A NURSE has been found guilty of murdering seven babies and attempting to kill others after she became a "constant malevolent presence" on the ward.
Lucy Letby, 33, used insulin and air to inject newborns in a year-long killing spree while working on the neo-natal ward at the Countess of Chester Hospital.
The collapses and deaths of 13 children were not "naturally-occurring tragedies" but instead the work of "poisoner" Letby.
Letby has now been convicted of seven counts of murder and attempting to murder a further six babies following a nine-month trial and 22 days of jury deliberation over 110 hours.
It comes as…
- Police are probing whether 'beige' Letby was behind any other hospital attacks
- The parents of twins poisoned by the nurse say no sentence will ever be enough
- Footage shows the moment Letby was led away from her home by police
- She can also be seen lying to police while being grilled after her arrest
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She denied 22 offences in total and was accused of murdering seven babies and attempting to kill ten others.
Jurors failed to reach verdicts on six remaining counts of attempted murder, with the prosecutor asking for 28 days to consider if there will be a retrial.
The monster's sickening death toll makes her the UK's most prolific killer nurse and Britain's worst-ever female serial killer.
During a mammoth trial, jurors were told some of the newborns were repeatedly targeted by the nurse – including one baby Letby is alleged to have killed after three previous failed attempts.
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Her reign of terror was finally uncovered after staff grew suspicious of the "significant rise" in the number of babies dying or suffering "catastrophic" collapses.
Letby was found to be the "common denominator" among the deaths and collapses.
Police searched her three-bedroom home in Chester on July 3, 2018, after she was arrested and discovered a chilling cache of evidence.
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".
Other notes were declarations of love for a doctor colleague, who cannot be identified, that she repeatedly confided in as her death toll rose.
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."
She also wrote "I loved you", adding: "I wanted you to stand by me but you didn't."
Between 2015 and 2016, two babies on the neo-natal unit were "deliberately" poisoned with insulin, which was "no accident".
Some of the other babies were killed or harmed when air or milk was injected into their bloodstream or via a tube in their stomachs.
In some cases, Letby allegedly took up to three attempts before she managed to kill some of her victims.
Women who kill – how Letby became the UK’s worst female serial killer
LUCY Letby’s horrific murder spree has gained her the grisly moniker of Britain’s most prolific female serial killer
Here's how the nurse's death toll of seven babies ranks among other sadistic women who kill.
Rose West
Along with husband Fred West, Rose abducted, tortured and raped her victims before burying them at their house of horrors in Gloucester.
She was convicted of ten murders, including stepdaughter Charmaine, eight, and daughter Heather, 16.
Myra Hindley
Branded the "most evil woman in Britain", Hindley teamed up with monster Ian Brady to kill five children in the 1960s.
The twisted couple buried their victims on Saddleworth Moor but never revealed the location of 12-year-old Keith Bennett.
Hindley died in jail in 2002 after spending 36 years behind bars.
Beverley Allitt
Like fellow nurse Letby, Allitt embarked on a gruesome, 59-day killing spree.
The nurse murdered four children and grievously injured many others while at Grantham and Kesteven Hospital.
She was handed 13 life sentences in 1993 and is now languishing at Rampton Secure Hospital in Nottinghamshire.
Joanna Dennehy
Known as the Peterborough Ditch Murders, the monster killed three men over a ten-day period before dumping their bodies.
While on the run from police, Dennehy taunted police by attempting to kill two others.
She smirked as she was one of two women, the other being Rose West, to ever be handed a whole life tariff – meaning she will die behind bars.
One mum told the jury: “I could hear my son crying, and it was like nothing I’d heard before.
"It was more a scream than a cry – a sound that shouldn’t come from a tiny baby. It was horrendous.”
She also murdered another child, one of triplets, by injecting him with a lethal dose of air and inflicting trauma to his liver.
The nurse had returned to work that day after a week's holiday to Ibiza with two friends.
Letby messaged a colleague saying she would "probably be back in with a bang lol".
The nurse, who had special training in caring for ICU babies, showed 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.
Premature baby girl – Child I – was born weighing just 2lbs 2oz.
After her death, the baby's mum told how Letby was "smiling and kept going on about how she was present at Child I's first bath and how much Child I had loved it", it was said.
She also photographed a thank you card from the parents of two of her alleged victims as "something to remember".
And she searched the name of the twins' mum on Facebook nine times between Child E's death and January 2016.
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.
Described as "beige" by police, there was nothing spectacular about the nurse that suggested at first she could be behind the killings.
But post-January 2015, the number of baby deaths and catastrophic collapses at the hospital significantly rose and links started to become clear.
Consultants grew concerned when they realised the children who died had "deteriorated unexpectedly".
The babies who collapsed also did not respond to appropriate and timely resuscitation.
Prosecutor Nick Johnson KC said some of the babies "who did not die collapsed dramatically but then – equally dramatically – recovered".
This "defied the normal experience of treating doctors", jurors were told.
The prosecutor continued: "Babies who had not been unstable at all suddenly deteriorated. Sometimes a baby who had been sick but then been on the mend suddenly deteriorated for no apparent reason.
"Having searched for a cause, which they were unable to find, the consultants noticed that the inexplicable collapses and deaths did have one common denominator.
