From a passionate nurse to becoming the most prolific child serial killer in British history. Lucy Letby has been given a life sentence for murdering seven babies on neonatal unit.
Growing up, Lucy Letby had always wanted to become a nurse. She worked as a neonatal nurse at Countess of Chester Hospital in Cheshire.
She was the hospital’s poster girl and was once described as a “champion for children”.
She switch from this to being a “goofy” pole-dancing nurse, and becoming the most prolific serial child killer in British history.
The government have announced an independent inquiry, which will see cops look into at least 4,000 babies Letby cared for.
One motivation put forward by the prosecution was that Letby attacked and killed babies in her care to gain the sympathy of a doctor who she had become “infatuated” with. It was alleged she wanted to make herself the centre of his attention and focus.
The sick and twisted 33-year-old was found guilty of murdering seven babies on August 18, 2023 and on the 21st, she was jailed for life. Below is everything to know about her.
Who is Lucy Letby?
Lucy Letby is a former Neonatal nurse. She had special training in caring for ICU babies.
She grew up in a quiet cul-de-sac in the picturesque cathedral city of Hereford, close to the England-Wales border.
Lucy was accused of murdering seven babies and trying to kill ten more at the Countess of Chester Hospital in Cheshire between June 2015 and June 2016.
The nurse lived a three-bed semi, paying £180,000 for it, in 2016 during her year-long killing spree.
It gave her easy access to the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital — and, on some occasions, she admitted turning up to visit babies and see colleagues even when not on shift.
But when she moved in, she had already murdered five babies and tried to kill eight more.
Just days after, she attempted to murder day-old twin boys.
In November 2020 the nursing regulator temporarily suspended her registration. The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) has confirmed it will seek to remove Lucy Letby from its register permanently.
Letby was passionate about becoming a nurse and went to school to pursue her dream career.
She attended a local comprehensive school before moving on to study at Hereford Sixth Form College, where former pals described her as one of the “geeky girls” who was part of a self-styled group known as the “miss-match family”.
Always dreaming of becoming a nurse and the first in her family to go to university, she went on to study at Chester 100 miles away, where pals said she was always first home on a night out.
One fellow student remembered Letby as part of a group who “weren’t girly girls who always partied, but were all very focused on their studies and loved it”.
They described the Ellie Goulding fan as awkward and geeky but “kind-hearted”.
One said: “She was very bright. She was really sweet, kind and friendly and always part of the quiet bunch.
“I was so shocked when she was arrested because it’s not like her.
“She loved her job, and when she and her friends were in uni they all worked so hard and were all driven and excited.”
Letby graduated with a BSc Hons in child nursing in 2011 and went on to buy a £180,000 three-bedroom semi in Blacon, Chester, a mile from the hospital she worked at.
She lived alone with her two cats Smudge and Tigger, and neighbours recalled how she lived there quietly.
Letby started working at the hospital in January 2012 as a Band Five nurse and went on to earn around £32,000 a year after being promoted to Band Six.
In a 2013 interview with a local paper, she was pictured holding a babygrow as she proudly beamed: “I have been working on the unit since graduating.
“I also worked on the unit as a student nurse during my three years of training. My role involves caring for a wide range of babies requiring various levels of support. Some are here for a few days, others for months and I enjoy seeing them progress and supporting their families.”
Letby, who cared for hundreds of babies, helped with a fundraising campaign for a new £3million baby unit and colleagues described her as a “champion for children”.
She was also undergoing intensive care training and had completed two placements at Liverpool Women’s Hospital in 2012 and 2015.
Reflecting her passion for the job, she “liked” Channel 4 maternity unit show One Born Every Minute on Facebook and was a member of 14 groups aimed at helping sick kids.
She told one colleague she enjoyed watching BBC2 series An Hour To Save Your Life, about a neonatal unit, adding: “I just find it interesting to see how our work is portrayed to the public.”
After her 2011 graduation, her mum and dad — who stoically attended almost every day of the ten-month trial — put an announcement in a local paper.
It said: “We are so proud of you after all your hard work. Love Mum and Dad.”
Two years later, Letby was pictured smiling and holding up a baby garment in the hospital’s internal newsletter.
