LONDON
\nA British nurse who described herself as a \u201chorrible evil person\u201d was found guilty on Friday of murdering seven newborn babies and trying to kill another six in the neonatal unit of a hospital in northwest England where she worked.
\nLucy Letby, 33, was convicted of killing five baby boys and two baby girls at the Countess of Chester hospital and attacking other newborns, often while working night shifts, in 2015 and 2016.
\nThe verdict, following a harrowing 10-month trial at Manchester Crown Court, makes Letby Britain\u2019s most prolific serial child killer in modern history, local media said.
\nShe was found not guilty of two attempted murders while the jury, who spent 110 hours deliberating, were unable to agree on six other suspected attacks.
\n\u201cWe are heartbroken, devastated, angry and feel numb, we may never truly know why this happened,\u201d the families of Letby\u2019s victims said in a statement.
\nProsecutors told the jury Letby poisoned some of her infant victims by injecting them with insulin, while others were injected with air or force fed milk, sometimes involving multiple attacks before they died.
\n\u201cI killed them on purpose because I\u2019m not good enough to care for them,\u201d said a handwritten note found by police officers who searched her home after she was arrested. \u201cI am a horrible evil person,\u201d she wrote. \u201cI AM EVIL I DID THIS\u201d.
\nSome of those she attacked were twins – in one case she murdered both siblings, in two instances she killed one but failed in her attempts to murder the other.
\nThe youngest victim was just one-day old.
\nLetby will be sentenced on Monday and faces a lengthy prison term, possibly a rare full life sentence.
\nHer actions came to light when senior doctors became concerned at the number of unexplained deaths and collapses at the neonatal unit, where premature or sick babies are treated, over 18 months from January 2015.
\nWith doctors unable to find a medical reason, police were called in. After a lengthy investigation, Letby, who had been involved in the care of the babies, was pinpointed as the \u201cconstant malevolent presence when things took a turn for the worse\u201d, said prosecutor Nick Johnson.
\nPictures of Letby on social media portrayed a happy and smiling woman with a busy social life, and in one photo she was seen cradling a baby. But, during months of often distressing evidence, her trial heard she was a determined killer.
\nThe jury was told how Letby had tried on four occasions to murder one baby girl before she finally succeeded. When another of the victim\u2019s mothers walked in on her attacking twin babies, she said: \u201cTrust me, I\u2019m a nurse\u201d.
\nAt her home after her arrest, detectives found paperwork and medical notes with references to the children involved in the case. She had also carried out social media searches for the parents and families of the murdered babies.
\nLetby wept when she gave evidence over 14 days, saying she had never tried to hurt the babies and had only ever wanted to care for them, blaming unsafe staffing levels on the ward and its dirty conditions.
\nShe also claimed four doctors had conspired to pin the blame on her for the unit\u2019s failings and had written the \u201cI am evil\u201d message because she had felt overwhelmed.
\nBut the prosecution said she was a cold, cruel, calculating liar who had repeatedly changed her account of events and her notes should be treated as a confession.
\nDetectives said they had found nothing unusual about Letby\u2019s life and could not determine any motive. \u201cUnfortunately, I don\u2019t think we\u2019ll ever know unless she just chooses to tell us,\u201d said Detective Superintendent Paul Hughes who led the investigation.
\nOne senior doctor at the neonatal unit, Stephen Brearey, told the BBC that hospital bosses had failed to investigate allegations against Letby and failed to act on his and his colleagues\u2019 concerns.
\n\u201cOur staff are devastated by what has happened, and we are committed to ensuring that lessons continue to be learned,\u201d said Nigel Scawn, medical director at Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.
\nThe government said it had ordered an independent inquiry which would include how concerns raised by clinicians were dealt with, while the father of twins who survived her attempts to kill them demanded answers from the hospital.
\n\u201cThey could have stopped it,\u201d said the father, who cannot be named for legal reasons.
\nPolice are carrying out further investigations into all the time Letby had worked as a nurse at the hospital and at another one in Liverpool where she had trained, to identify if there were any more victims.
\n\u201cThere is a number of cases that are active investigations that parents have been informed of,\u201d Hughes said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LONDON A British nurse who described herself as a \u201chorrible evil person\u201d was found guilty on Friday of murdering seven newborn babies and trying to kill another six in the neonatal unit of a hospital in northwest England where she worked. Lucy Letby, 33, was convicted of killing five baby boys and two baby girls […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":350441,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-350424","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n