ALMOST entirely isolated from other prisoners and being escorted to and from her cell by wardens for her own safety, former nurse Lucy Letby faces a grim life behind bars.
To an ever-growing number of her supporters across Britain and abroad, this is deeply unjust and Letby is the victim of a miscarriage of justice – but whether the mass murderer is ever freed or not, her depressing fate may already be sealed, claims her closest ally.
SWNSKiller nurse Lucy Letby was convicted of murdering seven babies in her care[/caption]
GettySome insist Letby has been made a scapegoat for hospital failings[/caption]
News Group Newspapers LtdThere is growing campaign to see Letby get a retrial[/caption]
RexLetby is currently serving her sentence at HMP Bronzefield, Surrey[/caption]
It comes after fellow nurse Lucia De Berk, nicknamed the Dutch Letby – who was also jailed for killing patients in an eerily similar case before being exonerated in 2010 – died suddenly last month.
She had suffered a stroke in prison, and her health never recovered after she was freed more than 15 years ago prior to her death, aged 63.
De Berk’s case is often cited by pro-Letby campaigners to highlight the potential issues with the latter’s convictions.
There are fears that – if she does turn out to be innocent – she will face a similar early demise.
Professor Richard Gill, a statistician who was part of the team that helped free de Berk and who is convinced of Letby’s innocence, has told The Sun he is “deeply concerned”, adding she will be under an “incredible amount of stress” that could ravage her health.
Cruel campaign of child murder
Letby was convicted last year of murdering seven babies and trying to kill seven more at Countess of Chester Hospital between June 2015 and June 2016.
Judge Goss, during her sentencing, which she failed to attend, said she committed “a cruel, calculated and cynical campaign of child murder involving the smallest and most vulnerable of children”.
De Berk, meanwhile, was locked up in 2003 for killing four patients and attempting to murder three others – by unnecessarily increasing dosages of medicines or giving large doses of drugs that are difficult to detect.
After an appeal, the following year this was expanded to include seven murders and three attempted murders before de Berk saw her convictions spectacularly overturned in 2010.
A retrial, beginning in 2008, had found the deaths were all natural or sometimes caused by wrong treatment or bad hospital management and sometimes resulted from faulty medical diagnosis.
The behaviour of nurses, including de Berk, were found to be swift and effective.
Local press reported her passing on August 28 after a “short illness”, though little else has been confirmed.
Prof Gill – who has previously detailed how he believes he can clear Letby – said he “wouldn’t be surprised” if Letby died young, like de Berk, adding: “It may not be a long life.”
Like with Letby, Dutch prosecutors claimed circumstantial evidence, including a string of “sinister” diary entries — and hospital shift patterns which revealed she had been present at all of the deaths, was enough to convict de Berk.
In both cases, there was no “smoking gun” proof for any such crimes.
WikipediaThe case of Dutch nurse Lucia de Berk has brought the spotlight back on Letby’s fate[/caption]
Recent ITV documentary, Lucy Letby: Beyond Reasonable Doubt?, and a BBC Panorama episode titled Who to Believe, both raised questions about a possible miscarriage of justice and have helped added fuel to the fire of the ex-nurse’s supporters.
Earlier this year, an international panel of neonatologists and paediatric specialists said Letby’s convictions were “unsafe” and told reporters bad medical care and natural causes were the reasons for the collapses and deaths.
Their evidence has been passed to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), which investigates potential miscarriages of justice, and Letby’s legal team hopes her case will be referred back to the Court of Appeal.
Two previous appeals have been rejected – however, if Letby’s legal team are able to uncover new evidence, a new trial could eventually be green lit.
Lawyers for the families of Letby’s victims rubbished the international panel’s findings as “full of analytical holes” and “a rehash” of the defence case heard at trial.
And in February a CCRC spokesperson said: “We are aware that there has been a great deal of speculation and commentary surrounding Lucy Letby’s case, much of it from parties with only a partial view of the evidence.
“We ask that everyone remembers the families affected by events at the Countess of Chester Hospital between June 2015 and June 2016.”
