The shocking story of Lucy Letby, the nurse who killed 7 babies
As the police probe into murder nurse Lucy Letby’s whole career broadens, more families have been informed that their children may have been victims.Letby was found guilty of murdering seven newborns as well as seven counts of attempted murder.
She was also found not guilty on two attempted murder charges, and the jury was unable to reach a decision on six further counts of attempted murder.
In May 2017, Cheshire police launched Operation Hummingbird to investigate the deaths of babies at the Countess of Chester Hospital’s neonatal ward.
Officers said they studied more than 500,000 medical and digital information during the investigation, which will result in Letby being charged in November 2020.
Between June 2015 and July 2016, the 33-year-old was accused of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder ten others at the hospital. She consistently disputed the allegations.
He is survived by his wife, Sandra, his children, Mark, Chris, and Shelly, as well as several grandchildren. There were no funeral services conducted.
Cheshire Police say they are still reviewing the treatment of 4,000 newborns who were taken to the Countess of Chester Hospital – as well as Liverpool Women’s Hospital, where Letby did two work placements – between 2012 and 2016.
Police said that only instances identified as medically concerning would be probed further.
Detectives say they have been assisting the victims’ relatives, many of whom attended the nine-month trial in person at Manchester Crown Court.
Following the pronouncement of the verdicts, senior officials from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) provided an update outside court.
“Time and again, she harmed babies in an environment that should have been safe for them,” CPS investigator Pascale Jones said.
She called Letby’s acts a “complete betrayal of the trust placed in her” and claimed she demonstrated “fake compassion” to the relatives of her victims.
According to a police family liaison officer, justice was served, but the end was “bittersweet” because some families did not receive the resolution they deserved.
Letby began working in the hospital’s neonatal section just before her 22nd birthday – around four years before the claims in the trial – and colleagues raised concerns more than a year before supervisors called the police.
Lynsey Artell, a former Countess of Chester nurse, suspects Letby attacked her son, Asa, who was on the neonatal unit after being born two months prematurely.
Letby’s treatment of the youngster was not charged, and Ms Artell is requesting that the police reinvestigate her and other parents’ concerns.
Following the verdicts, Cheshire police said that they are now looking into whether Letby assaulted any children in her care prior to June 2015.
“We’re obviously committed to looking at the entire time that Lucy has been employed as a nurse, whether it’s a unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital (or) the Liverpool Women’s Hospital,” said Detective Superintendent Paul Hughes, the case’s chief investigating officer.
“That’s to ensure that at the end of Operation Hummingbird, we can confidently say that we’ve investigated every baby.”
He declined to reveal how many more active cases there are, but he did remark, “There are cases where we’ve told parents.”
