Serial killer Nurse
On Monday, a British nurse found guilty of killing seven babies and trying to kill another six received the worst, least common punishment permitted by local laws: life without parole.
At the conclusion of what is said to have been the longest murder trial in British history, the verdicts against 33-year-old Lucy Letby were made public last Friday. She is the most prolific serial child killer in contemporary British history due to the horrific scope of her crimes during a 12-month killing rampage that started in June 2015 at a hospital where she worked.
Given the unique circumstances of her case, a judge in Manchester on Monday gave Letby a “whole life order,” which means she will never be released from prison. Letby is now only the third woman still alive in Britain to receive the sentence; the other two are Rose West and Joanna Dennehy, who is notorious for aiding her husband in torturing and killing at least nine young women between the 1970s and 1980s. Dennehy killed three men with a knife in what became known as the “Peterborough ditch murders” ten years ago.
Mr. Justice Goss described Letby’s actions at the sentencing as a “cruel, calculated, and cynical campaign of child murder involving the smallest and most vulnerable of children.” He said, “There was a deep malevolence in your deeds, bordering on sadism.
Prosecutors testified at Letby’s trial that she frequently chose to prey on infants at the Countess of Chester Hospital in northwest England after dark, when their parents were less likely to be around. She allegedly fatally injected air into seven infants, attempted to use insulin to kill two more, and attempted to suffocate one infant with a nasogastric tube.
Despite appearing to be “a very conscientious, hardworking, knowledgeable nurse,” Judge Goss stated that Letby had “acted in a way that was completely contrary to the normal human instincts of nurturing and caring for babies” and that these characteristics had permitted her “to harm babies for some time.”
He claimed that Letby had a “detached enthusiasm” for trying to save severely ill babies and that both before and after her murders, she had “callously” uttered inappropriate things to coworkers and frightened parents. Goss went on to say that Letby had kept hundreds of medical records as “morbid records of the dreadful events surrounding your victims and what you had done,” but he insisted that it was not his job to “reach conclusions about the underlying reasons” for Letby’s actions.
devoted parents have
deprived of their beloved children, and others must bear the physical and psychological repercussions of your acts,” Goss added. “Siblings no longer have access to their brothers and sisters. You have disrupted the lives of all the families of your victims and inflicted severe psychological trauma, long-lasting grief, and guilt-inducing emotions.
Letby was the target of his remarks, but she declined to show up in court for the punishment hearing. Instead, the judge mandated that she receive a copy of his sentencing remarks as well as the heartbreaking victim impact statements delivered by the bereaved family members of her victims.
The father of triplets, two of whom Lucy Letby killed, allegedly claimed, “Lucy Letby has destroyed our lives,” according to the BBC
The rage and loathing I feel for her won’t ever go away. It has rendered me worthless as a father and as a man.
The mother of another child slain by Letby claimed that she wore sunglasses for a year following the loss of her daughter in order to “hide the pain and tears from my kids as I didn’t want to upset them as they were also struggling.” The mother continued, recalling how when she learned of Letby’s detention, her “whole body shook.” She remarked, “I don’t think we’ll ever get over the idea that our daughter was tormented until she lost all will to fight.
Letby is now only the fourth woman to receive a whole-life order in British history. Additionally Myra Hindley, a child killer, was incarcerated when she passed away in 2002, along with three other women.