[Warning: Potentially Triggering Content]
A British nurse has been found guilty of the murders of seven newborns. Horrifyingly, no motive has ever been found for the horrific crimes.
We first reported on Lucy Letby back in 2020. The UK nurse was arrested after an investigation into infant deaths at the Countess of Chester Hospital near Liverpool, England. During her time working in the neonatal ICU, seven babies died under suspicious circumstances, and several others almost died. She wrote off the spike in infant mortality as “bad luck” but prosecutors were able to convince a jury she killed seven — and attempted to kill six others.
In all Letby was found guilty of 14 of the 22 counts she was charged with. What the prosecution weren’t able to prove or even guess at was the motive. There just… doesn’t seem to be one.
Related: Poisoning Suspect Erin Patterson Threw Away Food Dehydrator After That Lunch!
Investigators found “one of her favorite ways of killing” was giving the children a lethal injection of air. Just a bubble can kill a person, hence why medical professionals take such care when giving injections. To do such a horrific thing to a child — how could she? Detective Chief Inspector Paul Hughes told People this week:
“Ultimately, the only person that can answer that in respect to why is Lucy Letby herself.”
Hughes said all investigators could do was follow the evidence, and it all pointed to the nurse. He said it was clear a “sinister mind” had committed such atrocities, but as to why, he has no idea, even after interrogating her:
“Unfortunately I don’t think we’ll ever know unless she chooses to tell us… In respect of the interviews, I don’t think anything came out of the interviews.”
At least she was caught… eventually.
In a statement following the trial result, Pascale Jones from the Crown Prosecution Service said:
“Lucy Letby was entrusted to protect some of the most vulnerable babies. Little did those working alongside her know that there was a murderer in their midst. She did her utmost to conceal her crimes, by varying the ways in which she repeatedly harmed babies in her care. She 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 weaponized her craft to inflict harm, grief and death.”
The statement continued:
“Time and again, she harmed babies, in an environment which should have been safe for them and their families. 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.”
It’s just unimaginable. We can barely focus on it while reading, it’s so disturbing. Was it just evil..? We don’t know what to think here.
Letby will face sentencing on Monday for the murders and attempted murders.
[Image via Cheshire Police/ITV News/YouTube.]
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