Things We Did Not Know About Lucy Letby: The Evil Maternity Nurse

1. She is normal and unremarkable in any way, described as "beige" or "vanilla"

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There is absolutely nothing about Letby that stands out from the crowd. Colleagues say that she was considered very much average at her job, and her personality has been described as "vanilla". She went on nights out, holidays to Ibiza and took part in weekly salsa classes. Letby lived very much under the radar, never attracting much attention. Which is believed to be one of the reasons that she was able to get away with the unimaginable horrific crimes for the period of time that she did.

2. The 4th woman in UK history sentenced to a whole-life order

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People cannot wrap their heads around how this beige, seemingly ordinary woman is now within the ranks of prolific serial killers Myra Hindley, Rose West and Joanna Dennehy. Letby has now become the fourth woman in British history to receive a whole life order, spending the rest of her life behind bars. In fact, she was sentenced to fourteen whole life orders, for each of her victims. Her truly evil crimes will forever shock the world.

3. Experts believe the 33 year old's child-like bedroom is significant

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Letby returned to her bedroom each night after her shifts on the neonatal ward. Here, she was surrounded by cuddly toys, fairy lights and cutesy quotes on the wall, such as "sweet dreams" and "leave sparkles wherever you go". An expert believes that her bedroom could reveal something significant about Letby - a potential desire to live in the past.

4. The crimes were committed from 2015 - 2016

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The horrific crimes against the infants were committed over a year period, between June 2015 and June 2016. There have been major failings in the system, because Letby was not arrested until 2018. Her trial only then began in 2022, lasting for nine months. After deliberation from the jury, she was finally found guilty and sentenced to the rest of her life in prison.

5. She was charged with 7 counts of murder and 6 other counts of attempted murder

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It took the jury a total of twenty two days to deliberate over their final decision. After which time, she was found guilty of seven counts of murder, and attempting to kill six others babies. In total, Letby denied twenty two offences. This sickening death toll makes her the worst female serial killer that Britain has ever seen.

6. She is the first female nurse in the UK to be convicted of murdering babies

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When you think of a nurse, you expect this person to be caring, nurturing and kind in nature. This profession has you on your feet for twelve hours per day, dedicating your time and energy caring for vulnerable people. So, it doesn't come as a surprise that before Lucy Letby, never in UK history has a nurse ever been convicted of murdering babies. She is the first and we pray that she will be the last.

7. The babies she killed were all born prematurely and were between 0 and 17 days old

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Each of the babies that Letby chose to attack were extremely vulnerable, relying entirely on others to keep them safe. Each infant was born premature, Letby attacked those that were only between zero and seventeen days old, taking complete advantage of her position of power in an unimaginably evil way.

8. Letby used saline solution to deliberately kill the babies

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Just how did Letby commit these horrific murders? She had a variety of methods. Letby used saline solution and lethal air injections. She was also seen deliberately overfeeding the babies with far too much milk. All of these actions were done with absolute intent to harm and kill these fragile newborns.

9. The defense argued that the babies died of natural causes or as a result of medical errors

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Chester Hospital, where Letby worked, the death rate in the neonatal unit was said to have similar statistics to any other hospital across the country. However, during the time that Letby worked here, there was an undeniable increase in deaths. Despite this, the defense still attempted to argue that the babies had died from natural causes or medical errors unrelated to Letby.

10. Letby's parents and upbringing appear normal

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Experts have struggled to find anything at all during Letby's life and upbringing that could have caused her to commit the sickeningly evil crimes that she did. It appears that she was raised in a normal family, with doting parents. In fact, her childhood has even been described as idyllic. Letby's parents have said that they are "devastated" by their daughter's crimes.

11. The case has raised questions about the safety of neonatal units in the UK

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Of course, the fact that these murders were able to go on for so long, and to have sadly taken so many lives, it has definitely raised questions surrounding the safety of babies on the neonatal wards in the UK. There have been calls to implement more stringent checks on nurses before they are able to work with newborns.

12. Her appeal is due to be heard in 2024

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It is extremely rare that an appeal following a whole life order is successful. However, Letby is said to have the right to appeal, which is believed to be heard in 2024. However, if her appeal is unsuccessful, she will spend the rest of her life in prison, without any possibility of release.

13. She is set to be held in HMP Low Newton, a high-security women's prison

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Letby will remain inside a small cell in HMP Low Newton. This prison is extremely high-security, and has been home to some of the most notorious and deadly female killers in recent UK history. In fact, this prison was once home to Rosemary West, who alongside her husband, tortured and murdered at least nine women between 1973 and 1987.

14. She is the only woman in the prison convicted of murdering babies

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Despite the fact that this prison is where a lot of the most severe female criminals in the UK end up, there is no other inmate inside who has been convicted of murdering babies. It's believed that around forty per cent of inmates here suffer with mental health problems.

