Lucy Letby, the baby-killing nurse, was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole on Monday, August 21, triggering intense emotion and controversy in the UK. The 33-year-old blonde-haired, smooth-faced nurse was found guilty of murdering seven newborn babies and attempting to kill six others. She is only the fourth woman to be given the heaviest possible sentence by the British justice system.
Letby's crimes are horrific. A native of Hereford, on the border with Wales, Letby, described as a discreet and unremarkable young woman by those around her, lashed out at the often premature babies she was responsible for in neonatal care. Between June 2015 and June 2016, at the Countess of Chester Hospital where she had just arrived one of her very first jobs, the nurse injected the babies with insulin, air in their veins or made them ingest too much milk when she was alone with them. Most of the babies who didn't die were left with serious and lasting neurological after-effects.
Testifying for the last time in Manchester's Crown Court before the verdict was handed down on Monday, the parents of the young victims recalled the ordeal they and their children had endured at the hands of the nurse. "My daughter will never have a sleepover with a best friend, or go to high school and graduate. She will never have a first kiss, a boyfriend, or get married," stressed the father of a little girl, a very premature baby, on whom Letby lashed out during the summer of 2015. The nurse tried three times to kill the child, who weighed just 500 grams at birth, inflicting irreparable brain damage.
The mother of twins, boy and girl, attacked in June 2015 (only the little girl survived), explained suffering from post-traumatic stress: "After losing (Baby A) we were riddled with fear for his sister (Baby B). We are so thankful that we had that fear for her, as it saved her life... there was always a member of our family at her side watching." Directing her remarks at the nurse, she said she hoped "you live a very long life and spend every day suffering for what you've done." No names of the victims have been revealed, as the courts have imposed anonymity on the media at the request of the families.
British TV channels broadcast the sentence live. Weighing his words, Judge James Goss, who presided over the Manchester Crown Court (where the trial took place, for almost a year), described Letby's crimes as "a cruel, calculated and cynical campaign of child murder involving the smallest and most vulnerable of children(...). You created situations so that collapses or causes of collapses would not be obvious or associated with you; you removed and retained confidential records of events relating to your crimes and checked up on bereaved parents," insisted Judge Goss, noting "profound malevolence bordering on sadism". As the nurse also "showed no remorse, there are no mitigating circumstances" for crimes "of exceptionally high seriousness and just punishment, according to law, requires a whole life order," the magistrate concluded.
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