A nurse on trial for the murder of seven babies in a British hospital has pleaded not guilty at trial. The 33-year-old woman said she had never hurt a baby Lucy Letby in court on Tuesday. The nurse has been on trial since October for the murder of seven babies and 15 counts of attempted murder.
The indictment alleges that the 33-year-old man killed five boys and two girls between June 2015 and June 2016 in the neonatal unit at Countess of Chester Hospital in Chester, northwest England.
The defendant spoke for the first time on Tuesday, seven months into the trial. Questioned by her lawyer, she confirmed that she had taken care of hundreds of babies in the period in question. When asked if she had ever hurt a baby, Letby replied, “No, that’s totally against the nature of a nurse.”
“I’m a terrible, bad person”
The prosecution produced notes written by Letby at the trial as evidence, which the police found on her when searching her home. Letby had written something like, in capital letters: “I’m dying to do this.” Another note read, “I don’t deserve to live. I killed her on purpose because I’m not good enough to take care of her. I’m a horrible, bad person.”
When asked about the notes, Letby responded that she wrote them “because at the time I felt I had done something wrong”. She considered herself “incompetent” and a terrible person because “I made a mistake and didn’t know it”. “I felt I was responsible in some way,” added the defendant.
The nurse’s alleged youngest victim, a premature boy, was only a day old. According to the judgment, he was “fine” until June 8, 2015, when Letby started working in the neonatal unit. He was dead 90 minutes later. Medical experts believe that the premature baby was intentionally injected with air or something else.