A neonatal nurse at Countess of Chester Hospital in northwest England, Lucy Letby, has been found guilty of killing seven babies and attempting to kill six others.
The incidents occurred between 2015 and 2016 when Letby worked at the hospital. She was accused of intentionally harming newborn infants through various means, such as injecting air into their bloodstreams and administering air or milk into their stomachs using nasogastric tubes.
Prosecutors described Letby as someone who sought to deceive her colleagues by disguising the harm she caused as a worsening of each baby's pre-existing vulnerability. She used innocuous substances like air, milk, fluids, and even medications like insulin as lethal weapons.
The alleged victims, all of whom were infants, cannot be named due to British law. Letby denied all the charges brought against her. After deliberating for 22 days, a jury consisting of seven women and four men reached a verdict. Letby was found not guilty on one charge of attempted murder, and the jurors could not reach a verdict on several other charges.
The trial, which began in October last year, revealed that the hospital experienced an unusual increase in the number of baby deaths and sudden deteriorations in health in 2015. Prosecutors argued that Letby was on duty in all these cases and was present during the collapses and deaths of the babies. They accused her of harming the infants in ways that left minimal traces and manipulated her colleagues into believing that these incidents were normal.
Letby's alleged first victim was a premature boy who died when he was only a day old. The prosecution claimed that she injected air into his bloodstream. Police investigations into the baby deaths at the hospital began in May 2017. Letby was arrested three times before eventually being charged in November 2020. During the trial, prosecutors presented a Post-it note found at Letby's house with the words "I am evil, I did this" written on it as evidence.
However, her defence lawyer argued that Letby was a dedicated and caring nurse who loved her job. He claimed that there was not enough evidence to prove her guilt and suggested that the infants' collapses and deaths could have been due to natural causes or other factors such as staffing shortages and inadequate care.
Letby testified for 14 days, consistently denying intentionally harming any baby. She expressed her dedication to caring for the infants and defended her practice of keeping medical records at home. The sentencing for Letby's guilty charges is set for Monday at 10 a.m. local time.
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