Who is Lucy Letby? The story of the UK’s most prolific child serial killer in modern times

The British nurse who killed seven babies and attempted to murder six more at a neonatal unit will never be free again, a judge ruled on Monday.

(FILES) A handout image released by Cheshire Constabulary police force in Manchester on August 17, 2023, shows the November 2020 custody photograph of nurse Lucy Letby. Britain’s most prolific child killer of modern times was jailed for life on August 21, 2023, with no prospect of release, for murdering seven newborn babies and attempting to kill six others in her care. Letby, 33, refused to attend court for the sentencing in Manchester, northwest England, sparking outrage from her young victims’ families. (Photo by Cheshire Constabulary / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE – MANDATORY CREDIT ” AFP PHOTO / Cheshire Constabulary/ Handout ” – NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS – DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS(AFP)

The 33-year-old woman, Lucy Letby, worked at the Countess of Chester Hospital in northern England in 2015 and 2016, where she fatally harmed five boys and two girls.

The judge, James Goss, sentenced her to life in prison without parole and said she had carried out a “cruel calculated and cynical campaign of child murder involving the smallest and most vulnerable of children”.

He added, “There was a deep malevolence bordering on sadism in your actions… You have no remorse. There are no mitigating factors.”

The reasons for Lucy’s actions are unknown, but she planned them carefully. She hurt the babies in different ways, such as injecting air into their veins and giving them air or milk through tubes into their stomachs.

She also gave them insulin through their drips and tampered with their breathing tubes. She was taken off duty in late June of 2016 and arrested at her home in July 2018.

Lucy Letby, the sole offspring

Born on January 4, 1990, in Hereford, a city in the west of England — Lucy is the only child of John and Susan Letby, who are both retired from their jobs as a retail manager and an accounts clerks. She graduated from the University of Chester in 2011 with a degree in nursing.

Lucy amassed experience as a student nurse at Liverpool Women’s Hospital and then started working at the Countess of Chester Hospital in January 2012, where she joined the neonatal unit.

The most prolific child serial killer in modern UK history

Lucy Letby is considered to be the worst child serial killer in British history.

She was on trial for the past 10 months for murdering seven babies and trying to kill six more at the Countess of Chester Hospital in northern England, where she worked in 2015 and 2016.

This court artist drawing by Elizabeth Cook from Aug. 10, 2023 shows of nurse Lucy Letby at Manchester Crown Court in Manchester, England. A neonatal nurse in a British hospital has been found guilty of killing seven babies and trying to kill six others. Lucy Letby was charged with murder in the deaths of five baby boys and two girls, and the attempted murder of five boys and five girls, when she worked at the Countess of Chester Hospital in northwest England between 2015 and 2016. (Elizabeth Cook/PA via AP)(AP)

Prosecutors said that the hospital saw a sharp increase in the number of babies who died or had sudden health problems for no clear reason. Some of them had ‘serious catastrophic collapses’ but were saved by medical staff.

Prosecutors also claimed that Lucy was a ‘constant malevolent presence’ in the neonatal unit and that she was on duty when all the cases happened. They said that she harmed the babies in ways that were hard to detect, and that she convinced her co-workers that the deaths and collapses were normal.

Police started to investigate the baby deaths at the hospital in May 2017 and Letby was charged in November 2020.

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The 33-year-old denied any wrongdoing and testified for 14 days.

The defense said that she was a ‘hard-working, dedicated and caring’ nurse who loved her job and that the babies could have died or collapsed because of natural causes, or other factors such as lack of staff at the hospital or poor care by others.