After a lengthy investigation stretching several years, Letby’s first trial at Manchester Crown Court began in October 2022 and lasted 10 months before the jury found her guilty.
A retrial in June 2024 on one of the attempted murder counts and she was once again found guilty.
Stroke left Lucia paralysed for life
Mum-of-one de Berk suffered a stroke in prison in 2005 after hearing an appeal had been thrown out, which left her paralysed for life down her right side.
She was 49 when she was finally released from prison.
Prof Gill kept in touch with her over the years, and says the stress of her ordeal likely led to her health deteriorating.
“It’s an incredible amount of stress and it’s incredible that she survived – It didn’t kill her in jail, maybe it’s killed her now,” he said.
“I don’t know how Lucy Letby is doing.
“She must have incredible strength of character to get through that.”
He continued: “I’m deeply concerned, this is such a big and terrible thing.
“It’s going to have an enormous affect on her life – it may not be a long life, I don’t know.
“She’s in more or less, solitary confinement. I would hope she’s talking to people.”
AFPDe Berk leaving court after her acquittal in 2010[/caption]
Letby said ‘I’m innocent’ as she was led from the dock when she was sentencedAFP
Prof Gill said: “I have an impression of what kind of person she is, but it’s just an impression.
“I believe she’s a very nice and normal person, but has been incredibly letdown and wronged by the system.”
The expert – who has also exchanged letters with Letby’s parents – added: “We do know she’s got good friends, and I’m sure they’re giving her good encouragement.
“Let’s hope she’s getting the support she needs.”
Such friends include school pal Dawn Howe, who has consistently supported the former nurse in press interviews despite her convictions – saying she believes she is innocent.
Referring to Letby’s parents, Jonathan, 79, and Susan Letby, 65, Prof Gill said: “Her parents are very old, it saddens me. I’m worried they’ll die before she comes out.”
‘Prison guards thought she was faking stroke’
De Berk, then 40, was found guilty of killing seven and attempting to kill three of her young patients, before being jailed for life with no parole in 2003.
Prof Gill said: “While in prison she had a stroke and the prison guards actually left her lying on the cold floor of her cell for 12 hours because they thought she was putting it on.
“That made it worse and it left her paralysed in the right side of her body.
“She never got the use back of her right hand or arm, and she often had it in a sling.
“She was right-handed and she loved writing. You can imagine how terrible that was.”
Professor Richard Gill, the statistician who was part of the team that freed de Berk
RexDe Berk reacts after her acquittal in 2010[/caption]
murderpedia.orgDe Berk worked at three hospitals in The Hague between 1997 and 2001[/caption]
Speculating on de Berk’s death, he continued: “I’m sure that left her physically weakened, maybe she had another stroke.”
Prof Gill went on to say: “The last years she has been really enjoying life since she came out of jail – travel, grandchildren, her garden, and her two little dogs.”
He said De Berk surprised him with a phone call last summer after he’d sent her an email on behalf of journalists who were hoping to get to interview her.
“Suddenly, I was sitting in the sunshine with my wife on a beach a bit more than a year ago, and my god it was Lucia de Berk was on the phone,” he said.
“It was a lovely short conversation, and she was just calling to say she was so sorry she couldn’t do what I’d asked because she had put it behind her and it was just too painful to bring it up.
“I told her that doesn’t matter, I understand entirely. It showed how kind she was as a person to call me and tell me to my face that she didn’t want to”
Prof Gill said despite the extensive coverage of Letby’s case, he’s sure de Berk had not been following it closely.
“She was keeping herself far away from that sort of thing,” he said.
In the first few years after she was freed IN WHAT YEAR?, de Berk had given talks, including on TV, with a documentary film also being released about her ordeal.
“She’d enjoyed the limelight for a while and then four years in it was finished,” said Prof Gill.
The charges Letby was convicted on in full
Child A, allegation of murder. The Crown said Letby injected air intravenously into the bloodstream of the baby boy. COUNT 1 GUILTY.
Child B, allegation of attempted murder. The Crown said Letby attempted to murder the baby girl, the twin sister of Child A, by injecting air into her bloodstream. COUNT 2 GUILTY.
