A British public inquiry concluded on Tuesday that hospital managers could have prevented nurse Lucy Letby killing more babies in her care had they taken action against her sooner.
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they → conclude → her
Letby is serving life in jail after being found guilty of murdering seven newborns and attempting to murder eight more between June 2015 and June 2016 while working at the Countess of Chester Hospital (CoCH) in northern England.
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Letby → serve → England
The convictions made her Britain's worst serial child killer of modern times.
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her → make → times
She has always maintained her innocence and in recent years there has been a growing campaign arguing she was a victim of a miscarriage of justice.
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she → maintain → justice
Letby, 36, was born in Hereford in central England.
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Letby → bear → England
She completed a nursing degree at Chester University in northwest England and after qualifying, she began to work in the neonatal unit of the city's Countess of Chester Hospital.
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she → complete → Hospital
Senior doctors became worried as many of the babies had deteriorated suddenly and unexpectedly, and then did not respond to appropriate resuscitation.
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many → become → resuscitation
Other babies, who suddenly collapsed and did not die, recovered, with both their collapse and recovery defying usual medical norms.
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collapse → collapse → norms
The police and medical experts were called in and as they looked for a cause, they eventually focused on one common factor - Lucy Letby.
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they → call → factor
She was first arrested in July 2018, and then again in June 2019 and November 2020 when she was charged with murdering seven babies and attempting to kill another 10 between June 2015 and July 2016.
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she → arrest → June
WHAT WAS LETBY CONVICTED OF DOING?
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LETBY → convict → ?
Prosecutors said Letby attacked 17 babies who had been on the ward.
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who → say → ward
Some she was said to have poisoned with insulin.
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she → say → insulin
Mostly she was accused of injecting air into their bloodstream or stomachs, or giving them excessive milk.
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she → accuse → milk
The victims included twins and triplets, and in one case, she killed two siblings on consecutive days.
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she → include → days
The youngest baby she murdered was just a day old.
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she → murder → ?
The oldest was 11 weeks old, a baby girl who she attacked four times before she died.
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she → attack → who
Although the babies had been born prematurely, some were regarded as being in reasonable or good condition before they suddenly deteriorated, mainly during night shifts when Letby was working.
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Letby → bear → shifts
Letby attacked a number of the babies shortly after their parents had left their bedside, prosecutors said.
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prosecutors → attack → bedside
Police said she had kept medical records at her home with reference to some of the babies involved and had also carried out social media searches for their parents and families.
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she → say → parents
She denied any wrongdoing and blamed poor conditions on the hospital unit and doctors working there.
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She → deny → unit
She was convicted in August 2023 of seven murders and seven attempted killings and acquitted of two charges of attempted murder while jurors could not agree on six other suspected attacks.
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jurors → convict → attacks
The following year she was convicted of trying to murder another newborn baby following a re-trial.
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she → convict → trial
Police said they had been unable to find a motive for the attacks.
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they → say → attacks
Amid shock at her convictions, the British government set up an inquiry to examine how the killings went undetected, and review the hospital's response to concerns raised about Letby before her arrest.
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killings → set → arrest
Its chair, Kathryn Thirlwall, concluded that there had been "complete failure" to protect babies at the hospital and some of the deaths could have been avoided if the dysfunctional management had acted sooner on concerns.
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management → conclude → concerns
She had said its remit was not to examine Letby's culpability.
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remit → say → culpability
Letby has always maintained her innocence, saying she never harmed or intended to harm any child in her care.
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she → maintain → care
She has launched a series of appeals against her convictions but these have all been rejected by the courts.
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these → launch → courts
However in the three years since she was found guilty there has been a growing campaign, particularly online, arguing that she was the victim of a miscarriage of justice.
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she → find → justice
Some medical specialists have queried the evidence given at her trial with one, neonatal doctor Professor Shoo Lee, saying his research had been misused and that he and other international experts did not believe any babies had been attacked.
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babies → query → one
They said there had been medical mistakes and failures at the hospital.
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They → say → hospital
The case has now been referred to the Criminal Cases Review Commission which is considering whether her convictions are safe.
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convictions → refer → Commission
There is no timescale for it to conclude its work.
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it → be → work
Since her convictions police carried out a review of Letby's career at the Countess of Chester Hospital and at the Liverpool Women's Hospital where she had spent part of her training to see if there was evidence other babies had been attacked.
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babies → carry → training
In January, prosecutors said they would not bring any new charges, a decision which police said was disappointing.
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police → say → decision
However, an investigation into the Countess of Chester Hospital's managers remains ongoing with three senior members of the leadership team arrested last July on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter. REUTERS
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members → remain → manslaughter
The Aporia
