Guilty: Chester Nurse Lucy Letby Convicted of Murdering Seven Babies and Attempting to Murder Six More

A neonatal nurse who worked at the Countess of Chester Hospital has been found guilty of the murder seven babies and the attempted murder of six more.

Lucy Letby, 33, of Arran Avenue, Hereford, was convicted after the jury of seven women and four men delivered guilty verdicts to 14 of the 22 counts on the indictment.

The twelfth juror, a woman, was discharged on 3rd August 2023 for "good personal reasons". The trial judge, The Hon. Mr Justice Goss, gave a majority direction on 8th August 2023.

Letby has been on trial at Manchester Crown Court since 4th October 2022.

The babies and their families cannot be identified due to orders under sections 45 and 46 of the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999.

The counts against Letby were as follows:

• Count 1: The murder of Child A on 8th June 2015. GUILTY 10-1 majority
• Child A, a boy born prematurely, was one day old when he died. Letby was accused of injecting air into Child A's bloodstream, which resulted in a fatal air embolism.
• Count 2: The attempted murder of Child B on 9th June 2015. GUILTY 10-1 majority
• Child B, a girl born prematurely, was two days old when she died. She was the twin sister of Child A. Letby was accused of sabotaging the equipment supporting Child B, which led to her becoming unconscious. Child B recovered quickly when resuscitated and does not appear to have suffered any adverse medical consequences.
• Count 3: The murder of Child C on 14th June 2015. GUILTY 10-1 majority
• Child C, a boy born prematurely, was five days old when he died. Letby was accused of injecting air down his feeding tube and into his stomach, which left him unable to breathe and resulted in a fatal cardiac arrest.
• Count 4: The murder of Child D on 22nd June 2015. GUILTY 10-1 majority
• Child D, a girl born full term, was two days old when she died. Letby was accused of injecting air into Child D's bloodstream, which resulted in a fatal air embolism. Child D collapsed three times over the space of a few hours. Medical staff were unable to revive her on the third occasion.
• Count 5: The murder of Child E on 4th August 2015. GUILTY 10-1 majority
• Child E, a boy born prematurely, was three days old when he died. Letby was accused of injecting air into Child E's bloodstream, which resulted in a fatal air embolism. She was also accused of forcing a feeding tube down Child E's throat, which resulted in significant swelling and bleeding.
• Count 6: The attempted murder of Child F on 5th August 2015. GUILTY unanimous
• Child F, a boy born prematurely, was four days old at the time of the attempt on his life. He was the identical twin brother of Child E. Letby was accused of poisoning Child F by lacing his intravenous feed with insulin. Child F has been left with complexed medical needs.
• Counts 7-9: The attempted murder of Child G on 7th and 21st September 2015. Counts 7 & 8 GUILTY 10-1 majority; Count 9 NOT GUILTY
• Child G, a girl born prematurely, was 14 weeks old on the date of the first attempt on her life. Letby was accused of attempting to murder Child G on 7th September by deliberately overfeeding  and injecting air into her stomach. She was also accused of attempting to murder Child G twice on 21st September, again by deliberately overfeeding and injecting air into her stomach. Child G has been left severely disabled as a result of these incidents.
• Counts 10-11: The attempted murder of Child H on 26th and 27th September 2015. Count 10 NOT GUILTY; Count 11 NO VERDICT; Count 12 GUILTY 10-1 majority
• Child H, a girl born prematurely, was four days old on the date of the first attempt on her life. Letby was accused of attempting to murder Child H on 26th September by somehow causing her to collapse and go into cardiac arrest. She was also accused of a second attempt on Child H's life on 27th September. Child H recovered and does not appear to have suffered any adverse medical consequences.
• Count 12: The murder of Child I on 23rd October 2015. GUILTY 10-1 majority
• Child I, a girl born prematurely, was 9 weeks old when she died. Letby was accused of attacking her four times over the preceding three weeks, with the fourth attempt resulting in Child I's death. Letby was accused of injecting air into Child I's stomach, which left her unable to breathe and resulted in a fatal cardiac arrest.