Speaking about her job in the neonatal unit, echoing her newspaper comments, she again said: “My role involves caring for a wide range of babies . . . I enjoy seeing them progress and supporting their families.”
Who are Lucy Letby’s parents?
Lucy Letby was born on 4 January 1990, to parents John Letby, 78, and Susan Letby, 63. Her father was a furniture salesman and her mother worked as an accounts clerk.
Her mother and father have been married for decades and ares still alive and together.
Does Lucy Letby have any siblings? The British former nurse is the only child of her parents and has no brother or sister.
She stayed with her parents from childhood until she moved to live in Chester on her own throughout her university days.
Despite living and working away from home, Letby remained close with her parents, who kept her room for her to come back to.
Following her arrest, the property was searched by police.
Her trial heard she had a “mini-meltdown” following the deaths of three babies and messaged a colleague in June 2015: “I just need some time with Mum and Dad.”
And after another baby suffered a collapse, she messaged a colleague who was moving to New Zealand.
Letby wrote: “Not brave enough to up and leave. I couldn’t leave my parents. They would be completely devastated. Find it hard enough being away from me now and it’s only 100 miles.”
Her colleague asked: “Where they based?”
Letby responded: “Hereford. I came here to uni and didn’t go back. They hate it and I feel very guilty for staying here sometimes.”
Her parents would visit Torquay three times a year and their daughter would regularly join them.
Is Lucy Letby married and who is her husband?
Lucy Letby has never been married in her life and hence she has no husband. During the period she began her killing-spree, Lucy did not have a boyfriend. However she is believed to have previously dated a male nurse, who is now married with children.
She reportedly developed an obssesion with a doctor and killed to seek his attention.
The court heard how Letby had a fixation with a male colleague which led her on the sinister path of “attention-seeking”.
One note found in her belongings said: “I loved you. I wanted you to stand by me but you didn’t.”
It was this married doctor who became her “best friend” while she was murdering babies that caused the only sign of emotion in the calculating nurse.
The medic broke down in court as her “sweetie” gave evidence against her and attempted to leave the dock.
In texts exchanged between the pair, he told her she was “one of a few nurses I would trust with my own children”.
Does Lucy Letby have any children? The murder nurse was not yet a mother and hence has no kids of her own. Throughout her year-long killing spree period, she had no plans to make babies and to start a family, per some of her several handwritten notes presented to the jurors. “I will never have children or marry. I will never know what it’s like to have a family,” one of her notes read.
She loved partying and was a pole dancing girl
Jurors heard she enjoyed hobbies outside of work while targeting helpless babies.
Letby was in a pub quiz team and, hours after attempting to kill one baby by adding insulin to the infant’s intravenous feed bag, she went dancing.
She messaged a pal, cheerfully asking: “Are you going to salsa tonight?”
She also enjoyed a flutter on horse racing and celebrated a £135 win on the Grand National at the same time she was trying to murder twin baby boys.
She messaged her friends, saying: “Work has been s**** but I have just won £135 on Grand National!!!”
Described as “goofy” and “fun-loving” by friends, the monster nurse was pictured partying throughout her killing spree as she hid her dark truth.
Snaps of her downing drinks, pole dancing and donning fancy dress with a beaming smile distracted those closest to her from her twisted mind.
She even took a trip to the Spanish party island of Ibiza during the killing.
On the day she returned to work following the holiday with her pals, she murdered one triplet by injecting him with a lethal dose of air – inflicting trauma to his liver
She got back into her routine of committing heinous crimes instantly and even messaged a colleague saying she would “probably be back in [work] with a bang lol”.
Letby was even captured smiling on a hen do just hours before murdering her first baby victim.
How was Lucy Letby caught and arrested?
There was no obvious cause for the deaths, so Consultant paediatrician Dr Stephen Brearey called a meeting with Alison Kelly, the hospital’s head of nursing, and Eirian Powell, the manager of the neonatal unit, on 2 July. There had been only one nurse on duty for each of the four unexplained incidents, the meeting was told. Her name was Lucy Letby.
Brearey tried to raise concerns with hospital executives about nurse Lucy Letby as the nurse, from Hereford’s colleagues had suspicions about Letby over a year before hospital bosses contacted the police.
