Personal notes that helped convict child serial killer Lucy Letby were written on the advice of counsellors to help the nurse deal with extreme stress, it has been reported.
Densely written post-it notes and torn sheets of paper, which included phrases such as “I am evil I did this” and “I killed them on purpose because I am not good enough to care for them” were relied on when Letby was on trial.
Letby was convicted of murdering seven babies and the attempted murders of six others, with two attempts on one child in 2023.
Earlier this year she said “I’m innocent” as she was sentenced to an additional whole-life order for the attempted murder of another baby girl.
She is serving 15 whole-life orders for each of the offences committed on the Countess of Chester Hospital’s neonatal unit between June 2015 and June 2016.
Sources close to the case have reportedly told the Guardian that notes labelled as Letby’s confession were produced after counselling sessions as part of a therapeutic process.
The nurse was reportedly advised to write down her troubled thoughts and feelings due to extreme stress.
The notes were reportedly written after some of Letby’s colleagues started suspecting her of murder and included references to her family, pets, work colleagues and described repeated suicidal thoughts.
A case was built against Letby highlighting phrases such as “I am evil I did this” and the jury were repeatedly reminded of the notes throughout the trial.
But other phrases in her notes, which are considered to be her confession, included “Why me?”, “I haven’t done anything wrong” and “Police investigation slander discrimination victimisation”.
One expert has dismissed Letby’s notes as “meaningless” and had no value as evidence, particularly if they had been written as part of counselling.
David Wilson, a professor of criminology at Birmingham City University, told the Guardian: “Many people will say things when they are under stress and feeling bereft, that seem to imply one thing but mean nothing at all, other than reflecting the underlying stress.
“I always thought Letby’s notes were meaningless as evidence. If they were written as part of therapy you can underline that point three times and write it in bold and capital letters.”
Richard Curen, the chair of the Forensic Psychotherapy Society, added: “Doodling, journalling is a way of taking control of your thoughts. I don’t think it relates to a confession of any kind.”
He added that Letby’s response on the notes in court was “robust, and seems right – she wrote down how she was being made to feel”.
A public inquiry into Letby’s case is set to begin receiving evidence next week amid a backdrop of mounting questions over the safety of the nurse’s conviction.
Sources told the Guardian the head of occupational health and wellbeing at the hospital where Letby worked, Kathryn de Beger, had encouraged her to write down her feelings to cope with extreme stress.
Letby’s Chester GP also told her to write down thoughts she was struggling to process, sources said.
Letby received several counselling sessions from Ms De Beger as part of support arranged by the hospital, and her notes repeatedly refer to Ms De Beger.
Letby was aware that senior consultants were speaking openly about there being a serial killer at the hospital and that people were starting to notice that she was on shift for many of the deaths.
When quizzed about the notes during her trial Letby said she had always written things down to help understand her feelings.
She also described the notes as random thoughts.
She added that she was questioning herself and whether she had unintentionally done harm by not knowing enough or by not being a good enough nurse.
In her first trial Letby denied the notes meant she killed or harmed babies.
The fact that writing the notes had been advised as part of counselling was not mentioned in court.
Instead it was argued in Letby’s defence that the notes represented the nurse’s anguished state of mind when she was accused of killing the babies rather than guilt.
Her defence barrister, Ben Myers KC previously described how the prosecution’s case had been “riddled by” guilt.
He said: “No matter what Lucy Letby says, or doesn’t say, it is slotted into an ever-flexible, ever-changing theory of guilt.
“Everything is treated as evidence of guilt.”
But no expert forensic psychologists were called to give evidence on how to interpret the notes.
The Countess of Chester hospital told the Guardian it could not comment while the inquiry and further investigations were ongoing.