Child C, allegation of murder. Prosecutors said Letby forced air down a feeding tube and into the stomach of the baby boy. COUNT 3 GUILTY.
Child D, allegation of murder. The Crown said air was injected intravenously into the baby girl. COUNT 4 GUILTY.
Child E, allegation of murder. The Crown said Letby murdered the twin baby boy with an injection of air into the bloodstream and also deliberately caused bleeding to the infant. COUNT 5 GUILTY.
Child F, allegation of attempted murder. Letby was said by prosecutors to have poisoned the twin brother of Child E with insulin. COUNT 6 GUILTY.
Child G, three allegations of attempted murder. The Crown said Letby targeted the baby girl by overfeeding her with milk and pushing air down her feeding tube. COUNT 7 GUILTY, COUNT 8 GUILTY, COUNT 9 NOT GUILTY.
Child H, two allegations of attempted murder. Prosecutors said Letby sabotaged the care of the baby girl in some way which led to two profound oxygen desaturations. COUNT 10 NOT GUILTY, COUNT 11 JURY COULD NOT REACH VERDICT.
Child I, allegation of murder. The prosecution said Letby killed the baby girl at the fourth attempt and had given her air and overfed her with milk. COUNT 12 GUILTY.
Child J, allegation of attempted murder. No specific form of harm was identified by the prosecution but they said Letby did something to cause the collapse of the baby girl. COUNT 13 JURY COULD NOT REACH VERDICT.
Child K, allegation of attempted murder. The prosecution said Letby compromised the baby girl as she deliberately dislodged a breathing tube. COUNT 14 JURY COULD NOT REACH VERDICT.
Child L, allegation of attempted murder. The Crown said the nurse poisoned the twin baby boy with insulin. COUNT 15 GUILTY.
Child M, allegation of attempted murder. Prosecutors said Letby injected air into the bloodstream of Child L’s twin brother. COUNT 16 GUILTY.
Child N, three allegations of attempted murder. The Crown said Letby inflicted trauma in the baby boy’s throat and also injected him with air in the bloodstream. COUNT 17 GUILTY, COUNT 18 JURY COULD NOT REACH VERDICT, COUNT 19 JURY COULD NOT REACH VERDICT.
Child O, allegation of murder. Prosecutors say Letby attacked the triplet boy by injecting him with air, overfeeding him with milk and inflicting trauma to his liver with “severe force”. COUNT 20 GUILTY.
Child P, allegation of murder. Prosecutors said the nurse targeted the triplet brother of Child O by overfeeding him with milk, injecting air and dislodging his breathing tube. COUNT 21 GUILTY.
Child Q, allegation of attempted murder. The Crown said Letby injected the baby boy with liquid, and possibly air, down his feeding tube. COUNT 22 JURY COULD NOT REACH VERDICT.
During one interview he described how she had explained her method for staying motivated behind bars.
“One thing was she just kept saying to herself like a mantra that she’s innocent, and this is crazy.
“She kept that firmly in her mind.
“The other thing was, she didn’t harbour any grudges against anybody.
“She wasn’t angry, she didn’t harbour anger in her heart because it’s poisonous. That was the last interview she did.”
Prof Gill went on to say: “She was an extraordinary woman and I’m saddened that she’s gone for her family.
“They would have wanted many more years with her, so it’s tragic.”
Prof Gill hopes to meet Letby in prison in the future, as he did de Berk on two occasions.
He was also present at the final sitting of the latter’s exoneration.
“It was one of the most moving experiences of my life, I put it up there pretty close to the birth of my children,” he said.
“I’m convinced Lucy will get the same one day.”
COMMENT: I covered Lucy Letby case from her first arrest…Here’s why I know she’s guilty
By Holly Christodoulou, Digital Court Editor
AT every step, Lucy Letby was a coward.
She was a coward when she refused to come back into court after the first guilty verdicts filtered in.
She was a coward when she hid in her cell instead of facing her victims’ families at sentencing.
And she was a coward when she targeted newborn babies who were barely bigger than her hand.
Now she is being a coward again and hiding again behind her lawyers.
