Nurse Working Naotal Unit Tries to Kill Her Own Baby, History of Killing
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| The Guardian |
I understand as do you I'm sure why being accused is not a conviction in most cases. I don't think all because if you shoot somebody live in cold blood, chances are you did it, and for the reason that we know justice always travels slowly and behind the acts or accusations I said that.
But the following I don't understand in what we call a civilized nation in the West. If it was Russia, we know justice is not there, but Britain?:
[By this time she had murdered five babies and attempted to murder three others. Senior doctors had linked her to several unexplained incidents. Still, she remained in the neonatal unit for a further five months, going on to kill two triplet brothers by injecting air into their stomachs.]
My question is simple, how do we let a woman like that continue to work with the newborn babies in the neonatal unit?
Please fire whoever is responsible for her being with the babies! These acts should not occur but they do and the perps get away with it most of the time. Just luck if you would like to call it that saved this little baby. The mother did not want him when she got pregnant, why not an abortion? IM just throwing that curve in there to make it more interesting. But I do hope we have a human being in this baby that would savor his life and others because he was saved from not seeing this world which might not be much but is an experience for living here we must endure and try to make as good as possible showing that we have the compassion to others less fortunate or at least "Do no harm". We are born with a mom in pain and we go back many times with us being in pain. But being out of our hands we should accomplish those things that are on our hands.
The Guardian posting:
Lucy Letby has been found guilty of trying to kill a two-hour-old baby girl in the hospital ward where she murdered seven other infants.
The “cold-blooded, calculated killer”, who is serving 14 whole-life prison terms, was convicted on Tuesday of attempting to murder the “extremely premature” infant after a retrial at Manchester crown court.
Court artist’s drawing of prosecutor cross-examining Lucy Letby
A scrum of spectators and an elephant in the room during Lucy Letby's retrial
The infant, known as Baby K, was born 15 weeks premature and weighed only 692g (1.52lbs) when the former neonatal nurse was alleged to have tampered with her breathing tube, causing a “life-threatening” deterioration.
The newborn died three days later. Letby was initially charged with her murder but prosecutors later decided there was insufficient evidence.
Letby faced a three-week retrial on the single count of attempted murder, which she denied after the jury in her original trial was unable to reach a verdict last year.
Baby K’s parents sobbed and held their heads in their hands as the jury’s unanimous verdict was delivered after three-and-a-half hours of deliberation.
In a statement on behalf of the family outside court, DI Andrea Price, of Cheshire constabulary, said they were “heartbroken, devastated, angry and feel numb”.
They added: “To lose a baby is a heartbreaking experience that no parent should ever go through but to lose a baby and then learn of the harm that was inflicted in these circumstances is unimaginable.
“Over the past seven to eight years we have had to go through a long, torturous, and emotional journey twice from losing our precious newborn and grieving her loss to being told years later that her death or collapse might be suspicious. Nothing prepares you for that news.
“Today, justice has been served and a nurse who should have been caring for our daughter has been found guilty of harming her but this justice will not take away the extreme hurt, anger, and distress that we have all had to experience.”
The family said they were left with the pain of potentially never knowing why Letby attempted to murder their daughter.
Letby, 34, from Hereford, stared straight ahead and gave no reaction as she was told she would be sentenced on Friday.
She has now been convicted of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder seven others at the Countess of Chester hospital between June 2015 and June 2016.
There are continuing police investigations and a public inquiry into how Letby was allowed to remain in the neonatal unit despite the concerns of senior doctors.
Letby, who has consistently maintained her innocence, was refused permission to appeal against last year’s convictions by the court of appeal in May.
In a 59-page ruling published on Tuesday, the court of appeal said none of Letby’s legal challenges had been arguable and that she had not met the criteria for admitting new evidence.
The nurse’s latest trial centered on Baby K, who was born at the Countess of Chester hospital in the early hours of 17 February 2016.
Prosecutors said Letby attempted to murder the infant about 90 minutes after she was born by displacing her breathing tube moments after the child’s nurse had left her side. This caused the child’s blood oxygen levels to plummet to “life-threatening” levels, the court heard.
By this time she had murdered five babies and attempted to murder three others. Senior doctors had linked her to several unexplained incidents. Still, she remained in the neonatal unit for a further five months, going on to kill two triplet brothers by injecting air into their stomachs.
She was “caught virtually red-handed” trying to kill Baby K, the prosecution said, when a senior doctor walked in on her alone beside the infant’s incubator after she had tampered with the baby’s breathing tube.
The consultant, Dr Ravi Jayaram, said Letby was doing nothing to help the child as she fought for her life. An alarm on the baby’s monitor appeared to have been silenced, the court heard.
Prosecutors said the nurse tampered with Baby K’s breathing tube twice more in the following hours in an attempt to convince her colleagues that the newborn, who was sedated on morphine, had dislodged it by herself.
Nicola Wyn Williams, a senior prosecutor at the Crown Prosecution Service, described Letby’s actions as those of a “cold-blooded, calculated killer”.
DCI Nicola Evans, of Cheshire constabulary, praised the “courage, strength and resilience” of Baby K’s parents and added: “A trained nurse responsible for caring and protecting a tiny, premature baby abused that position of trust in the most unthinkable way. The continued denials have caused significant upset for Baby K’s family as they have had to endure a trial and subsequent re-trial. No one should ever have to go through what they experienced.”
Giving evidence, Letby said she had never harmed any babies and that she was “not guilty of what I’ve been found guilty of”.
The defendant told jurors she could not remember the night in question and had no memory of Baby K beyond the fact she was so premature. She could not explain why she had searched for the child’s family on Facebook more than two years later.
Detectives are analyzing the records of about 4,000 babies cared for by Letby during her time as a children’s nurse at Liverpool Women’s Hospital and the Countess of Chester, both in north-west England.
Cheshire Constabulary has launched an investigation into possible corporate manslaughter and is examining the decision-making of senior leadership at the time of the deaths.
A public inquiry led by Lady Justice Kathryn Thirlwall will begin in September into how Letby was able to continue working with babies despite the concerns of senior doctors who connected her to several suspicious incidents.
Dr Nigel Scawn, the medical director of the Countess of Chester Hospital NHS foundation trust, said: “Our thoughts are with the family and loved ones of Baby K. We are extremely sorry that these awful crimes happened at our hospital.”
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