Content warning: the subject matter in this article may be upsetting to some readers
Nurse Lucy Letby has been found guilty of murdering seven babies.
The 33-year-old has been found guilty at Manchester Crown Court of the murders of seven babies and the attempted murders of six others at the Countess of Chester Hospital.
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Prosecutors said Letby was a 'calculated opportunist' who used the vulnerabilities of premature and sick infants to camouflage her acts.
Described as 'devious' and 'cold-blooded', Letby 'completely perverted her learning' and 'weaponised whatever was at her disposal', the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said.
Pascale Jones, of the CPS, said Letby 'betrayed the trust that people had in the NHS' as well as the 'faith that families had'.
"Behind that angelic smile was a much darker side to her personality," she added.
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Between 2015 and 2016, there was a significant rise in the numbers of babies who suffered serious and unexpected collapses in the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital.
Letby was the only member of the nursing and clinical staff who was on duty each time the collapses happened, which the Crown argued were not natural events.
The band 5 staff nurse used various ways to harm the infants including injecting air into the bloodstream, injecting air into the stomach, overfeeding with milk, physical assaults and poisoning with insulin.
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Concerns among some consultants about the defendant increased and were voiced to hospital bosses when more unexplained and unusual collapses followed, the court heard.
However, Letby was not removed from the unit until after the deaths of two triplet boys and the collapse of another baby boy on three successive days in June 2016.
The nurse was arrested at her semi-detached home in Westbourne Road, Chester, at 6am on 3 July 2018.
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During searches of her address, a number of closely written notes were discovered.
On one green Post-it note, she wrote notes such as: "I don’t deserve to live. I killed them on purpose because I’m not good enough to care for them", "I am a horrible evil person", and in capital letters: "I am evil I did this".
Prosecutor Nick Johnson KC invited the jurors to read the notes 'literally' as a confession.
The 'rogue nurse' falsified medical notes to cover her tracks and also gaslighted doctors and nurses to persuade them the collapses were 'just a run of bad luck'.
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She was also prepared to publicly trash the reputations of colleagues 'in an effort to get away with it', the prosecutor added.
Letby, from Hereford, denied all the allegations.
On 8 August the jury – on its 15th day of deliberations – unanimously found her guilty of attempting to murder two infants by poisoning them with insulin.
At the start of deliberations on the afternoon of 11 August the jury delivered verdicts on a further six counts.
Letby was found guilty of murdering four babies and attempting to murder two others.
Her mother, Susan, could be heard sobbing and saying 'you can’t be serious' and 'this can’t be right'.
On 16 August, the jury convicted her on six more counts – three murders and three attempted murders – and cleared her of one count of attempted murder.
The jury could not reach verdicts on six counts of attempted murder.
Cheshire Police say they are continuing to review the care of some 4,000 babies who were admitted to the Countess of Chester – and also at Liverpool Women’s Hospital when Letby had two work placements – during her employment from 2012.
Only those cases highlighted as concerning medically would be investigated further, police added.
A court order prohibits reporting of the identities of the surviving and dead children who were the subject of the allegations.
Topics: Crime, NHS, UK News, Lucy Letby
Rhiannon Ingle