Letby was arrested on July 3, 2018, when her house was first raided by police on suspicion of murdering eight babies and trying to kill six more. Police searched her three-bedroom semi-detached house, just over a mile away from the hospital to find disturbing handwritten confessions.
A loud knock at the door was heard at 6am before officers filed in, telling the nurse she was being arrested on suspicion of multiple counts of murder and attempted murder.
In a chilling footage, an officer can be seen knocking on her front door before Letby, wearing a blue jumper, answers the door looking stunned.
She was taken to a police station in handcuffs.
Detective Chief Inspector Nicola Evans, of Cheshire Police, oversaw the team who interviewed Letby on three occasions.
She described the nurse’s character as “beige”, adding: “There isn’t anything kind of outstanding or outrageous that we found about her as a person.
“She was a normal 20-something- year-old doing what she was doing — her career and with her friends. But clearly, there was another side that nobody saw, and we have unravelled that.”
Letby was arrested a second time in June 2019 and again in November 2020 when she was finally charged.
Following her arrest, she sold her home for £201,000 in December 2019 and returned to live with her parents in Hereford.
Lucy Letby’s confession notes about her killings
Images of her house shown in court showed her messy bedroom with a Sweet Dreams bedspread featuring cuddly toys, including a Winnie-the-Pooh bear.
Police found damning evidence at Letby’s £180,000 semi-detached Chester home when they were called to investigate back in 2017.
The nurse had scribbled haunting notes in diaries and on Post-It notes, including one that read: “I am evil I did this”.
The note added: “I don’t deserve to live. I killed them on purpose because I’m not good enough to care for them.
“I am a horrible person. I hate myself. There are no words. I am an awful person. I pay every day for that.”
Others read: “I panic I’ll never have children. I don’t deserve mum and dad. The world is better off without me. I did this, why me.”
A note found in a black bin bag in her garage read: “No one will ever know what happened and why . . . I’m a failure.”
Letby had also written: “I am a problem to those who do know me . . . it would be much better for everyone if I just went away. I just want to be happy.”
There were also some that bore the messages “Kill me” and “Help me” along with the names of some the babies she murdered.
In one, Letby scrawled: “I can’t do this anymore. I can’t live like this. No one will ever understand or appreciate what’s like.”
What Lucy Letby’s victims’ families said
She had an “unusual interest” in searching for her victims’ families on social media.
She also sent a sympathy card to a mum of a baby she allegedly murdered on the fourth attempt as she attempted to craft twisted relationships with her victims’ parents.
She also photographed a thank you card from the parents of two of her alleged victims as “something to remember”.
She said it was a “normal pattern of behaviour” for her to look for the parents of babies she had treated more than once on Facebook.
Away from the “cover of trust” she hid beneath was a cold-hearted killer who showed “no emotion” towards the tragic babies.
A court order prohibits identifying the surviving and deceased children and prohibits identifying parents or witnesses connected with the babies.
The families of some of her victims comforted each other in court as the verdict was read out.
Speaking after the case, the families of Letby’s victims said her conviction does not take away the “extreme hurt, anger and distress” they have suffered.
They added: “Words cannot effectively explain how we are feeling at this moment in time. We are quite simply stunned.
“To lose a baby is a heartbreaking experience that no parent should ever have to go through, but to lose a baby or to have a baby harmed in these particular circumstances is unimaginable. Over the past seven to eight years we have had to go through a long, torturous and emotional journey.
“From losing our precious newborns and grieving their loss, seeing our children who survived, some of whom are still suffering today, to being told years later that their death or collapse might be suspicious, nothing can prepare you for that news.”
Where is Lucy Letby now?
Evil Lucy Letby will die in jail after receiving a whole life sentence on Monday, August 21, 2023, for ‘cruel and calculated’ murder of 7 babies.
She refused to enter court for her sentencing in a “final act of wickedness from a coward.”
Previously, Letby was remanded in custody after her third arrest in November 2020 and was locked up ever since, spending a total of 1,012 days in four different prisons.
Neonatal nurse Letby was found guilty of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder six other infants, with the verdicts made public on Friday, August 18, 2023.