Why are people questioning Lucy Letby's guilty verdict?
In 2020, the nation was left shocked and horrified when the news broke that a neonatal nurse, Lucy Letby, had been arrested for eight counts of murder and ten counts of attempted murder—all involving infant children under her care at the Countess of Chester Hospital in 2015 and 2016.
Letby, 34, was ultimately found guilty on seven counts of murder and attempted murder, receiving a whole-life order prison sentence. She was further convicted of attempted murder following a retrial when the original jury was unable to reach a verdict. As she left court following her 15th whole-life sentence, she told the public gallery: "I’m innocent."
This statement has been pondered by journalists, internet sleuths, and the public alike—but why do so many people believe that Letby is innocent after such damning, multiple convictions?
According to The Guardian, claims that Letby could be innocent stem largely from the lack of forensic evidence in the case, with no DNA evidence proving her guilt, as well as a lack of eyewitnesses, with none of Letby's colleagues ever seeing her cause harm.
It was also noted that after Letby was removed from the neonatal department, the death toll fell, a damning point in her case. However, at the same time that Lucy was removed from the ward, the hospital downgraded the unit to no longer take premature babies at a high risk of death following a review that found the unit was too short on nursing staff and consultants.
The case against Letby
Despite this, there is a lot of evidence suggesting that Letby was guilty of the crimes. Much of the prosecution stemmed from the shocking rise in infant deaths on the unit during the year that Letby worked there, with many being surprising and unexplained.
The work rota confirmed that Letby was present during each of the babies' sudden deaths and that all of the babies involved had been expected to live before deteriorating. It was also confirmed that some of the babies had been intentionally poisoned with insulin. She also falsified patient records by changing the times that the babies collapsed.
Doctors became increasingly suspicious of Letby and ultimately went to the police with their accusations after Letby raised a formal grievance about her transfer from the neonatal unit and was offered a new placement at Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool.
The mother of one of the victims also testified that she had found her baby with blood around his mouth while Letby was in the room, who told her to "trust" her, saying: "I'm a nurse." The baby later died. A consultant testified that on another occasion, he noticed Letby failing to intervene over a declining baby.
Letby would also search the grieving parents on Facebook, looking at 11 of the families affected in total. She also sent a sympathy card to one family following their baby's death and was discovered to have photographed the card.
Lucy had also written a series of notes during the death and the subsequent investigation which the prosecution described as a confession. One note read: "I AM EVIL I DID THIS." Another read: "I don’t deserve to live. I killed them on purpose because I’m not good enough to care for them. I am a horrible evil person."
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Explaining the notes in court, Letby said: "I just wrote it because everything had got on top of me. It was when I’d not long found out I’d been removed from the unit and they were telling me my practice might be wrong, that I needed to read all my competencies – my practice might not have been good enough."
Giving his verdict, Mr. Justice Goss said that Letby's actions were "a cruel, calculated and cynical campaign of child murder involving the smallest and most vulnerable of children… there was a deep malevolence bordering on sadism… you have no remorse."
Where is Lucy Letby serving her sentence?
Letby is understood to be serving her prison sentence at HMP Bronzefield in Surrey, having previously been housed at HMP Low Newton in Durham.
Speaking about her fate in prison, the former head of security and operations at HMP Wormwood Scrubs told the Mirror: "You've got the likes of serial killer Joanna Dennehy behind bars who murders for fun. She'd have no hesitation in trying to have a pop at Lucy Letby, or others for that matter. Women who have had children, who are carers and nurturers, will see the likes of Letby as lower than low.
"You can bet they know she is in their jail - they may not know where, but they will have read papers and seen her on TV, and they will know exactly what she looks like. It will be the staff's job to protect her from that. I imagine she will be looking over her shoulder for the rest of her time."
She added: "Prisoners are very good at making weapons out of just about anything. Worse than boiling water is boiling water with sugar (known as prison napalm) because that sticks to the skin and is very difficult to peel off. I've seen prisoners slashed with two razor blades melted into a toothbrush, stabbings with shanks made from plastic cutlery, and pool balls and batteries in socks."