• Count 13: The attempted murder of Child J on 27th November 2015. NO VERDICT
• Child J, a girl born prematurely, was 4 weeks old on the date of the attempt on her life. She had surgery on her bowel shortly after being delivered by caesarian section. Letby was accused of trying to smother Child J, which resulted in hypoxia and seizures. Child J recovered and does not appear to have suffered any adverse medical consequences.
• Count 14: The attempted murder of Child K on 17th February 2016. NO VERDICT
• Child K, a girl born prematurely, was a few hours old at the time of the attempt on her life. Letby was accused of tampering with Child K's breathing tube, which stopped her from breathing. Dr Ravi Jayaram, consultant paediatrician and TV personality, told the court that he had walked in on Letby as she was stood over Child K's cot. Dr Jayaram commented that Letby didn't seem to be doing anything, despite Child K needing urgent medical intervention. Child K was transferred to a different hospital and sadly died three days later, although Letby was not attributed with her death.
• Count 15: The attempted murder of Child L on 9th April 2016. GUILTY unanimous
• Child L, a boy born prematurely, was one day old at the time of the attempt on his life. Letby was accused of poisoning Child L by contaminating his glucose drip with insulin. Child L recovered and does not appear to have suffered any adverse medical consequences.
• Count 16: The attempted murder of Child M on 9th April 2016. GUILTY 10-1 majority
• Child M, a boy born prematurely, was a day old at the time of the attempt on his life. He was the identical twin brother of Child L. Letby was accused of attempting to murder Child M at the same time she attempted to murder his identical twin brother Child L. Letby was accused of injecting air into Child M's bloodstream, which resulted in an air embolism. Child M recovered and does not appear to have suffered any adverse medical consequences.
• Counts 17-19: The attempted murder of Child N on 3rd and 15th June 2016. Count 17 GUILTY 10-1 majority; Counts 18 & 19 NO VERDICT
• Child N, a boy born prematurely, was one day old at the time of the first attempt on his life. Letby was accused of injecting air into Child N's bloodstream on 3rd June. She was also accused of forcing a feeding tube down Child N's throat on two occasions on 15th June. The swelling in Child N's throat was so severe that seven doctors were unsuccessful in their attempts to intubate him. The eighth doctor, Dr Frank Potter of Alder Hey Children's Hospital, did manage to intubate Child N. Child N recovered and does not appear to have suffered any adverse medical consequences.
• Count 20: The murder of Child O on 23rd June 2016. GUILTY unanimous
• Child O, a boy born prematurely, was two days old when he died. Letby was accused of injecting air into Child O's stomach, which left him unable to breathe. She was also accused of injecting air into Child O's bloodstream, which resulted in a fatal air embolism.
• Count 21: The murder of Child P on 24th June 2016. GUILTY 10-1 majority
• Child P, a boy born prematurely, was three days old when he died. He was the identical triplet brother of Child O. Letby was accused of injecting air into Child O's stomach, which left him unable to breathe.
• Count 22: The attempted murder of Child Q on 25th June 2016. NO VERDICT
• Child Q, a boy born prematurely, was two days old at the time of the attempt on his life. Letby was accused of injecting air and fluid into Child Q's stomach, which left him unable to breathe.

Letby was cleared of the attempted murders of Children G and H. The jury was unable to reach a verdict on six counts of attempted murder.

My thoughts and prayers are with the families of these children.

I have been watching the trial unfold since November 2022 and the weight of evidence against Letby has been absolutely overwhelming - so much so, that I had been expecting her to change her plea at some point during the trial.

Compelling as the evidence has been, it has been circumstantial. Not once has anyone directly witnessed a killer at work, although there have been occasions where they missed it by the narrowest of margins. Even so, there are just too many coincidences for there to be any other plausible explanation but Letby's guilt.

