The crimes for which Lucy Letby has been found guilty at Manchester crown court rank among the most appalling that any jury has confronted. Working as a children’s nurse at the Countess of Chester hospital, Letby used its neonatal unit as a killing field between June 2015 and June 2016.
Seizing opportunities when she was left alone with an infant, Letby murdered seven babies and attempted to kill another six. She deliberately preyed on premature and sick newborns, whose sudden, unexpected deaths could be more easily explained away. Her methods included injecting the infants with insulin, overfeeding with milk, and tampering with feeding tubes. One baby girl was finally murdered at the fourth attempt. Two of those who survived were left severely disabled. In the prosecution’s words, Letby was “cold, calculated, cruel and relentless”. One can only hope that Friday’s guilty verdicts offer families some sense of justice done on behalf of their babies.
