‘Evil personified or a victim? What I learned after months watching Letby’

Killer nurse Lucy Letby offered few clues about her motives or “true self” during the course of her lengthy trial, a BBC journalist who covered it from start to finish has said.

Judith Moritz spent 10 months in a court room observing the registered nurse, who was yesterday convicted of the murder of seven babies and the attempted murder of six more at the Countess of Chester Hospital, charges she denied.

The jury was unable to reach a verdict on six more charges of attempted murder, and cleared her of two.

The BBC’s Northern England Correspondent admitted she was no nearer to understanding what had pushed the 33-year-old, who’s now formally one of many UK’s most prolific serial killers.

Letby is because of be sentenced on Monday, and is sort of sure to spend many years behind bars.

Ms Moritz, writing on the BBC’s web site, mentioned: “Every so often I’d look across at the nurse, to try to catch a glimpse of character. As bereaved parents recounted the horrors of watching their children die, the nurse maintained a neutral expression. No matter how emotionally charged the evidence was, she sat passively.”

The trial started in October 2022 – nevertheless it was not till February that Letby displayed “a hint of emotion”, mentioned Ms Moritz.

She defined: “It wasn’t prompted by an upsetting piece of evidence, or harrowing testimony. It was the voice of a doctor that caused the nurse to break.”

The physician in query had been hidden behind screens to guard his id, by his voice appeared to set off beforehand unseen feelings, Ms Moritz identified.

She added: “Later, Letby admitted she had “loved him like a friend”. We were shown flirty texts between the two, which suggested that although the doctor was married, it might have been more than that. The prosecution painted him as her boyfriend.

“I found it interesting that while the nurse remained composed throughout months of evidence relating to the terrible suffering of tiny babies, her first sign of emotion seemed to be borne out of pangs of longing for this doctor.”

Lead prosecutor Nick Johnson KC picked up on the purpose as effectively, Ms Moritz identified, together with his first query to her when she took the witness stand being: “Is there any reason that you cry when you talk about yourself but you don’t cry when talking about these dead and seriously injured children?”

Occasionally pieces of photographic evidence would offer insights into Letby’s personality, Ms Moritz said – for example, teddy bears on her bed, a fluffy pink dressing gown or a Mrs Doubtfire CD.

Perhaps more significant were two books by her bed: In Shock, a doctor’s memoir about being dangerously ill following a miscarriage, and Never Greener, about a young woman who has an affair with a married man.

Ms Moritz was also the journalist who persuaded the judge at Manchester Crown Court, Mr Justice James Goss, to make public a green post-it note covered in scrawled messages such as “I AM EVIL I DID THIS”, “I killed them on purpose because I’m not good enough”, “I don’t deserve to live”, and “I am an awful person”.

The prosecution argued these amounted to confessions, with the defence countering by characterising them as a protest towards her portrayal as a assassin.

Letby’s messages on social media had been additionally highlighted by Ms Moritz, who wrote: “Quite often she’d text other nurses to tell them about her involvement with babies who had collapsed – it looked like she was fishing for sympathy.”

Social media messages, by which Letby mentioned: “Sometimes I think, how do such sick babies get through & other just die so suddenly & unexpectedly?” hinted at a “possible God complex”, Ms Moritz claimed.

Turning to Letby’s time being grilled by Mr Johnson, Ms Moritz mentioned: At first, Letby coped effectively. She clearly felt equal to her interrogator, and her data of neonatal drugs was apparent – typically it veered on cocky.”

However, earlier than lengthy Mr Johnson started to “pick holes in her testimony”, at which level her voice “dropped almost to a whisper”.

Assessing her time within the witness stand, Ms Moritz mentioned: “In total, Letby spent 14 days in the witness box and faced nearly 60 hours of questioning – but did I feel any clearer about her true self? No.

“She returned to the glass walled dock for the rest of the trial. June turned to July. The lawyers closed their cases, and the judge summed up the evidence.”

Eventually, after 9 months of proof, the jury was handed the duty of working their approach via a mountain of proof – finally delivering their responsible verdicts after 22 days of deliberation.

Ms Moritz concluded: “Was Letby evil personified, or a victim herself? How they felt about her would determine the rest of her life.

“Finally, the answer. The smiling nurse with the sing-song name who went to salsa classes is now Britain’s most prolific child murderer. Can anyone make sense of that? I know I can’t.”