Last Updated: September 24, 2023, 07:05 IST
London, United Kingdom (UK)
Lucy Letby, the infant serial killer, was sentenced to life in prison for murdering seven newborns and attempting to kill six others. (Image: AFP)
British nurse Lucy Letby used hard-to-detect methods in her baby-killing spree, including tube displacement and insulin poisoning, says expert witness
The infamous killer nurse from the UK experimented with various medical techniques to hurt tots, according to a new report by the British media. Lucy Letby, 33 was convicted last month of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder six more, making her only the third woman alive in the country to be handed a whole-life jail term.
The chief medical expert at her trial said he believes that Britain’s worst child killer used several different techniques throughout her five-year career, some of which were almost impossible to detect. Letby, who was convicted of killing seven babies and attempting to murder six more at the Countess of Chester Hospital in 2015 and 2016, used hard-to-detect methods, including displacing tubes and injecting air into her victims.
UK pediatrician Dr. Dewi Evans told the Sunday Telegraph he believed that before June 8, 2015, when Letby murdered her first known victim, Baby A, the neonatal nurse’s preferred method was to remove or displace breathing tubes. “For so many breathing tubes to come out, and they can come out accidentally, but for so many to come out over such a short period in what I consider to be a good neonatal department, that is very concerning. “That method is extremely hard to detect, and prove. She changed her modus operandi over time.”
In 2018, Dr. Evans was tasked with reviewing the records of 48 babies unrelated to the trial after Letby’s initial arrest. Among these cases, he identified concerns in 18 cases, including cases from 2014 where tubes were displaced. However, none of these infants suffered long-term harm or death, except for one case involving insulin poisoning.
Dr. Evans expressed concern that there might be more instances of insulin poisoning that went undetected if medical professionals didn’t measure insulin levels after a child’s death. Given the vulnerability of these infants and the complexity of detection, such actions can go unnoticed when babies are left unattended, he said.
Two weeks before Letby murdered Baby A, she underwent a training course that authorised her to administer medicine through special cannulas. During this training, the risks associated with air embolism were emphasised. According to Dr. Evans, it was after this course that Letby began injecting air into her victims, leading to a significant rise in the number of deaths on the unit. “As far as I am aware, there were no air embolism deaths before she went on that course. It was after she discovered that method, the deaths increased,” Dr. Evans said.
