The English nurse convicted of the murders of seven newborn babies, making her the worst child killer in modern UK history, was sentenced on Monday to an irreducible life sentence. A sentence of such severity, without the possibility of release, is very rare in English law and is commensurate with the horror caused by this case. It was pronounced against Lucy Letby at the Manchester court (north of England), in the absence of this 33-year-old woman who refused to go to the hearing.
This woman, “cold, calculating, cruel and tenacious” according to the prosecution, maintained her innocence throughout her long and difficult trial, which began in October 2022. She worked in the intensive care unit for premature babies at the hospital. Countess of Chester Hospital in the North West of England.
“You will spend the rest of your life in prison”
The murders took place there between June 2015 and June 2016. She notably injected intravenous air into premature newborns, used their nasogastric tubes to send air or an overdose of milk into their stomachs. Judge James Goss justified the sentence by “the exceptional gravity” of his crimes: “You will spend the rest of your life in prison”. “There was premeditation, calculation and deviousness in your actions”, he insisted, referring to “a calculated and cynical campaign” of murders, “on the border of sadism” and without remorse.
He said only the killer could know her motives, but noted the “detached enthusiasm for resurrections” she showed when trying to revive children she had harmed. After a month of deliberation, jurors found her guilty on Friday of the murders of seven premature babies and six attempted murders, but questions are beginning to emerge about the true extent of her crimes.
Dozens of ‘suspicious’ incidents involving 30 babies
The police continue to study thousands of files in search of possible additional victims of Lucy Letby. Sunday evening, the newspaper The Guardian reported that police were investigating dozens of “suspicious” incidents, involving 30 babies.
Hospital services are accused of having ignored the alarming signals in this case to protect their reputation. Lucy Letby’s absence for Friday’s sentencing and sentencing further heightened the scandal. “When you’ve committed such horrific crimes, it’s cowardly not to confront the victims,” Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said on Monday, adding he was considering legislation to stop it happening.