportionate.
“Lucy Letby should be in court to hear society’s condemnation of the enormity of her crimes, expressed by the judge,” the source told the PA news agency.
“If that requires the use of lawful enforcement, so be it. If she continues to refuse, that will only strengthen our resolve to change the law as soon as we can.”
Child serial killer nurse expected to face rest of life behind bars in sentencing on Monday
Lucy Letby, the most prolific child serial killer in modern British history, is expected to face the rest of her life behind bars when she is sentenced on Monday.
The nurse murdered seven babies and tried to kill six more while working at the Countess of Chester Hospital neonatal unit between 2015-2016.
She has joined the list of the UK’s most twisted child killers, including the Moors murderers Ian Brady and Myra Hindley and the so-called Angel of Death paediatric nurse Beverley Allitt.
More in this report:
Could Lucy Letby have been stopped sooner? The missed opportunities to catch a killer revealed
Serial killer nurse Lucy Letby was free to target babies for nearly a year after she murdered her first patient as hospital leaders repeatedly ignored concerns raised by whistleblowers, The Independent has learned.
Staff raised concerns over three “unexplained” baby deaths at the Countess of Chester Hospital in July 2015 but health chiefs failed to investigate the allegations, several hospital insiders have claimed.
An external review into the hospital, set to be published after the trial, is expected to find multiple failures by the trust’s leadership to act on warnings, The Independent understands.
Lucy Letby: Child serial killer nurse to be sentenced
Lucy Letby, the most prolific child serial killer in modern British history, is expected to be told she will spend the rest of her life behind bars when she is sentenced later today.
The nurse murdered seven babies and tried to kill six more while working at the Countess of Chester Hospital neonatal unit between 2015 and 2016.
In this frame from a video provided by Cheshire Constabulary, Lucy Letby is questioned following her arrest on 3 July 2018 in Chester, England
She has joined the list of the UK’s most twisted child killers, including the Moors murderers Ian Brady and Myra Hindley and the so-called Angel of Death paediatric nurse Beverley Allitt.
Letby, 33, could be handed a whole-life order by judge Mr Justice Goss at Manchester Crown Court.
Whole-life orders are the most severe punishment available in the UK criminal justice system, for those who commit the most serious crimes.
‘Trust me, I’m a nurse’: How Lucy Letby comforted her victims’ parents as she hid evil secret
For a mother whose newborn was gravely ill in the neonatal unit of the Countess of Chester Hospital, she was a ray of light: a calm, comforting nurse who guided her through her most desperate moments as her child lay listless in his cot.
“Trust me, I’m a nurse,” she smiled at her, and the mother did, completely. But within hours, her baby boy was dead, and the nurse in whom she had placed so much trust, who had been by her side through the darkest time of her life, was responsible.
Read the full story below.
https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMiZGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmluZGVwZW5kZW50LmNvLnVrL25ld3MvdWsvY3JpbWUvbHVjeS1sZXRieS1zZW50ZW5jZS1qYWlsLWxhdGVzdC1uZXdzLXRvZGF5LWIyMzk2NDEyLmh0bWzSAQA?oc=5
2023-08-21 06:00:45Z
2352348889
