Naman Shrestha
Directed by Dominic Sivyer, Netflix’s ‘The Investigation of Lucy Letby’ is a true crime documentary film that centers on a neonatal nurse named Lucy Letby, who was responsible for the murder of multiple infants and the attempted murder of several others at the hospital where she worked between 2015 and 2016. After the hospital staff suspected her, the cases were reviewed by the authorities in detail, leading to multiple arrests and interrogations. The documentary also features unseen footage and other details, drawn from exclusive interviews with officials involved in the investigation.
Lucy Letby Was Responsible For the Deaths of Multiple Infants at the Countess of Chester Hospital
Born on January 4, 1990, in Hereford, England, Lucy Letby was welcomed into the world by two loving and working-class parents, Susan and John Letby. Being the only child, she was showered with care and support in every endeavor. For primary education, she attended St. James Church of England Primary School. Later, she went to Aylestone School and Hereford Sixth Form College. With aspirations to become a neonatal nurse, Lucy pursued a Bachelor of Science in Nursing with a specialty in child nursing at the University of Chester. Before graduating in September 2011, she also worked as a student nurse and earned placements at Liverpool Women’s Hospital and the Countess of Chester Hospital. By December 2012, Lucy had completed her placement course at the Liverpool Women’s Hospital.
Around the same time, she applied for a job in the neonatal unit of the Countess of Chester Hospital and was registered as a nurse. To qualify to work with infants in intensive care, she completed a specialization course in neonatal care in March 2014 and then undertook another training placement at Liverpool Women’s Hospital in early 2015. Not long after that, the mortality rate of newborns at the Countess of Chester Hospital saw a sudden rise between June 2015 and July 2016, as a total of 13 babies had died due to mysterious and unexplained reasons. Since Lucy was the common denominator across all those cases, she was transferred to the patient experience team in July 2016, then to the Risk and Patient Safety Office.
When the deaths were investigated by the authorities, they arrested Lucy on suspicion of eight counts of murder and six counts of attempted murder on July 3, 2018. After a thorough interrogation, during which she talked about her nursing career, she was bailed on July 6 as there was not enough evidence to charge her. Meanwhile, the search of her bedroom led the police to a box that contained hundreds of hospital handover sheets from the Countess of Chester Hospital and diary entries in which she called herself a murderer. In light of these fresh pieces of evidence, the police arrested Lucy again on June 10, 2019, but she was bailed on June 13 after an inconclusive interview. Several months later, on November 10, 2020, she was rearrested and then formally charged with seven counts of murder and fifteen counts of attempted murder. Denying her involvement, she blamed the hospital’s hygiene and staffing levels.
Lucy Letby is Currently Incarcerated at an England Prison
After waiting 23 months in custody, Lucy Letby’s trial got underway on October 10, 2022, at Manchester Crown Court. During the trial, the prosecution claimed that the defendant caused harm to the babies in multiple ways, including physical trauma to the throat or stomach, air embolism, insulin poisoning, and overfeeding. On the other hand, the defense argued that the hospital used Lucy as a scapegoat to hide its failures, such as the neonatal unit being understaffed and overstretched. However, the defense surprisingly didn’t call any expert witnesses to argue with the prosecution’s accusations. Ten months into the trial, on August 18, 2023, the jury found her guilty of seven counts of murder involving seven babies and seven counts of attempted murder of six other infants.
Three days later, the former nurse was sentenced to life in prison with a whole-life order. The following month, it was confirmed that a retrial would be held for one of the six counts of attempted murder on which the verdict could not be reached. On June 10, 2024, the retrial commenced, and nearly a month later, she was found guilty of attempted murder. Consequently, she was sentenced to yet another whole-life order. In October 2024, she tried to get her convictions overturned, but the Court of Appeal rejected her application. A few months later, in February 2025, the defense team of Lucy held a press conference along with a group of medical experts, who concluded that Lucy was innocent and the infants died of natural causes or errors in medical care.
In the summer of the same year, the authorities reportedly submitted additional evidence to the prosecution, indicating that Lucy had affected nine other infants. On January 20, 2026, the prosecution reviewed the evidence against the former nurse and announced that she would not be charged with new charges. As of today, she is serving his multiple life sentences at HM Prison Low Newton in Durham, England.
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