Nurse Lucy Letby's conviction on Friday for murdering seven babies and attempting to kill six others makes her one of the UK's worst medical serial killers. Her youngest victim was just one-day old.
www.ndtv.com
19 Aug 2023
Here are the probable motives that the investigators mentioned during Lucy Letby's trial:
She Enjoyed 'Playing God'
Lucy Letby's final victims were two triplet boys, referred to in court as babies O and P. Child O died shortly after Letby returned from a holiday in Ibiza in June 2016, while child P died a day after their sibling.
During the trial, prosecutors said by that time
Letby was "completely out of control", adding that "she was in effect playing God".
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She Enjoyed Hurting The Babies
Letby was arrested and released twice. On her third arrest in 2020, she was formally charged and held in custody.
During searches at her home, police found hospital paperwork and a
handwritten note on which Letby had written: "I am evil, I did this."
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She Wanted The Attention Of An Anonymous Doctor
Prosecutors alleged that Letby was having a secret relationship with a married doctor at the Countess of Chester Hospital.
He was one of the doctors who would be contacted when babies rapidly deteriorated, which was thought to be a crucial aspect of their relationship. It was implied that she hurt them to receive his "personal attention", but Letby disagreed.
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She Wasn't 'Good Enough
The jurors were presented with several notes written by Lucy Letby, one of which said, "I killed them on purpose because I'm not good enough to care for them. On another note, she wrote, "I will never have children or marry. I will never know what it's like to have a family."
Boredom
Lucy Letby was a band 5 nurse, meaning that she had the skills and training to tend to the sickest babies in the neonatal unit. At the trial, she agreed that she sometimes found work less stimulating when she was assigned to babies who did not need as much medical attention.
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"Lucy Letby sought to deceive her colleagues and pass off the harm she caused as nothing more than a worsening of each baby's existing vulnerability. In her hands, innocuous substances like air, milk, fluids - or medication like insulin - would become lethal. She perverted her learning and weaponised her craft to inflict harm, grief, and death," said Pascale Jones of the CPS.
"Time and again, she harmed babies, in an environment which should have been safe for them and their families. Her attacks were a complete betrayal of the trust placed in her," he said.