In order to avoid being sentenced for the murders of seven newborns and attempted murders of six more at the UK hospital where she worked, a British nurse neglected to show up in court on Monday.
When Lucy Letby, 33, is sentenced later at Manchester Crown Court in northern England, she might receive a whole life order, which would mean spending the rest of her life in prison. In a case that terrified the nation and branded her the most prolific child serial murderer in recent memory, a jury found her guilty on Friday.
Outrage and efforts to modify the law to require that individuals who commit the most serious crimes face the families of the victims have been brought about by Letby’s reluctance to show up for either the verdicts or her punishment.
Rishi Sunak, the prime minister, referred to Letby’s absence as “cowardly” on Monday. According to PA Media, it is “cowardly” for those who commit such heinous acts to avoid confronting their victims and learning firsthand how their actions have affected the victims’ families and loved ones.
We are considering and have been working on altering the law to ensure that this occurs; we’ll provide that in due course.
According to testimony given in court on Friday, Letby physically assaulted the infants in her care and injected air into their blood and stomachs, overfed them with milk, poisoned them with insulin, and overfed them with air.
Letby was accused of the crimes, and after she was found guilty, there was a government investigation into how she managed to go unnoticed for so long.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in Britain said in a statement on Friday that she surreptitiously attacked 13 newborn babies on the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester hospital between 2015 and 2016.
According to the prosecution, Letby intended to kill the infants while deceiving her coworkers into thinking there was a natural cause of death.
In one occasion, Letby attempted to kill a baby boy after killing his twin brother, according to the distressing evidence of the victim’s parents heard in court in Manchester during the trial.
While testifying in court, the mother of Children E and F stated that she “completely” believed Letby’s counsel.
When her infant Child E began to wail in the intensive care unit one night, she claimed she “knew there was something wrong” and that she immediately felt better.
It was discovered that when Letby attempted to assault Child E, he began bleeding before she killed him. The twin of that infant, Child F, later lived through an attempt by Letby to poison him with insulin. Additionally, it was disclosed that police had discovered several handwritten messages by Letby, one of which read: “I am evil I did this.”
Letby was twice detained by police in connection with their probe in 2018 and 2019, according to PA. In November 2020, she was detained once more.
During inspections of Letby’s residence, authorities discovered the notes she had written.
“I’m not worthy of life. She wrote in one memo, “I killed them on purpose because I’m not good enough to care for them,” and in another, “I am a terrible evil person,” adding in big letters, “I am evil I did this.”
On Friday, the UK government released an independent investigation into the killings, which covered how authorities and the country’s National Health Service handled consultants’ concerns.
According to testimony given in court in Manchester, hospital staff noticed an increase in the frequency of infants dying or suddenly collapsing in the neonatal unit.
However, PA stated that the hospital’s management originally disregarded clinicians’ worries over the elevated mortality rate of patients under Letby’s care.
Attorneys for the relatives of the victims have criticised the inquiry as “not good enough” because it lacks the authority to call witnesses.
Letby won a grievance lawsuit against her employers in 2016 after learning of their first accusations.
She was supposed to visit the neonatal unit again in March 2017, but that didn’t happen. The police were informed by the hospital trust, and they started an inquiry.