A former neonatal nurse was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of 7 babies

LONDON (AP) — A former neonatal nurse convicted of murdering seven babies under her care and attempting to kill six other people at a hospital in the north of England was sentenced on Monday to life in prison without the possibility of release by a judge who said she was cruel, cunning and callous, and acted with “malevolence bordering on sadism”.

Lucy Letby, who refused to appear in court for sentencing or face the anger and anguish of her grieving parents, received the harshest punishment possible under British law, which does not allow the death penalty.

Judge James Goss said the number of murders and attempts and the nature of the murders committed by a nurse charged with caring for the most fragile babies provided the “exceptional circumstances” necessary to impose a rare “order for life”. Only three other women have received such a harsh sentence in the UK.

“There was a deep malevolence bordering on sadism in his actions,” Goss said, turning to the absent defendant, who will be given a transcript of the proceedings. “During the course of this trial, he has coldly denied any responsibility for his misconduct. You have no remorse. There are no mitigating factors.”

A Manchester Crown Court jury deliberating for 22 days convicted Letby, 33, of murdering the seven babies over a year-long period that saw her prey on the vulnerabilities of sick newborns and their anxious parents. . Eight members of the jury appeared to see the sentence.

Letby sickened the babies by injecting air into their IVs, poisoning some with insulin, and force-feeding milk to others. After killing them, she sometimes sobbed in pain, made memories for the parents, bathed the little bodies and dressed them for burial.

The victims, who were given anonymity and listed only by letters, as Child A and Child B, died in the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital in north-west England between June 2015 and June 2016.

“I don’t think we will ever get over the fact that our daughter was tortured until she had no more fight left and everything that happened during her short life was deliberately done by someone who was supposed to protect her and help her come to life. home where she belonged,” the mother of a girl identified as Child I said in a statement read in court.

The judge said no one but Letby knows what prompted her, though some parents have ventured theories: She wanted to play God; she needed attention, drama and sympathy in her life; or she wanted to be remembered.

Prosecutor Nicholas Johnson said Letby deserved a “lifetime fee” for “sadistic conduct” and premeditated crimes.

Defense attorney Ben Myers said Letby maintained his innocence and there was nothing he could add that would reduce his sentence.

A mother who conceived her twins through in vitro fertilization said that “there were no children in the world more desired than them” and she did not know if she would have others. Letby killed one, child E, and left child F with learning disabilities that her mother attributes to insulin poisoning.

She became emotional as she described the regret she feels every day for letting Letby spend the last moments of Child E’s life bathing him and dressing him in a woolen dress.

“He was buried in that dress, a gift from Lucy’s chosen unit,” she said.

Other families have also suffered multiple tragedies since Letby targeted three sets of twins and a set of triplets.

Another mother of twins had to mourn the loss of a child and blame herself when her family members, who had been standing by to care for the second baby after the death of the first, dropped their guard and Letby attacked again, damaging to the boy’s sister. , who survived.

“Little did we know that you were waiting for us to leave so you could attack the one thing that gave us a reason to go on in life,” the mother said.

The parents of triplets lost two of their babies and the third survived after being transferred to another hospital. The couple said in a video played in court that Letby had ruined their lives.

“The anger and hatred I have towards her will never go away,” the father said. “She has destroyed me as a man and as a father.”

A father called Letby “the devil” and said he had tried to kill his daughter twice. The nurse was unsuccessful, but the girl was left blind, with brain damage, and she had to be fed through a tube.

“Every day I would sit there and pray. She would pray for God to save her,” said the father of child G. “He did. He saved her, but the devil found her.”

Letby’s absence, which is permitted in British courts during sentencing, fueled the anger of the victims’ families, who wanted her to hear statements about the devastation caused by their crimes.

Politicians and victim advocates have called for changes to the law to compel criminals to appear for sentencing after several high-profile convicts chose not to confront their victims in recent months.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who called the crimes “appalling and harrowing”, said his government would present in “duty” a plan to require those convicted to attend their sentencing hearings.

“It is cowardly that people who commit such horrendous crimes do not face their victims and hear firsthand the impact their crimes have had on them and their families and loved ones,” Sunak said.

An independent investigation is also planned into what happened at the Countess of Chester Hospital and how staff and management responded to the increase in deaths in the neonatal unit. However, there are calls for a more formal investigation led by a judge, who could order people to testify.

During Letby’s 10-month trial, prosecutors said the hospital began to see a significant increase in the number of babies dying or suffering sudden declines in health for no apparent reason in 2015.

Some suffered “serious catastrophic collapses” but survived after receiving help from medical personnel.

Letby was on duty in all cases, with prosecutors describing her as a “constant malevolent presence” in the neonatal unit when children experienced medical distress or died. The nurse harmed the babies in ways that were hard to detect and persuaded her colleagues that their collapses and deaths were normal, they said.

Lead doctors said over the weekend that they had raised concerns about Letby since October 2015 and that the children could have been saved if managers had taken their concerns seriously.

Dr Stephen Brearey, senior consultant to the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital, told The Guardian newspaper that the deaths could possibly have been prevented as early as February 2016 if executives had “responded appropriately” to a request for an urgent meeting. of concerned doctors.

Letby was eventually removed from her frontline duties at the end of June 2016. She was arrested at her home in July 2018.

The police found records she had taken home from the hospital about babies who had collapsed. Investigators learned that Letby had conducted thousands of online searches for information on the parents after the murders.

They also found a note in her home that served as a chilling confession: “I killed them on purpose because I’m not good enough to take care of them,” she wrote. “I’m a horrible evil person.”

Child C’s mother wept on the witness stand as she spoke of the loss of her firstborn, a “fighting” and “helpless baby.”

She wore her son’s hand and foot prints around her neck to remember him. The later realization that the person who took those prints, Letby, was the same person who took her life, tainted her memory, she said.

“There is no sentence that ever compares to the excruciating agony we have suffered as a result of his actions,” he said. “At least now there is no debate that, in your own words, you killed them on purpose. You are bad. You did this.”