"The presence of one of the neo-natal nurses and that nurse was Lucy Letby."
Mr Johnson branded Letby "devious" as she sought to distance herself from the high death rates.
The prosecutor said she"gaslighted" colleagues to persuade them that a rise in baby collapses was "just a run of bad luck".
Jurors were also told she was "in effect playing God" by targeting the newborns.
But her lawyer claimed Letby would have needed to be like "Nostradamus" to be able to predict when a baby could be poisoned.
Ben Myers KC said the case against her was built with a "presumption of guilt" based on a "series of Russian dolls of improbability".
He also accused the prosecution of characterising Letby as "manipulative and calculated" in a way that "serves their case".
But jurors dismissed his arguments as they today convicted Letby on a string of charges.
The conviction has cemented her as the worst killer nurse in the UK – surpassing Beverley Allitt, who murdered four children and attempted to kill three others.
Chillingly, police fear Letby could be behind more attacks in other hospitals where she worked.
Det Supt Paul Hughes confirmed Cheshire Police are looking into "some events" from Liverpool Women's Hospital, where Letby was on placement in 2012 and 2015.
He said: "We obviously are committed to a thorough investigation across the entire footprint that Letby has been employed at the Countess of Chester Hospital and on placements at the Liverpool Women’s Hospital and as you would expect us to do conduct a thorough investigation.
"We will give an update on that particular part of the investigation when we can. The investigation needs to go on."
The charges Letby was convicted on in full
Child A, allegation of murder. The Crown said Letby injected air intravenously into the bloodstream of the baby boy. COUNT 1 GUILTY.
Child B, allegation of attempted murder. The Crown said Letby attempted to murder the baby girl, the twin sister of Child A, by injecting air into her bloodstream. COUNT 2 GUILTY.
Child C, allegation of murder. Prosecutors said Letby forced air down a feeding tube and into the stomach of the baby boy. COUNT 3 GUILTY.
Child D, allegation of murder. The Crown said air was injected intravenously into the baby girl. COUNT 4 GUILTY.
Child E, allegation of murder. The Crown said Letby murdered the twin baby boy with an injection of air into the bloodstream and also deliberately caused bleeding to the infant. COUNT 5 GUILTY.
Child F, allegation of attempted murder. Letby was said by prosecutors to have poisoned the twin brother of Child E with insulin. COUNT 6 GUILTY.
Child G, three allegations of attempted murder. The Crown said Letby targeted the baby girl by overfeeding her with milk and pushing air down her feeding tube. COUNT 7 GUILTY, COUNT 8 GUILTY, COUNT 9 NOT GUILTY.
Child H, two allegations of attempted murder. Prosecutors said Letby sabotaged the care of the baby girl in some way which led to two profound oxygen desaturations. COUNT 10 NOT GUILTY, COUNT 11 JURY COULD NOT REACH VERDICT.
Child I, allegation of murder. The prosecution said Letby killed the baby girl at the fourth attempt and had given her air and overfed her with milk. COUNT 12 GUILTY.
Child J, allegation of attempted murder. No specific form of harm was identified by the prosecution but they said Letby did something to cause the collapse of the baby girl. COUNT 13 JURY COULD NOT REACH VERDICT.
Child K, allegation of attempted murder. The prosecution said Letby compromised the baby girl as she deliberately dislodged a breathing tube. COUNT 14 JURY COULD NOT REACH VERDICT.
Child L, allegation of attempted murder. The Crown said the nurse poisoned the twin baby boy with insulin. COUNT 15 GUILTY.
Child M, allegation of attempted murder. Prosecutors said Letby injected air into the bloodstream of Child L's twin brother. COUNT 16 GUILTY.
Child N, three allegations of attempted murder. The Crown said Letby inflicted trauma in the baby boy's throat and also injected him with air in the bloodstream. COUNT 17 GUILTY, COUNT 18 JURY COULD NOT REACH VERDICT, COUNT 19 JURY COULD NOT REACH VERDICT.
Child O, allegation of murder. Prosecutors say Letby attacked the triplet boy by injecting him with air, overfeeding him with milk and inflicting trauma to his liver with "severe force". COUNT 20 GUILTY.
Child P, allegation of murder. Prosecutors said the nurse targeted the triplet brother of Child O by overfeeding him with milk, injecting air and dislodging his breathing tube. COUNT 21 GUILTY.
Child Q, allegation of attempted murder. The Crown said Letby injected the baby boy with liquid, and possibly air, down his feeding tube. COUNT 22 JURY COULD NOT REACH VERDICT.
A court order prohibits identifying the surviving and deceased children and prohibits identifying parents or witnesses connected with the babies.
CPS reviewing lawyer Pascale Jones said: "Lucy Letby was entrusted to protect some of the most vulnerable babies. Little did those working alongside her know that there was a murderer in their midst.
"She did her utmost to conceal her crimes, by varying the ways in which she repeatedly harmed babies in her care.
"She sought to deceive her colleagues and pass off the harm she caused as nothing more than a worsening of each baby's existing vulnerability.
"In her hands, innocuous substances like air, milk, fluids – or medication like insulin – would become lethal. She perverted her learning and weaponised her craft to inflict harm, grief and death.
"Time and again, she harmed babies, in an environment which should have been safe for them and their families."
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Letby will be sentenced at a later date.
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