15. She is kept in isolation for her own safety

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It's said that Letby will be kept isolated from the other prisoners to begin with, to protect her safety and prevent any suicide attempts. However, once she has completed mental and physical assessments, she is likely to be moved into her own cell and integrated with the other inmates. I can't imagine that she is going to have an easy ride here.

16. She has not spoken to the media since her conviction

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Since her conviction, Lucy Letby has not once spoken to anybody within the media. She has stayed completely silent, continually refusing to respond to any questions or engage in any public conversations at all relating to her conviction. Of course, this hasn't stopped her sickening evil crimes from being on the front page of every news outlet.

17. She refused to be present in court

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As another act of cowardice and evil, Letby refused to appear at her own sentencing in court on 21st August. She chose not to face the families of the victims, choosing not to hear their statements. One of the victims mothers said "you were waiting for us to leave so you could attack the one thing that gave us a reason to carry on in life." and wanted to let Letby know that her "family will never think of you again. From this day you are nothing."

18. Her case is one of the most high-profile cases of child murder in recent years.

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The horrific, truly evil crimes that Lucy Letby has committed will go down in history as one of the top ranking cases of child murder in recent years. This is because of the death toll, the ages and vulnerability of the infant victims and the sheer shock that somebody employed to care for them can commit these crimes.

19. Her confession was found on a post it note

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Despite pleading not guilty, police discovered a post-it note confession written by Letby, which was laid inside her child-like Boofle diary. The post it note is certainly chilling to read. It included manic scrawls which read "I AM EVIL I DID THIS." and "I killed them on purpose because I'm not good enough."

20. Psychologists believe she has symptoms of Munchausen's

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Of course, psychologists and experts have puzzled over this case and what could possibly have compelled Letby to do such horrific things. It is believed by some experts that Letby has symptoms of the psychological disorder Munchausen's. This is where a caregiver harms someone in their care for their own attention.

21. Her colleagues witnessed multiple accounts of unusual behavior from Letby

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Before it was discovered what Letby had been doing, she did raise concerns with her colleagues due to some extremely odd behavior. In one example, she told a colleague not to help her with an unwell child, wanting to deal with it on her own. She was known amongst the staff to always be in the center of any drama.

22. Boss, Tony Chambers, forced colleagues to apologise to Letby in 2017 after they raised concerns

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Tony Chambers, who at the time of Letby's employment was the hospital's chief executive, forced doctors to give Letby a written apology after they raised concerns about her behavior. They believed that Letby was linked to the rise in babies deaths, but this was dismissed by the hospital, after only completing external reviews unrelated to Letby's actions.

23. She helped the grieving parents make memorial boxes

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When the parents were grieving with unimaginable pain after losing their babies, Letby was there to pose as a supportive shoulder. She is said to have helped the parents to create memory boxes for their baby, despite being the reason that they had passed away in the first place.

24. Letby attempted to blame the plumbing in the hospital for the infants deaths

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During the trial, Letby denied all offences and tried to argue that the babies had been dying of other causes outside of her control. One cause that she used to divert the blame was the plumbing, claiming that dirty water was the reason. Another was that she had noticed other colleagues were not properly washing their hands.

25. Some babies survived multiple attacks before passing away

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Letby was relentless. Some of the babies survived multiple attacks from her before they eventually could not fight any longer. If a baby survived, Letby was said to return again and again to this same infant until she was satisfied. One baby girl is said to have survived four separate attacks from the monster.

26. Dr. Jayaram observed Letby standing over an infant whose breathing tube was dislodged

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A colleague, Dr. Jayaram, walked into the hospital room to discover Letby stood over a baby, simply watching their oxygen levels dropping without acting to save the child. The doctor of course stepped in, but the baby sadly passed away just three days later.

27. She was arrested 3 times on suspicion of involvement with the deaths.

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Letby's first arrest was in 2018, then it happened again in 2019, both times she was released due to lack of evidence to hold her. This gave the police more time to gather more evidence and build a stronger case. Then, on the third time in 2020, they were finally able to convict her.

28. She wrote sympathy cards for the victims parents

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In addition to the sympathy boxes, Letby took it upon herself to deliver sympathy cards to her victim's parents. One card read "there are no words to make this time any easier," and she stated that "It was a real privilege to care for [child] and get to know you as a family."

29. She is said to have shown little emotion during the trial, until a relationship was a colleague was mentioned

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During the trial, Letby is said to have shown very limited emotion throughout. However, once her relationship with a certain doctor was mentioned, there was an obvious shift in Letby. One professional stated that there were evident pangs of longing for the doctor. Some believe that the crimes were committed solely to get the attention from him that she craved.

30. Cried only for herself

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Another topic that sparked emotion in Letby was herself and her own feelings. When she was questioned about her suicidal thoughts, she began to cry. She was called out on this, highlighting to her that she cried only for herself, never when discussing the children who are dead and seriously injured because of her.