A British nurse accused of multiple murders and attempted murders of babies broke down in court this week when she told a jury she had not harmed any children, but that the allegations had prompted her to want to kill herself.
Lucy Letby (33) is accused of murdering five boys and two girls, and attempting to murder another five boys and five girls, between June 2015 and June 2016, by injecting air into them and insulin poisoning, among other means.
The prosecution said Letby was a “constant malevolent presence” at the neonatal unit of the Countess of Chester Hospital, reports The Independent.
She told the court she had cared for “hundreds of babies” between 2015 and 2016, and had never wanted to hurt any of them as “that’s completely against being what a nurse is”.
Letby said she was first informed she was being blamed for the deaths of babies in a letter from the Royal College of Nursing in September 2016.
“It was sickening,” she said. “I just could not believe it. It was devastating. I don’t think you could be accused of anything worse than that.”
She was “devastated” when she was removed from clinical duties, and had to be prescribed antidepressants by her GP, which she is still taking.
She said there were times “when I did not want to live…I thought of killing myself” because of what had been inferred.
Responding to the fact that a Post-it note was found in her home, in which she wrote: “I killed them on purpose because I’m not good enough”, she replied that she had not done anything intentionally to harm or kill the babies.
Letby said the note referred to the insinuation that she had done something wrong. “Because I thought …I’m such an awful, evil person … that I had made mistakes and had not known…that somehow I had been incompetent and I had done something wrong to affect these babies. I felt I must be responsible in some way.”
The trial continues.
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
UK nurse murdered seven babies, tried to kill others, court hears
UK nurse pleads not guilty to murder of 8 babies and attempted murder of 10 more
UK nurse guilty of murdering patients