The reasons behind the 33-year-old’s actions may never be fully explained, but the jurors were given several possible motives by the prosecution during the 10-month trial, including that Letby “enjoyed playing God” and enjoyed the grief of the parents who had lost their child.
‘Enjoyed playing God’
The prosecutor said Letby “played God” by harming a baby and then being the first to alert her colleagues about the deteriorating health. “She was controlling things. She was enjoying what was going on. She was predicting things that she knew were going to happen. She, in effect, was playing God,” one of the prosecutors said.
In the trial, the prosecutors further suggested 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 a baby’s health 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.
Texts shown to the court revealed the pair messaged regularly, swapping love heart emojis, and met up several times outside work, even after Letby was removed from the neonatal unit in July 2016.
Texts sent by Letby
As reported by the BBC, text messages sent by Letby in the hours after she murdered babies on a neonatal unit were a key part of the evidence against her.
They show how she messaged colleagues after she had killed babies, often informing them of the deaths. In turn, she received sympathy and concern.
June 8, 2015: Baby A dies overnight
The day after murdering Baby A, Letby messages colleagues saying she doesn’t want to go back into the nursery or see the parents – who also had another twin on the unit, Baby B. She attacks Baby B some time before June 11.
Letby: It was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. Just a big shock for us all. Hard coming in tonight & seeing the parents x x
Letby: Dad was on the floor crying, saying please don’t take our baby away when I took him to the mortuary; it’s just heartbreaking.
June 11
Three days after murdering Baby A, she messages a manager of the neonatal unit, offering to work more shifts, saying she needs to throw herself back in.
Letby: From a confidence point of view, I need to take an ITU baby soon X.
June 13
Five days after Baby A’s murder, and the day before she kills Baby C, Letby has an irritable exchange with a colleague over her manager’s refusal to let her go back to work in intensive care.
She says when she worked at Liverpool Women’s Hospital, she found she needed to go straight back and care for another baby “otherwise the image of the one you lost never goes”.
The colleague disagrees, telling her to take a break:
Colleague: I agree with her don’t think it will help. You need a break from full on ITU … It sounds very odd and I would be complete opposite.
Letby: Forget I said anything, I’ll be fine, It’s part of the job just don’t feel like there is much team spirit tonight
The conversation continues into the evening, until 23:09 when Letby signs off saying “Sleep well xx”.
Six minutes later, Baby C falls critically ill.
Letby had been assigned to a child elsewhere in the unit, but that night she enters the nursery where Baby C is and feeds air into his stomach through a nasogastric tube, causing his collapse.
June 14 – Baby C dies
Letby has a text conversation with the same colleague she had been speaking to the previous night:
Letby: I was struggling to accept what happened to Baby A. Now, we have lost Baby C overnight and its all a bit much.
Colleague: Hoping you are going to be ok. This isn’t like you. Sending you biggest hugs. Xx
Letby: I just keep seeing them both. No one should have to see and do the thigs we do, It’s heartbreaking. But its not about me. We learn to deal with it. Thank you xxx
June 21 – Baby D dies
The morning after murdering Baby D, Letby sends a message to a colleague:
Letby: We lost Baby D
Colleague: What!!!! But she was improving. What happened.
Colleague: Wanna chat? I can’t believe you were on again. You having such a tough time
Letby: Sometimes I think, how do such sick babies get through and others just die suddenly and unexpectedly? Guess it’s how its meant to be.
Letby: I think there is an element of faith involved. There is a reason for everything.
June 30
One of the other nurses messages Letby, saying it is odd that four babies have become dangerously unwell within a short period of time.
Nurse: There’s something odd about that night and the other 3 that went so suddenly.
Letby: Well Baby C was tiny, obviously compromised in utero. Baby D septic. It’s Baby A I can’t get my head around
August 4 – Baby E dies in early hours
That morning, one of the nurses asks how Letby is and if she had been working with Baby E – as well as his twin brother, Baby F.
Letby: News travels fast. Who told you?
Letby: Yeah I had them both. Was horrible.
Nurse: I just really feel for his parents but for you too. You’ve had some really tough times recently
That night, before going back on shift, Letby exchanges texts with a colleague who commiserates, saying “you seem to be having some very bad luck”.
Letby: Not a lot i can do really. He had massive haemorrhage could have happened to any baby x
August 5 – Baby F falls critically ill
Four days after attempting to kill Baby F, Letby messages a colleague:
Letby: I said goodbye to Baby F’s parents as Baby F might go tomorrow. They both cried & hugged me saying they will never be able to thank me for the love & care I gave to Baby F & for the precious memories I’ve given them. It’s heartbreaking
Nurse: It is heartbreaking but you’ve done your job to the highest standard with compassion and professionalism.
Letby: I just feel sad that they are thanking me when they have lost him & for something that any of us would have done. But it’s really nice to know that I got it right for them. That’s all I want.
September 26 – 5 days after attempting to kill Baby G
Letby receives a supportive text from a manager in the unit and her reply suggests she has been the subject of criticism or suspicion:
Letby: That’s really nice to hear as I gather you are aware of some of the not so positive comments that have been made recently regarding my role which I have found quite upsetting.
The next day she messages one of the other nurses:
Letby: It’s all just so rubbish lately isn’t it. And always seems to happen at night when less people
Letby: This is what we do, as sad and as hard as it can be
October 13 – Baby I falls critically ill
The next morning, Letby texts a colleague who is taking over, saying Baby I “deteriorated a lot this morning” and had to be resuscitated.
In the afternoon, she messages the nurse who is acting as shift leader to ask if Baby I will be transferred.
Letby: I’d like to keep her please
The shift leader agrees, but a little over an hour later she messages to say she had to reallocate. Letby asks if something happened.
Shift leader: No. Was just asked to reallocate so no one has her for more than 1 night at a time.
Baby I died the following week, when Letby was again on an overnight shift.
June 24, 2016 – Baby P dies
Letby murders Baby O on June 23. She kills his brother, Baby P, the following day.
A day later, she asks the doctor she had been messaging for reassurance after one of the consultant paediatricians, Dr John Gibbs, had been asking questions following another baby’s collapse and resuscitation.
Letby: Do I need to be worried about what Dr Gibbs was asking?
Doctor: No
Doctor: He was asking to make sure that normal procedures were being carried out.
Doctor: You are one of a few nurses across the region (I’ve worked pretty much everywhere) that I would trust with my own children.
July 6
The doctor messages Letby giving her details of a meeting which reviewed the deaths of Baby O and Baby P, saying “You need to keep this to yourself”.
Doctor: There is absolutely nothing for you to worry about. Please don’t.
July 15
All staff are emailed to say they will have to undergo a period of clinical supervision in preparation for an external review.
Staff are told that Letby has agreed to go first.
The next day, she texts a colleague to say she has done a timeline of the year to analyse her cases. She says some were seriously ill when she took over and “some went off within hours/on handover”.
Arrested 2 years later
Letby was first arrested two years later, in July 2018. It took another five years for her to be found guilty of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder another six, according to the BBC report.
An Indian-origin consultant paediatrician at a northern England hospital was among those who blew the whistle on the “evil” nurse.
Dr Ravi Jayaram, from the Countess of Chester Hospital in Chester, said some of those lives could have been saved if his concerns about former nurse colleague Lucy Letby had been heeded and the police alerted sooner.
(With inputs from agencies)
Watch “British Neonatal Nurse Found Guilty of Murdering Seven Babies”