Letby’s case was one of the most unusual I have ever worked on. It took nine months of harrowing evidence before the jury were finally sent out.
Then it was a further 22 days before the verdicts were reached.
But the case actually began years before when police released a statement confirming a woman had been arrested on suspicion of murdering babies at the Countess of Chester Hospital.
It didn’t take long to get Letby’s details – officers had raided a home that linked to the nurse and her Facebook had her work details.
The smoking gun really came though when a staff profile emerged. Holding up a tiny baby-gro in her scrubs, Letby spoke out how long she had worked at the hospital and what her role was.
The nurse said: “My role involves caring for a wide range of babies requiring various levels of support.
“Some are here for a few days, others for many months and I enjoy seeing them progress and supporting their families.”
Letby also revealed she was undergoing “extra training” to enhance her “knowledge and skills within the Intensive Care area”.
The “career-driven” nurse was even described as a “champion for children”.
But as we later found out, the killer hid under this “cover of trust” to “gaslight” everyone around her, including her own colleagues.
Usually in these cases, the suspect’s social media will be a treasure trove – posts about hating work, glamorous pictures, sharing a major dislike for children for example.
Letby’s was not. She was, as the police always described, beige.
When the case finally came to court, it was hard to predict what way the jury would go. Listening to reams of complicated medical evidence over such a long period of time may have ultimately been detrimental to convicting Letby.
As it was, the evidence wasn’t clear-cut.
We were told the collapses and deaths of the 13 babies were not “naturally-occurring tragedies” but instead the work of “poisoner” Letby.
Her reign of terror was finally uncovered after staff grew suspicious of the “significant rise” in the number of babies dying or suffering “catastrophic” collapses.
Letby was of course found to be the “common denominator” among the deaths and collapses.
But there was no billion-to-one DNA linking her to the killing spree. We heard Letby had been seen hunched over some of her victims before they fell ill but no CCTV showed this.
Instead, the jury could only rely on the medical evidence provided by the very experts who are now claiming their input was misinterpreted.
They are among a growing number of researchers and politicians calling for Letby’s convictions to be quashed due to a miscarriage of justice – much to the dismay of her victims’ families.
And yes, these experts are smart – they are more intelligent than me, than Letby, than the lawyers who prosecuted her.
But it’s like everyone has overlooked the fact there was other proof that was enough to convince me she was guilty.
Bubbling under the surface of her outwardly-calm demeanour was a twisted chaos that exploded from the nurse in the form of handwritten diary entries.
One that gave away her guilt read: “I am evil I did this”.
The note added: “I don’t deserve to live. I killed them on purpose because I’m not good enough to care for them.
“I am a horrible person”.
Letby also screamed for help on Post-Its and begged “Kill me” as she revealed her inner turmoil.
As the death toll rose, the notes became more frenzied.
In one, Letby scrawled: “I can’t do this anymore. I can’t live like this.
“No one will ever understand or appreciate what it’s like.”
How is it so easy to suddenly overlook these cold hard facts? Letby was obsessed with the families of her victims – an innocent person does not stalk the grieving parents of a dead child on social media.
The jury certainly didn’t forget Letby’s confession when they made their decision. Neither did a second jury at her retrial for attempting kill another baby.
Nor did the top judges who TWICE refused when her team applied for permission to appeal against her convictions.
Yes Letby’s case could return to court but why does that mean the outcome would be any different?
The Criminal Cases Review Commission could return the case to the Court of Appeal but equally, they may not.
The Court of Appeal could refuse the request for a retrial. A retrial could take place but a jury might still convict her.
And then what? The families of her victims will be forced to listen again to the harrowing final details of their newborn babies’ lives before they were cruelly snuffed out by Letby.
A jury made their decision, Letby was not simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, she was a killer.
It is time we left her to rot.
Letby carried out the rampage while working at the Countess of Chester Hospital
AFPDe Berk is hugged by her daughter Fabienne after her acquittal[/caption]
Derbyshire ConstabularyFootage released by police shows the moment Letby was arrested[/caption] Published: [#item_custom_pubDate]
