Nurse Lucy Letby, the deadliest baby killer in British history, sentenced to life imprisonment | International

The nurse Lucy Letby will spend the rest of her life behind bars for having killed seven newborns, according to the sentence handed down this Monday by a British judge. Letby is the UK's deadliest serial killer of babies. This horror story occurred behind the walls of the neonatal unit of the Countess of Chester hospital, in the north of England, since 2015 and for 13 months. In that time, the defendant, now 33, killed five boys and two girls by injecting them with insulin or air, or by force-feeding them milk.

Some babies this nurse attacked were twins: in one case she murdered both siblings, in another she killed two out of three triplets, and twice a twin, but failed in her attempts to kill the other. "It was a cruel, calculated and cynical campaign against the youngest and most vulnerable children," said Judge James Goss, who sentenced the defendant to life imprisonment without the possibility of release. “In her actions there was a deep malevolence bordering on sadism (…). She has no regrets. There are no mitigating factors for her… she will spend the rest of her life in jail, ”she added, while the parents of the victims sobbed in the room.

Life sentences are very rare, and only three women in Britain have ever received such a sentence before. They were Myra Hindley, for raping, torturing and killing three children and two teenagers with her boyfriend in 1963; Rosemary West, who tortured and murdered at least nine young women in the 1970s and 1980s, and Joanna Dennehy, who killed three men in what became known as the Peterborough ditch murders, in 2013.

The police have found no motive for their crimes. Judge Goss has admitted that only Letby knows the reasons for his actions. "He acted totally contrary to normal human instincts to raise and care for babies," added the magistrate. He has considered that the defendant's assertions that she had done everything possible to care for her little patients were "one of the many lies" that she told throughout the trial. “There is no question that she is intelligent and that she on the outside was a very conscientious, hard-working and knowledgeable nurse; that allowed him to harm the babies ”, he concluded.

The nurse, for her part, has refused to leave her cell to hear her sentence, which has led to demands that criminals be forced to hear the impact of their actions on their victims or their families. The mother of one of the dead babies has described Letby's decision as a last act of evil.

The heartbreaking crimes committed by Letby, who was aged 25 and 26 when he committed the murders, have shocked the UK, shattered the lives of many families and caused lasting damage to his colleagues.

Last week, the utility was found guilty of seven counts of murder and seven counts of attempted murder, after a 10-month trial at Manchester Crown Court. Jurors could not agree on whether she had tried to kill six other babies. She was acquitted of two more charges of attempted murder.

Previously, the court had heard harrowing statements from parents of victims and survivors, recounting the trauma and the "unbearable agony" it had caused them. “Lucy Letby has destroyed our lives. The anger and hatred I feel towards her will never go away," said the father of the triplets.

A mother of twins, one of whom was murdered, has wished for the rea to live long, spending each day grieving for what she had done. “My family will never think of you again. As of today, you are nothing ”, she added.

The case has captured the country's attention. The British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, has considered "cowardly" that Letby did not want to hear first-hand the impact of his actions. Currently, British law provides that judges can increase prison terms for those who do not appear, but now the Government is considering making attendance compulsory. “It is something that we will raise in due course,” Sunak said.

The government has also ordered an investigation into the case, since several doctors from the neonatal unit where Letby committed his crimes say they conveyed their suspicions to the heads of the hospital and were not listened to.

Sunak has insisted on the importance that families get the answers they need and that the investigation is carried out as quickly and transparently as possible.

Police are also investigating another 4,000 admissions to neonatal units where Letby worked to find out if there are other victims.

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