A Nurse Has The Heart To Kill Seven Newborn Babies And Try To Kill Six Others

Illustration. (Pexels/Ekaterina Bolovtsova)

JAKARTA - The court in England found a nurse guilty on Friday of killing seven newborns in a neonatal unit of a hospital where she works.

Lucy Letby, 33, was found guilty of the murder of five baby boys and two baby girls atELG of Chester Hospital and attacked another newborn, most of whom she did while working at night shifts between 2015-2016.

The court proceedings against him have been going on for 10 months at the Manchester Crown Court, making Letby a serial killer in England.

Apart from being found guilty, he was found not guilty of two other attempted murders, while the jury could not agree in six other alleged attacks.

Prosecutors told the jury during the trial that Letby poisoned several of his baby victims by injecting insulin into them, while others were injected with air or forced to put milk, sometimes involving multiple attacks before they died.

"I deliberately killed them, because I wasn't good enough to take care of them," said a handwritten note found by police officers who ransacked his home after he was arrested.

"I'm a terrible bad person," he wrote. "I'M EVIL, I DID THIS".

Some of those he attacked were twins - in one case he killed his two siblings. In another case, he had the heart to try to kill up to three times a baby girl, before his attempt was successful in a fourth attempt.

"Lucy Letby is trusted to protect some of the most vulnerable babies. Those who work with her don't know, there is a killer in their midst," said Pascale Jones, senior prosecutor of the Crown Prosecution Service.

"He did his best to hide his crime, by varying the way he repeatedly hurt a baby in his care," prosecutor Jones said.

Letby's crime was revealed, when a senior doctor was concerned about the number of deaths that could not be explained in neonatal units, where premature or sick babies were treated, for 18 months since January 2015.

With doctors unable to find medical reasons, police were summoned. After a long investigation, Letby, who has been involved in baby care, is suspected of being the culprit.

At his home after his arrest, detectives found documents and medical records referring to the children involved in the case. He also conducted a social media search for the parents and families of the killed baby.

Letby cried when he testified for 14 days, saying he never tried to hurt those babies and just wanted to take care of them, saying there were insecurity and dirty conditions in the neonatal ward that might be the factor causing the babies to die.

"I have never killed a child or hurt any of them," he said. He claimed four doctors had conspired to blame him for the unit's failure.

Meanwhile, the prosecution said he was a cold, cruel, tall liar who had repeatedly changed his account of events and his record should be treated as recognition.

The detectives conducting the investigation said they had found nothing strange about Letby's life and could not determine any motive why he became a killer.

"The only person who can answer that...is Lucy Letby herself," Detective Inspector Paul Hughes, who led the investigation.

"Unfortunately, I don't think we will ever know unless he chooses to tell us," he said.

Polisi sedang melakukan penyelidikan lebih lanjut selama Letby bekerja sebagai perawatan di rumah sakit dan di rumah sakit lain di Liverpool tempat dia menjalani pelatihan, untuk mengidentifikasi jika ada korban lagi.

"There are a number of cases that are active investigations that have been notified to parents," said Hughes.

The verdict against Letby will be imposed on Monday. He is expected to be sentenced to life imprisonment.