Why Did Lucy Letby, A UK Nurse, Murder Babies? Investigators List Motives

The reasons behind Lucy Letby's actions may never be fully explained, but the jurors were given several possible motives by the prosecution.

Lucy Letby's youngest victim was just one-day old.

London: The conviction of nurse Lucy Letby on Friday for the death of seven newborns and the attempted murder of six more makes her one of the deadliest medical serial murderers in the UK. The newest victim of hers was just one day old.

The 33-year-old's motivations may never be completely revealed, but the prosecution provided the jury with a number of potential explanations over the 10-month trial.

Two triplet boys who were identified as infants O and P in court were Lucy Letby's last victims. In June 2016, just after Letby returned from a vacation in Ibiza, kid O passed away, and child P passed away one day later.

Prosecutors said at the trial that Letby was "completely out of control" at that point and "in effect playing God."

The prosecutor claimed she "played God" by injuring a baby and then being the first to inform her coworkers of the child's failing health.

She had the upper hand. She was content with the situation. She was making predictions about events that she knew were inevitable. She was essentially acting as God, a prosecutor claimed.

She Enjoyed Hurting The Babies

Letby was twice detained before being let go. She was accused and detained after her third arrest of 2020.

Police discovered hospital records and a handwritten note on which Letby had written: "I am evil, I did this." when searching her home.

The prosecution said during the trial that Letby was enjoying the sadness and hopelessness in the room.

She Wanted The Attention Of An Anonymous Doctor

Letby was allegedly having a covert connection with a married doctor at the Countess of Chester Hospital, according to the prosecution.

It was believed to be a critical component of their connection that he be one of the doctors called when infants started to rapidly deteriorate.Letby refuted the suggestion that she damaged them in order to get his "personal attention."

The court was given texts that showed the couple frequently texted, exchanging love heart emojis, and met up outside of work even after Letby was discharged from the neonatal ward in July 2016.

She Wasn't 'Good Enough

The letters that Lucy Letby wrote for the jury members included one that read, "I killed them on purpose because I'm not good enough to care for them.She also wrote, "I will never marry or have children.I'll never understand what it means to have a family.

Boredom

Since Lucy Letby was a band 5 nurse, she possessed the knowledge and experience necessary to care for the newborn unit's sickest infants. She admitted throughout the trial that she occasionally found her work less fascinating when she was given newborns who didn't require as much medical care.

Extracts from the 2016 Diary of nurse Lucy Letby

The prosecution provided proof that Letby attacked infants using a variety of techniques, including injecting air and insulin into their bloodstreams, injecting air into their gastrointestinal tracts, forcing them to consume excessive amounts of milk or fluids, and inflicting impact-type trauma.

The jury was informed that she wanted to murder the infants while duping her coworkers into thinking there was a natural cause.

Lucy Letby tried to mislead her coworkers by claiming that the harm she inflicted was only an increase in each baby's vulnerability. She had the ability to turn harmless items like air, milk, liquids, or medications like insulin into deadly ones. She weaponized her art and misused her education to cause hurt, grief, and death, according to Pascale Jones of the CPS.

She repeatedly injured infants in settings that ought to have been secure for them and their families. She completely betrayed the faith that had been placed in her, he added, with her attacks.