Nurse Lucy Letby has been sentenced to spend her life in prison for the killing of seven newborn babies. The judge’s ruling declared her Britain’s most prolific serial child killer of modern times and stated that she should never be released.
Over a span of 13 months from 2015, Letby, 33, murdered five baby boys and two baby girls at the neonatal unit of Countess of Chester hospital in northern England. She used methods like injecting the infants with insulin or air, as well as force-feeding them milk. Shockingly, some of her victims were twins, and she even killed two of three triplets in one case.
Judge James Goss referred to her actions as a “cruel, calculated and cynical campaign of child murder involving the smallest and most vulnerable of children.” He sentenced her to life imprisonment with no chance of release. “There was a deep malevolence bordering on sadism in your actions … You have no remorse. There are no mitigating factors … You will spend the rest of your life in prison,” he stated, as the grieving parents of the babies wept in the courtroom.
This is an exceedingly rare whole life order, a sentence that only three other women in Britain, including notorious serial killers Myra Hindley and Rosemary West, have received. The motives behind Letby’s crimes remain unknown, as she has not provided any explanation for her actions.
Letby refused to leave her cell to hear the sentencing, prompting calls for criminals to face the impact of their deeds on victims and their families. The mother of one victim characterized this act as a final display of wickedness.
The profound impact of Letby’s heinous acts has shaken the nation, causing lasting harm to victims’ families and her colleagues. She was found guilty of seven counts of murder and seven counts of attempted murder in a trial that lasted 10 months.
The court heard heart-wrenching statements from the parents of the victims, detailing the trauma and agony caused by Letby’s actions. The father of the triplets she killed expressed his unending anger and hatred toward her, while a mother of surviving twins hoped for Letby to suffer for her deeds.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak criticized Letby’s failure to confront the impact of her actions directly, calling it “cowardly.” While current law allows judges to extend sentences for those who fail to appear, the government is considering making attendance mandatory.
An inquiry has been initiated into the case, addressing allegations from senior doctors that their concerns about Letby were overlooked by hospital management. The government aims for a swift and transparent investigation to provide answers to the affected families. Additionally, police are investigating 4,000 other admissions to neonatal units where Letby worked to uncover any potential additional victims.
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