Inside the mind of UK's 'worst child serial killer' nurse Lucy Letby

Lucy Letby, a neonatal nurse in a British hospital, is being called United Kingdom’s worst child serial killer in recent times. On Friday (18 August), the 33-year-old was found guilty of killing seven babies and attempted murder of six other babies at the Countess of Chester Hospital in northwest England during a one-year period. The verdict comes after a 10-month trial at Manchester Crown Court. Her sentence, possibly a life term, will be announced on Monday. But what motivated Letby to kill her innocent patients? Let’s take a look at the harrowing case in detail. One of UK’s ‘worst’ serial killers In May 2017, the Countess of Chester Hospital Foundation Trust contacted Cheshire police regarding a “significant” number of baby deaths and non-fatal collapses between June 2015 and June 2016, reported Mirror.co.uk. An investigation was launched soon after, which eventually led to the unravelling of the horrific murders of multiple newborns, including twins. Letby, who worked as a nurse within the Neonatal Unit at the hospital, was first arrested in 2018 from her Chester home on suspicion of killing eight babies and attempted murder of six other babies. However, she got bail at the time. [caption id=“attachment_13015012” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Lucy Letby was first arrested in 2018. Reuters File Photo[/caption] She was then nabbed in 2019 from her native place in Hereford but again got out. In November 2020, Letby was again arrested and formally charged. During her trial, which began last October, the UK’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) told the jury the court that she employed a number of ways to kill her infant victims, including by injecting them with insulin, using lethal air injection, or force-feeding milk.

As per Reuters, her youngest victim was just one-day old.

Why did she kill infants?  Letby’s motives remain unclear. However, the prosecution presented a number of likely reasons to jurors during the 10-month trial, as per The Guardian. According to prosecutor Nick Johnson KC, the nurse liked “playing God” by attacking babies and then being the first to alert her colleagues of their decline. “She knew what was going to happen. She was controlling things. She was enjoying what was going on. She was predicting things that she knew was going to happen. She, in effect, was playing God,” Johnson told jurors, as per the UK daily. Speaking to The Independent, a criminology expert said that Letby’s motive to kill may come from a “pathological desire for attention and sympathy”. “In our analysis of healthcare professionals who perpetrate violence against their patients, especially children, offending appeared to be motivated by a pathological desire for attention and sympathy emerging as a consequence of their involvement in the case,” Dr Dominic Willmott, a senior lecturer in criminology at Loughborough University – who has previously authored a paper on UK’s another infamous killer nurse Beverley Allitt – told the British online newspaper. “There was a complex interaction between this and a history of personality disorder diagnoses and characteristics, and were often found to be highly sadistic and narcissistic as described by those who knew them.” Another leading criminologist said that Letby’s desire to be at the “centre of a crisis” could be a symptom of Munchausen’s syndrome. Criminologist Dr David Wilson told Daily Mail, “She is creating a crisis around her, which is a form of Munchausen’s,” he said. “Extraordinary stories are being told about what happens when she is on shift. She’s saying, ’look at all the things that occur when I’m around’”. Prosecutor Johnson told jurors that Letby was “getting a thrill out of what you were watching, the grief and despair, in that room”, reported The Guardian. However, the nurse declined this. [caption id=“attachment_13015062” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] A drawing of Lucy Letby at Manchester Crown Court in Manchester on 10 August. AP[/caption] As per reports, Letby, described as a “geeky” woman by her acquaintances, also looked up the families of her victims on Facebook. “She would often search for a number of them within minutes of each other, seemingly going one by one hunting for grief”, the prosecution said, as per The Guardian. In her defence, Letby told the court that she did not hurt the babies or wanted them any harm, saying “that’s completely against what being a nurse is”, noted AFP. According to Mirror.co.uk, prosecutor Johnson told jurors: “Lucy Letby got away with her campaign of violence for so long because people didn’t contemplate the remotest possibility of a nurse trying to kill tiny babies.” ALSO READ: Who is Thai 'serial killer' Sararat Rangsiwuthaporn, accused of murdering people with cyanide? ‘I am evil’ The handwritten Post-it notes found in Letby’s handbag following her first arrest in July 2018 are being seen as a “confession” to the murders. As per Daily Mail, she wrote, “I killed them on purpose because I’m not good enough to care for them,” and “I AM EVIL I DID THIS”. One of the notes read: “I will never have children or marry. I will never know what it’s like to have a family.” However, Letby has claimed this was not a confession and was written after she was removed from the neonatal unit in July 2016. Doctors speak up Dr Stephen Brearley, the lead doctor in the Chester hospital’s neonatal unit, said the hospital “tried to silence”  doctors who complained about Letby, and thus delaying alerting the police, as per Associated Press (AP). Paediatric consultant Ravi Jayaram, an Indian-origin doctor born in the UK, was also among those who first raised the alarm after three babies died in June 2015 in the neonatal unit. In a television interview with ITV News after the verdict, Dr Jayaram said, “I do genuinely believe that there are four or five babies who could be going to school now who aren’t”. Following the Friday verdict, the British government has launched an independent inquiry to probe the broader circumstances that occurred at the time of these murders. “This inquiry will seek to ensure the parents and families impacted get the answers they need,” UK health secretary Steve Barclay said, as per AP. “I am determined their voices are heard, and they are involved in shaping the scope of the inquiry should they wish to do so.” With inputs from agencies