A neonatal nurse in a British hospital was found guilty today of killing seven babies and attempting to kill six others.
Lucy Letby, 33, was charged with murder in the deaths of five boys and two girls and the attempted murder of six other children when she worked at the Countess of Chester Hospital in northwest England between 2015 and 2016.
She was accused of deliberately harming the newborn infants in various ways, including by injecting air into their bloodstreams and administering air or milk into their stomachs via nasogastric tubes.
Letby was also accused of poisoning infants by adding insulin to intravenous feeds and interfering with breathing tubes. Letby denied all the charges. The alleged victims cannot be named under British law.
Letby was found not guilty on one charge of attempted murder and the jury could not reach a verdict on several others.
During the lengthy trial, which began last October, prosecutors said the hospital in 2015 experienced a significant rise in the number of babies who were dying or suffering from sudden deteriorations in their health for no apparent reason.
Some suffered “serious catastrophic collapses” but survived after help from medical staff.
They alleged that Letby was on duty in all the cases.
Police launched an investigation into the baby deaths at the hospital in May 2017. Letby was arrested three times in connection with the deaths before she was charged in November 2020.
Prosecutors said a Post-It note found at Letby’s home after she was arrested in 2018 on which she wrote “I am evil, I did this” was “literally a confession.”
But her defense lawyer argued she was a “hard-working, dedicated and caring” nurse who loved her job and that there was not enough evidence of her carrying out any of the alleged harmful acts.
The lawyer said the infants’ sudden collapses and deaths could have been due to natural causes, or in combination with other factors such as staffing shortages at the hospital or failure by others to provide appropriate care.
He also claimed that four senior doctors pinned blame on Letby to cover up failings in the neonatal unit.
She sobbed at times and defended the collection of medical records she kept at home on some of the babies in her care.
The sentencing of Letby for all guilty charges will be at 10 a.m. local time on Monday, the BBC reported.
