Life sentence for nurse who murdered seven babies

British nurse Lucy Letby, 33, was sentenced Monday to life imprisonment for the murder of seven babies and the attempted murder of another six in a hospital in Chester (northwest England) between 2015 and 2016.

Judge James Goss, of the Manchester Crown Court announced the sentence after mentioning each of the charges against the nurse, of whom he said “there was premeditation, calculation and cunning” in her actions.

According to the evidence presented by the Prosecutor’s Office, Letby killed the newborns by injecting them with air with an intravenous syringe while working at the Countess Hospital in Chester.

She refused to appear in court to hear the stories of the children’s parents and the magistrate’s opinion after she was found guilty of the murders on Friday.

In a message addressed directly to the nurse, the judge said: “She is now 33 years old… I have to determine if the severity of the offenses is high enough that she does not have to do a minimum period. They are crimes of very exceptional gravity.”

“This was a cruel, calculated, and cynical campaign of child murder involving the youngest and most vulnerable children,” he added.

“There was a deep malevolence bordering on sadism… you have no remorse… no mitigating factors,” he added.

“I sentence you to prison for life. I direct that the early release provisions be waived. A life sentence order for each crime and you will spend the rest of your life in prison”, the judge concluded.

Suspected since 2018 
Lety had been suspected of the crimes since 2018, when she was first arrested, but was arrested again two years later and charged by the police

The woman, whose case shocked the UK, is considered the most prolific child murderer in the country’s history.

The nurse was also found guilty of attempting to murder six other babies by methods that included, in addition to injecting air, insulin poisoning, or the administration of excessive amounts of food.

The jury took over 110 hours to reach a guilty verdict.

The murders occurred between June 2015 and June 2016, when there were several unexplained deaths of newborns at the Countess of Chester hospital.

Letby worked as a trainee student at the public center for three years, before finishing her studies at the local university and specializing as a children’s nurse.

Since then she worked in the neonatal unit, specializing in babies who require different levels of care.