A 33-year-old nurse in the United Kingdom has been sentenced to life imprisonment on Monday after she was convicted of murdering seven babies and attempted to kill six other infants at the Countess of Chester Hospital.
According to report by the BBC, the nurse Lucy Letby deliberately injected babies with air, force fed others milk and poisoned two of the infants with insulin.
While delivering the verdict, Justice Goss said the “cruelty and calculation” of Letby’s actions were “truly horrific”.
“You acted in a way that was completely contrary to the normal human instincts of nurturing and caring for babies and in gross breach of the trust that all citizens place in those who work in the medical and caring professions,” he said.
Letby has been on trial since last October and has been accused of causing harm to her young victims, who were either sick or born prematurely. In a search of Lucy Letby’s home, the police found paperwork from the hospital and a note that she had written by hand reading: “I am evil, I did this.”
She was taken into custody after several babies died at the neonatal unit of the Countess of Chester Hospital in northwest England from June 2015 to June 2016.
The prosecution said Lucy Letby was very clever and used ways to kill that were hard to detect. Lucy Letby had repetitively denied hurting the children.
The whole-life sentence is the most severe punishment given to a convict under the country’s criminal justice system and is reserved for those who commit the most heinous crimes, stated BBC.
Letby became only the fourth woman in the history of the UK to receive such punishment.