A Manchester court has sentenced an ex-nurse to life imprisonment for seven counts of murdering a baby and other attempted murders. She herself stayed away from the appointment. Critics claim that this will no longer be possible in the future.
A former baby nurse has been sentenced to life imprisonment in the UK for seven counts of murdering babies. The sentence also included six counts of attempted murder. “You will spend the rest of your life in prison,” said Judge James Goss in Manchester. The 33-year-old acted “cruelly, calculatingly and cynically” when she attacked the newborns.
The case is considered the deadliest series of baby murders in recent British history. According to prosecutors, the woman committed the murders between June 2015 and 2016 at a neonatal unit in north-west England. “Some of your victims were only a day or a few days old,” Goss said. She proceeded in such a way that her actions were difficult to discover and persuaded her colleagues that the deaths and emergencies were normal, it said.
Letby overfed a child with milk 13 minutes after she killed his triplet brother. She injected other children with air or insulin. As the Guardian newspaper wrote, the woman could have tried to kill babies in dozens of other cases. It is unclear why it was not stopped earlier. The clinic management is said to have ignored or even brusquely rejected advice from colleagues or superiors. The government ordered an investigation.
“Ultimately she wanted to play God”
The former caregiver denies her guilt. Prosecutor Nicholas Johnson put forward several theories as to the motive. “Ultimately, she wanted to play God,” he said of a case in which she reportedly spoke to a colleague about the impending death of a baby. “She enjoyed what was happening and happily predicted something that she knew was going to happen,” Johnson said.
She is now the fourth woman to be sentenced to life imprisonment in Britain, known as the Whole Life Order, and faces imprisonment until her death. She stayed away from her judgment, the dock was empty. The mother of two victims criticized this behavior as “the last act of wickedness of a coward”.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak also spoke of cowardice. He wants criminals to be required by law to attend their sentencing in person. Lawyers for those affected also called for the law to be changed.