Lucy Letby, a former neonatal nurse who was arrested in 2018 and later convicted of murdering seven babies in her care at a hospital in northern England and attempting to kill six others, was sentenced Monday to life in prison with no chance of release.
In the ruling, Justice James Goss did not mince words when highlighting the nature of what the 33-year-old nurse did.
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“There was a malevolence bordering on sadism in your action,” Goss said, addressing Letby, who was not present during the sentencing hearing. “During the course of this trial, you have coldly denied any responsibility for your wrongdoing. You have no remorse. There are no mitigating factors.”
Lucy Letby was given the most severe punishment possible under British law, which does not allow the death penalty.
Goss said the “exceptional circumstances” warranted the rare “whole-life order.”
The sentence comes after a Manchester Crown Court jury that deliberated for 22 days convicted Lucy Letby of murdering the seven babies over a yearlong period that included her preying on the vulnerabilities of sick newborns and the anxiousness of their parents.
“Trust me, I’m a nurse,” she told a worried mother of two, who later testified that she noticed blood around her son’s mouth and heard his “horrendous” screams when they were at the hospital on August 4, 2015.
The mother was sent away from the neonatal unit — telling the court she knew something was “very wrong.”
She ultimately returned to find her son died, after Letby injected him with air.
The mother had unknowingly interrupted Letby’s initial attempt to kill one of her newborn twin sons, according to the prosecution.
