Child killer Lucy Letby found unfit to be a nurse and struck off register
12 December 2023, 17:59
Child serial killer Lucy Letby has been stripped of her nursing credentials after a panel ordered she be struck off from the register at a Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) hearing.
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Letby, 33, will die behind bars after she was convicted in August of murdering seven babies and trying to murder six others.
She carried out her crimes at the Countess of Chester Hospital's neonatal unit, where she worked between June 2015 and June 2016.
The panel found she was unfit to practise nursing before it went on to make the striking-off order, a move they have heard Letby did not resist, despite maintaining her innocence in respect of her convictions.
At a hearing in Stratford, east London, on Tuesday, panel chairman Bernard Herdan said: "She deliberately inflicted extreme harm on the most vulnerable of victims."
He added that her actions were "so serious that to allow her to continue practising would pose an unacceptable risk to the public and would undermine public confidence in the profession".
The chairman also imposed an interim suspension order against Letby for 18 months to cover a potential appeal period.
Earlier at the hearing, Christopher Scott, for the NMC, told a fitness to practise panel that Letby faced 14 charges, brought by the council, which reflect her criminal convictions.
Mr Scott said it is "a matter of legal fact" that Letby was convicted of seven counts each of murder and attempted murder at Manchester Crown Court in August.
The panel was told Letby was asked in a "tick-box exercise" if she accepts the NMC charges.
She ticked "yes" to each of the charges but added: "I do not wish to take part or be present at the hearing. I do not resist the application to strike me off the nursing register.
"I accept the fact of the convictions. However, I do not accept that I am guilty of any of the allegations. I maintain my innocence in respect of all of the convictions.
"These convictions are now the subject of an appeal."
