'This can't be right': Lucy Letby’s mother sobbed as baby-killer daughter was found guilty of murder
18 August 2023, 14:17
These are the words Lucy Letby’s mum uttered through sobs as her daughter’s first guilty verdicts were announced.
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Letby, 33, killed seven babies in her care at the Countess of Chester Hospital neonatal unit between June 2015 and June 2016 by injecting them with air.
She was also found guilty of the attempted murders of six others by poisoning them with insulin or “sabotaging” their feeding tubes. She was found not guilty of two counts of attempted murder of babies named Baby G and Baby H.
Her mother Susan, 63, wailed and shielded her face from view as the first two guilty verdicts of attempted murder were delivered on August 8.
Crying form the opposite side of the public gallery, she said: “You can’t be serious! This can’t be right!”
Her husband John, 77, comforted her before he later dropped his head in his hands.
Letby fought back tears in the dock and then sobbed as she left the courtroom.
She was labelled a "calculated opportunist" who used the vulnerabilities of premature and sick infants to camouflage her acts.
Letby was not in the dock when the jury was discharged on Friday after finding her guilty. Her parents were also absent from the court, but families of the victims were in the public gallery.
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Verdicts on 16 of the 22 counts she faced were returned by the jury on earlier days, but could not be reported until now.
The jury could not reach verdicts on six counts of attempted murder.
In 2015 and 2016, there was a significant rise in the numbers of babies who suffered serious and unexpected collapses in the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital.
Letby was the only member of the nursing and clinical staff who was on duty each time the collapses happened, which the Crown argued were not natural events.
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.
Some of the children were subjected to repeated attempts to kill them by the "cold, cruel and relentless" band 5 staff nurse, the trial - which began at Manchester Crown Court last October - heard.
During searches of her address, a number of closely written notes were discovered.
On one green Post-it 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".
The "rogue nurse" falsified medical notes to cover her tracks and also gaslighted doctors and nurses to persuade them the collapses were "just a run of bad luck".
She was also prepared to publicly trash the reputations of colleagues "in an effort to get away with it", the prosecutor added.
Letby, from Hereford, denied all the allegations.
The morning of August 17 was her last appearance in the courtroom as she went on to tell her legal team that she did not wish to attend any more of the proceedings.
She was offered the opportunity of following her sentencing hearing via prison videolink but said she was not prepared to do that, the court heard.
The jury could not reach verdicts on six counts of attempted murder.
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.
Only those cases highlighted as concerning medically would be investigated further, police added.
A court order prohibits reporting of the identities of the surviving and dead children who were the subject of the allegations.
