Serial child killer Lucy Letby enjoyed hen party hours before first known murder

19 August 2023 , 11:11

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Lucy Letby was out partying hours before the first known murder

The ‘Angel of Death’ nurse Lucy Letby was out partying at a hen-do just hours before murdering her first known victim, it has emerged.

The 33-year-old evil nurse was yesterday convicted on seven counts of murder and six counts of attempted murder. The attacks took place on the neonatal ward of the Countess of Chester Hospital.

The hen-do involved a bar-crawl in York ending at Vodka Revolution, with the friends wearing badges and the bride-to-be dressed in a white sash. None who partied with Letby knew that the next day she would take her first victim - within the first two hours of her shift on June 8 2015.

Letby was found to have murdered the babies in various ways, including deliberately injecting them with air, force-feeding with milk, and poisoning them with insulin. This killing spree began the day after the trip to York with friends, reported the Sun.

Letby's first victim, Baby A, was a tiny 3lbs 12ozs at the time of their 12-week premature birth - before she injected air into them. Only 28 hours later did Letby attempt to murder Baby B, the twin sister of Baby A, by sabotaging her breathing equipment. Letby said of the first death, which took place during a shift she was covering: "It’s awful. I was not even supposed to be working that night."

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The UK's worst child serial killer wept in the dock as the guilty verdicts were read out, which will see her face prison for decades - and possibly the rest of her life. Letby denied all the charges given to her while she faced evidence for 14 days, arguing the children could have all died of natural causes. Her mum, Susan, 63, wailed: “You can’t be serious! This can’t be right!” as the verdict was read out.

The motives of Letby's horrendous attacks are yet to be confirmed. Dr Dominic Willmott, a senior lecturer in criminology at Loughborough University, suggested the nurse wanted "sympathy" from colleagues after the babies died. He noted "clear similarities" between Letby and previous killer nurses such as British Beverley Allitt and American Charles Cullen.

Alex Croft