This whole story is the most insane, fucked up thing I have read in years.
Especially the companion story, Hospital bosses ignored months of doctors’ warnings about Lucy Letby. The hospital execs seem almost as callous as the murderer. Holy shit. You have to have some sort of psychological or empathetic disorder as manager or director to fail to act when babies are dying like flies, there is one common factor, and your response isn’t to immediately investigate and take that common factor out of the equation as a safety measure.
They just refused to act for 3 years (where 17 babies died mysteriously or had near-fatal unexplained events in one year) - except silence, threaten and bully the doctor and seven (!) pediatric consultants who repeatedly raised the alarm and called for outside investigation. Since the murderer was removed from the neonatal ward in 2016, there has apparently been 1 baby death. In total, in 7 years.
I don’t know how you would live with yourself knowing that you actively aided a serial killer by refusing to listen to multiple people warning you about them and pleading with you to act.
You’d probably deny, deflect, and accuse everyone else of 20/20 hindsight, while taking the one piece of your soul that’s shouting no! I failed those kids! and packing it away in a closet with no door where no one can hear it scream.
Yeah, I guess that’s what I would do.
They just refused to act for 3 years (where 17 babies died mysteriously or had near-fatal unexplained events in one year) - except silence, threaten and bully the doctor and seven (!) pediatric consultants who repeatedly raised the alarm and called for outside investigation. Since the murderer was removed from the neonatal ward in 2016, there has apparently been 1 baby death. In total, in 7 years.
They also made them write and sign a written apology to her.
And try to force them to attend a mediation session with the murderer, actively discourage them from going to the police… Fail to report the baby deaths appropriately to the NHS, fail to do the initial investigation about the first three deaths the executive team had decided on. Fail to present to the board of trustees that the conclusion of two external reviews were that some of the baby deaths should be forensically investigated. Fail to do any investigation. Refuse to reassign the murderer for months while more murders and attempted murders happen, then reassign them into a position where they have access to manipulate the narrative. And additionally order the whistleblowers to cease email communications about the issue…
I think I missed a few things as well, there’s just too many things wrong in this picture.
Yes. It’s a disgusting story from start to finish.
There are so much anger to the nurse on this thread, which is justified. Where are the pitchfork for the executives and managements? Looks like there was concerns early on, multiple discussion of foul play but no actions was taken. Imagine a PE teacher, another teacher has concern of foul play, then more teachers has concern that he/she shouldn’t be around kids, an expert recommended an outside investigation, appointing the PE teacher to child abuse and safety committee, more kids came forward of foul play, the teacher was moves to a different school to teach… There should be a process that stops her from having access to newborn after Baby A died and foul play was a concern! Not after baby 6! The management should have criminal charges of negligence on these deaths and assaults. It should be seen as a whole system failure and not just one who is at fault.
I suspect there will now be a criminal investigation into manslaughter charges against the management. There was a lot of concerning evidence around your point during the trial but it is a process. The innaction that facilitated these murders sound like an absolute shambles.
This story is horrendous, most killers seem to gain something from it. But this woman just kills babies for no reason then hates herself for it afterwards. The whole story is just awful, what a terrible person.
Is there any attempt of a transcription of the note? It’s almost impossible to read anything. She’s very obviously unwell, to put it lightly. Still makes me wonder what is going through the heads of people like her in those moments.
Some of them I can’t make out but the green one is readable if you read the left side first (it’s in two columns).
It starts off saying the police think she did it but that’s slander and discrimination, but then turns into admitting she did it and a lot about how she’s a bad person and doesn’t deserve her parents and will never have a family of her own.
Closest she comes to a motive in it is “I killed them on purpose because I’m not good enough to care for them, I am a horrible evil person.”
I can only read a few words.
Mental illness?
She’s mentally unwell (to say the least) and she was put in charge of taking care of the most annoying creatures on earth. Not trying to justify her actions or shift the blame somewhere else, but maybe someone should have tested her; just in case she’s a fucking psycho.
the most annoying creatures on earth
Tiny little premature babies annoy you???
Those tiny little 2 pound babies in their incubators being fed through feeding tubes?
I don’t get it, they seem to me like one of the most harmless things on earth.
If you don’t have much of a maternal instinct, crying babies are pretty annoying.
But for the majority of us who don’t like kids, we just ignore it or if in charge of said infant, try to settle them rather than murder them.
I can’t say that I’ve followed this case closely, but I have never heard a reason why. Obviously, she’s sick, but how do you do something like this “just because”?
Everyone has these intrusive negative thoughts like
“What if I drop this baby down the stairs?” “What if I punch this person in the mouth?” “What if I touch this woman’s butt?” “Should I jump over this ledge?”
We never act upon them but still the majority of us have them. Any way that doesn’t explain the why, I have no idea why she did this.
I guess sort of like Harold Shipman, they were both in a position to get away with their fucked up impulses without any negative repercussions.
I always wonder, how many single-time murderers are there for every serial killer? Like how many nurses, doctors or other people with an opportunity just took and murdered once. How many people might get away with that?
Every serial killer has his first kill … but how many people have a first kill and then think … nah, I’d rather not do that but don’t get caught.
Honestly? I’d bet there are a lot more who get caught after their first then there are who get away with one and then decide never to do it again. Almost every serial killer I’ve ever read about has described the urge to kill as something that increases over time, and that is temporarily relieved by killing but comes back faster and harder after each kill. I suppose there’s natural selection bias against it, but I’ve never heard of anyone who killed once and then was satisfied.
Besides, anyone capable of thinking “I’d rather not get caught” after their first kill was capable of thinking that before their first kill too. I’m not saying it’s impossible as defined, but by it’s nature would be vanishingly rare.
You only read about the ones that get caught though…
There’s a podcast that has been following the trial
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Nurse Lucy Letby has been found guilty of murdering seven babies on a neonatal unit, making her the UK’s most prolific child serial killer in modern times.
She was convicted following a two-year investigation by Cheshire Police into the alarming and unexplained rise in deaths and near-fatal collapses of premature babies at the hospital.
Her defence team argued the deaths and collapses were the result of “serial failures in care” in the unit and she was the victim of a “system that wanted to apportion blame when it failed”.
Senior Crown Prosecutor Pascale Jones said the nurse “did her utmost to conceal her crimes, by varying the ways in which she repeatedly harmed babies in her care”.
The lead consultant at the neonatal unit where Letby worked has told the BBC that hospital bosses failed to investigate allegations against the nurse and tried to silence doctors.
Prior to the government’s announcement, Dr Nigel Scawn, executive medical director from the Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, said he was “deeply saddened and appalled” at Letby’s crimes.
The original article contains 1,505 words, the summary contains 176 words. Saved 88%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
Her defence team argued the deaths and collapses were the result of “serial failures in care” in the unit and she was the victim of a “system that wanted to apportion blame when it failed”.
What
Seven? Those are amateur numbers…
Edit: linked the wrong Japanese Serial Killing Nurse… Miyuki Ishikawa was investigated for neglecting 84 neonates, indicted for 27 and found guilting of killing 5.
Er, it’s really not a competition.
Also, those were just the first batch of beyond-reasonable-doubt from the one hospital. She likely killed a lot more.
And then there are the babies who she damaged so badly they are now special needs children.
