Neonatal nurse found guilty of murdering 7 babies in a British hospital

A neonatal nurse was found guilty on Friday of murdering seven babies and attempting to kill six others during her time working at a British hospital. 

A jury at Manchester Crown Court convicted 33-year-old Lucy Letby of killing the babies in the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital between June 2015 and June 2016. 

“To lose a baby is a heart-breaking experience that no parent should ever have to go through, but to lose a baby or to have a baby harmed in these particular circumstances is unimaginable," the jurors said after listening to 145 days of “grueling” evidence.

Letby was accused of deliberately harming the babies in several ways, including injecting air into their bloodstreams or putting air or milk into their stomachs through nasogastric tubes. She also poisoned the newborns by adding insulin to their intravenous feeds. 

“Parents were exposed to her morbid curiosity and her fake compassion,” said senior prosecutor Pascale Jones. “Too many of them returned home to empty baby rooms. Many surviving children live with permanent consequences of her assaults upon their lives.”

The British government launched an investigation in 2017 after the hospital saw a significant rise in the number of babies who were dying for no apparent reason. Letby was found to have been on duty in all of the cases where the health of the infants deteriorated. Letby was charged in November 2020. 

“The last thing we expected to find was a suspect responsible for these deaths and non-fatal collapses,” said the senior investigating officer, Detective Superintendent Paul Hughes.

During the trial, Letby claimed she was innocent and described herself as a “hard-working, dedicated, and caring” nurse. However, police found a note at her home when she was first arrested in 2018, which served as primary evidence. 

“I don’t deserve to live,” she wrote on a green sticky note shown in court. “I killed them on purpose because I’m not good enough to care for them.”

“I am a horrible evil person,” she wrote. “I AM EVIL I DID THIS.”