The crimes committed by Lucy Letby at Manchester crown court are among the most horrifying ever faced by a jury. Letby, employed as a children’s nurse at the Countess of Chester hospital, turned the hospital’s neonatal unit into a killing field from June 2015 to June 2016.
Taking advantage of moments when she was alone with infants, Letby murdered seven babies and attempted to kill an additional six. She intentionally targeted premature and sick newborns, as their sudden and unexpected deaths could be more easily explained. Her methods included injecting insulin, overfeeding with milk, and tampering with feeding tubes. One baby girl was finally killed on the fourth attempt. Two of the surviving babies were left severely disabled. The prosecution described Letby as “cold, calculated, cruel, and relentless”. Hopefully, Friday’s guilty verdicts provide some sense of justice to the families affected.
Expectedly, there will be speculation about the motives behind Britain’s largest serial child killer. However, the more crucial question is not “why did Letby do it?” but “how was she able to commit these crimes for such a long period?” The government’s prompt decision to launch a public inquiry into the circumstances is the appropriate response.
Letby’s case is reminiscent of Beverley Allitt, a nurse convicted of killing four infants in 1993. However, Allitt’s spree lasted only two months, while Letby’s campaign lasted a whole year. There are justified reasons to believe that some of her victims could have been saved if hospital executives had taken heed of repeated warnings.
Letby’s outward normalcy and her colleagues’ understandable reluctance to suspect a murderer among them provided her with cover. However, when two consultant paediatricians finally raised the alarm after a series of unexpected deaths where Letby was present, they describe a defensive and negligent response from hospital managers.
Concerns expressed in October 2015 and February 2016 were disregarded and deemed inappropriate, according to their statements. One consultant told the Guardian, “It felt as if they were treating us with as much suspicion as Lucy Letby.” Even after Letby was eventually removed from neonatal duties, the hospital’s fear of reputational damage seemed to influence the decision not to involve the police until almost a year later. Two external reviews of the surge in unexplained deaths were commissioned in late 2016, but neither was tasked with investigating Letby or any staff member’s potential responsibility.
These failures are shocking and seem to stem from a reluctance to confront the worst-case scenario due to potential institutional harm. As in previous scandals, internal whistleblowers claim they were treated as threats and faced bullying from superiors. It is evident that new reporting systems, potentially involving an independent ombudsman to address all whistleblowing concerns, are necessary. Furthermore, utilizing Britain’s two neonatal databases to identify unusual and suspicious mortality patterns would decrease the likelihood of another case like Letby’s.
This case is so horrific that it should prompt the nation to focus on minimizing the risk of similar incidents in the future. The learning process must commence immediately.
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