Lucy Letby will spend rest of her life in jail for killing 7 newborns.
In the 13 months starting in 2015, Letby, 33, killing the five babies boys and two babies girls at the neonatal ward of the Countess of Chester hospital in northern England by forcing-feeding them milk or injecting them with air or insulin.
She assaulted many people who were twins, in one incident, she killed both of the siblings; in another, she killed two of three triplets; and in two other attacks, she killed one twin but failed to kill the other.
“This was a cruel, calculated, and cynical campaign of child murder involving the smallest and most vulnerable of children,” judge James Goss said after giving her a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
“There was a deep malice in your conduct that bordered on sadism… You are not sorry. There are no limiting circumstances. The parents of the newborns wailed in the courtroom as he declared, “You will spend the rest of your life in prison.
Only three women in Britain have ever been given whole life orders, including the serial murders Myra Hindley and Rosemary West. Whole life orders are extremely uncommon.
Police have not discovered a justification for her crimes, and Goss said that only Letby was aware of her motivations. She made requests that criminals be made to hear how their acts affect their victims or their families as a result of their refusal to leave the cells to hear their sentence being delivered.
Victims Families
The horrific acts done by Letby, who was in her 20s when she went on a killing rampage at her place of employment, appalled Britain, destroyed the lives of the victims families, and left her coworkers scarred for life.
After a 10-month trial at Manchester Crown Court, she was convicted guilty last Thursday of seven counts of murder and seven counts of attempted murder. She was exonerated of two more attempted murder charges because the jury could not agree on whether she had attempted to kill six people.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called it “cowardly” that she chose not to personally experience the consequences of her decisions. The administration is considering making attendance mandatory, even though the legislation as it now allows judges to lengthen jail sentences for people who do not show up. “That’s something we’ll bring forward in due course,” Sunak added.
In response to claims made by senior neonatal doctors that hospital administrators ignored their concerns about Letby, the government has also launched an investigation into the issue. There are requests for it to be overseen by a judge with the authority to compel witnesses to testify.
Sunak stressed the need of ensuring families received the information they required and that the investigation was conducted in a timely and open manner. To determine if there were any further victims, police are also looking into 4,000 additional admissions to the newborn units where Letby worked.
