British nurse Lucy Letby, 33, has been found guilty of killing seven babies and attempting to kill six others. When she worked at Countess of Chester Hospital, she was responsible for the murder of five baby boys and two baby girls between 2015 and 2016. She used various methods to kill or hurt the babies under her care in the neonatal unit, including injecting air into their bloodstreams, poisoning them with insulin and administering too much milk into their stomachs.
Prosecutors said that she killed the babies while making her coworkers think that the babies died of natural causes. They also said that in 2015 there was an increase in babies dying or developing health concerns, according to ABC News.
Letby denied all of the charges against her, but when police searched her home after she was arrested in 2018, they found a Post-It note that said things like: "I killed them on purpose because I’m not good enough to care for them" and "I am evil I did this.”
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The victims' families prepared a joint statement:
“Justice has been served and the nurse who should have been caring for our babies has been found guilty of harming them. But this justice will not take away from the extreme hurt, anger and distress that we have all had to experience. We are heartbroken, devastated, angry and feel numb.”
Letby's defense lawyer called his client "hard-working, dedicated and caring" and insisted there was not enough evidence that the babies did not die of natural causes or due to staffing issues at the hospital.
In response to the Post-It note found in Letby's home, the defense lawyer said that the former nurse clearly wrote the note to vent about what happened, not to confess that she killed the babies on purpose.
"One note says 'not good enough.' Who did she write that for? She didn’t write that for us, the police or these proceedings. That is a note to herself. Writing for herself," the defense lawyer said.
The Daily Mail reported that doctors at the hospital shared their concerns about the increase in deaths in the neonatal unit with senior managers. The doctors were allegedly told not to "make a fuss."
"The initial response was, 'it's unlikely that anything is going on, we'll see what happens,' said Dr Ravi Jayaram. "We said, 'Okay,' against our better judgment in retrospect."
He said he raised concerns again after that but those concerns were ignored for several months.
Testifying for 14 days, Letby said she was innocent.
“I only ever did my best to care for them. I am there to care not to harm," she testified, according to USA Today.
The senior investigating officer, Detective Superintendent Paul Hughes, said "the last thing we expected to find was a suspect responsible for these deaths and non-fatal collapses."
“Parents were exposed to her morbid curiosity and her fake compassion. Too many of them returned home to empty baby rooms. Many surviving children live with permanent consequences of her assaults upon their lives," said senior prosecutor Pascale Jones.
"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 families of the victims said.
