"I am Evil...": British nurse guilty of murdering seven babies in a year

LONDON: A British nurse has been found guilty of murdering seven babies and attempting to kill six others at the hospital where she worked, CNN reported on Friday. During the investigation at her residence, the police found notes stating “I am a horrible evil person” and “I don’t deserve to live".

The incident is being considered as the country’s worst baby serial killer in recent times. Lucy Letby, 33, harmed babies in her care by injecting air into their blood and stomachs, overfeeding them with milk, physically assaulting them and poisoning them with insulin, the prosecutors informed Manchester Crown Court. In a particular case, Letby murdered a baby boy by administering air into his bloodstream, CNN reported citing UK’s PA Media news agency. The next day, she attempted to kill his twin brother as well by poisoning him with insulin. Notably, a court order protects the identity of the children involved in the allegations against Letby, including those who died and survived under her care, as per CNN.

During the investigation, the police found a trove of handwritten notes while searching Letby’s house during their investigation, including one that read, “I am evil I did this.” She secretly attacked 13 babies in the neonatal ward at the Countess of Chester hospital between 2015 and 2016, CNN reported Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). Her intention was to kill the babies while duping her colleagues into believing there was a natural cause of death, the prosecutors argued. Pascale Jones of the CPS called Letby’s actions a “complete betrayal of the trust placed in her.”

“Lucy Letby sought to deceive her colleagues and pass off the harm she caused as nothing more than a worsening of each baby’s existing vulnerability,” she said. “In her hands, innocuous substances like air, milk, fluids – or medication like insulin – would become lethal. She perverted her learning and weaponised her craft to inflict harm, grief and death,” CNN quoted her as saying. Expressing grief and disappointment on the matter, the victims’ families said they “may never truly know why this happened.” “To lose a baby is a heartbreaking experience that no parent should ever have to go through,” a joint statement said. “But to lose a baby or to have a baby harmed in these particular circumstances is unimaginable,” the statement added.

Notably, in 2018 and 2019, Letby was arrested twice by police in connection with their investigation, CNN reported citing PA Media. She was arrested again in November 2020. Authorities have also found notes Letby had written during searches of her address. “I don’t deserve to live. I killed them on purpose because I’m not good enough to care for them,” she wrote in one memo, adding in another, “I am a horrible evil person” and in capital letters “I am evil I did this,” CNN reported. The doctors at the hospital began to notice a steep rise in the number of babies who were dying or unexpectedly collapsing, the court heard. But concerns raised by consultants over the increased mortality rate of patients under Letby’s care were initially dismissed by the hospital’s management, CNN reported citing PA Media.

Letby will be sentenced at Manchester Crown Court on August 21. Reacting over the incident. The UK government has ordered an independent inquiry into the murders, including “how concerns raised by clinicians were dealt with,” CNN reported. The inquiry will probe into the “circumstances surrounding the deaths and incidents,” the government said in a statement on Friday. It will also evaluate what actions were taken by regulators and Britain’s National Health Service in response to concerns regarding Letby. Health Secretary Steve Barclay pledged the voices of parents of the victims “are heard” throughout the inquiry, acknowledging there are many questions to be answered, CNN reported. “Justice has been served and the nurse who should have been caring for our babies has been found guilty of harming them,” the victims’ families said in a joint statement on Friday.

“But this justice will not take away from the extreme hurt, anger and distress that we have all had to experience,” the statement added. “We are heartbroken, devastated, angry and feel numb,” CNN quoted the statement