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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Graham Russell

‘A cold, calculating killer’: how the papers covered Lucy Letby’s conviction

Lucy Letby Neil Henderson Nurse Daily Express NHS
Saturday’s UK front pages after the conviction of nurse Lucy Letby over the murder of seven babies.
Saturday’s UK front pages after the conviction of nurse Lucy Letby over the murder of seven babies. Composite: The Guardian/Daily Mail/iweekend/Daily Express/The Times/Daily Telegraph

The conviction of nurse Lucy Letby for the “persistent, calculated and cold-blooded” murder of five premature boys and two newborn girls reverberates across today’s newspaper front pages, with some questioning whether she could have been stopped earlier.

The Guardian says “Britain’s worst child serial killer: nurse guilty of seven murders” alongside a large image of Letby, 33, and points to further stories including an interview with a whistleblower, who said the babies would have survived if hospital executives had acted earlier on concerns.

The Telegraph says: “NHS ignored warnings that left nurse free to kill again”, focusing on the murders carried out after initial efforts to raise the alarm.

The Express says: “Murdered babies should have been saved”, referring to questions over how initial concerns were handled by authorities. The Department of Health and Social Care has launched an inquiry that “will look at the circumstances surrounding the deaths and incidents, including how concerns raised by clinicians were dealt with”, and at what actions were taken by regulators and the NHS more generally.

The Times uses the prosecution’s words in its headline: “A cold, calculating killer.”

The Daily Mail focuses on the investigation inquiry into how Letby was able to murder seven babies and attempt to kill six others before she was reported to police. The headline: “They had ten chances to stop her.”

The i’s weekend edition says: “Worst child killer in modern UK history.”

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