I am reminded again about Lord Denning's observations on the burden of proof, in particular that proof beyond reasonable doubt does not necessarily mean absolute certainty.

In his judgment in the case of Miller v. Minister of Pensions [1947] 2 ALL ER 372 the eminent Lord of Appeal said: "Proof beyond reasonable doubt does not mean proof beyond a shadow of a doubt.

"The law would fail to protect the community if it admitted fanciful possibilities to deflect the course of justice.

"If the evidence is so strong against a man as to leave only a remote possibility in his favour, which can be dismissed with the sentence 'of course it is possible, but it is not the least bit probable', the case is proved beyond reasonable doubt, but nothing short will suffice."

This is a case where many of the babies involved were making good progress according to doctors, yet their health took a sudden, drastic turn for the worse, for no apparent reason, the moment Letby tended to them. Previously stable babies would end up fighting for their lives within minutes of their parents stepping outside for some fresh air and Letby being left alone with them.

In many cases, having failed to achieve her goal, Letby repeatedly attacked the same babies over the space of several hours or a few days. In two cases she killed siblings, wiping out entire families in a callous single stroke. In another case she simultaneously attacked identical twin brothers, who were both fortunate to survive. On two occasions witnesses have said, with the benefit of hindsight, they think they walked in on Letby as she was attacking a baby.

As if Letby's crimes weren't bad enough she has sought to shift the finger of blame. She has questioned the competence and experience of fellow nurses on the neonatal unit. She has accused the unit of providing sub-optimal care and has tried to incriminate her colleagues. In the case of Child F, Letby was accused of lacing his intravenous feed bag with insulin before replacing it in the fridge in the knowledge it would be administered by an unsuspecting colleague the following day.

She has also accused several colleagues of being dishonest, by outright refuting their evidence against her. In particular, in relation to Child K, Letby totally refuted Dr Ravi Jayaram's claim that he had walked in on her as she passively observed the baby's catastrophic collapse.

The nurse has also offered some ridiculous crackpot conspiracy theory that everyone else at the hospital was out to get her, in some sort of orchestrated effort to disguise their own shortcomings. She clearly has a rather grandiose opinion of her own medical expertise, given the way she has regularly  contradicted and criticised the professional medical opinion of doctors working on the neonatal unit.

For example, in the case of child H she questioned whether multiple doctors - including consultant paediatrician Dr Jayaram - had managed the child's chest drains correctly. It was also notable how often Letby said she "can't recall" events that had happened, even though those around her were crystal clear in their recollection. At several points, as Letby contradicted and changed her previous accounts in the witness box, prosecuting barrister Ben Myers KC put it to her "are you just making this up as you go along?"

Letby is the most evil of killers, who has shown not one jot of acknowledgement or ounce of remorse for her wicked actions. She has harmed each of these babies by a calculated and cold blooded perversion of her medical skills. She has feigned sympathy when consoling their distraught parents. Every day she has sat in the dock watching the babies' families wince in agony as their final moments were relived for the benefit of the jury.

Letby joins the ranks of the country's most notorious, murderous healthcare professionals - Beverley Allitt, Harold Shipman and Colin Norris - people who abused their most privileged position of trust for no apparent reason other than they liked to play God.

Mr Justice Goss will sentence her on Monday, 21st September 2023, but there is only one sentence for these crimes prescribed by law - that of life imprisonment. The judge will no doubt take the view that Letby's crimes are so wicked that life must mean life, thereby imposing a whole life order.

As I will discuss in a future article, the yet to be announced public inquiry into Letby's crimes will have some serious questions to address: How was Letby able to continue harming babies when the finger of suspicion fell upon her several times? Why did bosses at the Countess of Chester Hospital repeatedly resist calls to report concerns to the police? How many other babies has she targeted during her seven year employment at the hospital?