Ryan Wilks
Content warning: the subject matter in this article may be upsetting to some readers.
Lucy Letby has been convicted of the m**der of seven infants and the attempted m**der of six additional infants during her time working as a nurse at the Countess of Chester Hospital.
Letby, 33, was found guilty at Manchester Crown Court on August 18, with the Crown Prosecution Service describing her as a ‘calculated opportunist’ and ‘cold-blooded’ during the trial.
After being arrested by Cheshire Constabulary at 6am on July 3, 2018, police conducted searches of the former nurse’s home and found handwritten notes that she had previously hidden in which reportedly described herself as ‘evil’ and wrote ‘I did this’.
Throughout the trial, the prosecutors wanted to present to the jurors a specific note penned by Letby.
This note contained phrases such as ‘I don’t deserve to live’, ‘I ki**ed them on purpose because I’m not good enough to care for them’, ‘I am a horrible evil person’, and ‘I am evil, I did this’.
Prosecutor Nick Johnson KC reportedly asked that jurors read what Letby had written on the post-it note ‘literally’ and take it as a confession.
Letby’s solicitor told jurors the post-it note with those messages written on them was ‘the anguished outpouring of a young woman in fear and despair’, while the former nurse later told the jury her version of events.
She reportedly said: “I felt at the time that if I’d done something wrong I must be such an evil, awful person… I’d somehow been incompetent and had done something wrong which had affected those babies.
“I felt I must be responsible in some way. I think looking back on it now, I was really struggling, and this was a way of me expressing what I wasn’t able to say to anyone else.”
Detective Superintendent Paul Hughes, who led the investigation into Letby, tells Daily Mail that he believes the notes suggest that the former nurse wanted notoriety, which would provide some kind of explanation behind her motive.
He also questions why Letby did not shred the papers and other incriminating evidence when she knew the police would be investigating.
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He tells the publication: “In my view, she wrote it down and left it for us to find.
“She knew the police were investigating. She knew her colleagues had been spoken to by the police. She knew at some point we would be speaking to her, so either recklessly or intentionally she wrote it down to be found.”
DS Hughes goes on to say that the former nurse’s intelligence shouldn’t be underestimated, adding: “Did she want it [the note] found? Did she just want to write it down or did she just want to tell the world that she was evil, and she did this? Did she want the notoriety that she’s got?
“Without telling us why, then the motive was right in front of us for us to find.”
The detective also tells Daily Mail that he doesn’t believe Letby went into nursing with the intention of m**dering babies. Instead, he believes that nursing ‘gave her the opportunity to be around the most vulnerable in society’.
Although this may be a compelling theory from DS Hughes, it may be that the exact motive will never be known.
Letby has now been sentenced to life in prison, making her the UK’s fourth woman to receive a whole life order.
This is the UK’s most severe punishment and is reserved for those who commit the most heinous of crimes.
Although Letby regularly appeared in the dock during the 10-month trial, she refused to attend the sentencing hearing at Manchester Crown Court.
The reason for the former nurse’s non-attendance was not disclosed by the judge.
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