this post was submitted on 18 Aug 2023
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[–] sarjalim@lemm.ee 157 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (5 children)

This whole story is the most insane, fucked up thing I have read in years.

Especially the companion story, Hospital bosses ignored months of doctors' warnings about Lucy Letby. The hospital execs seem almost as callous as the murderer. Holy shit. You have to have some sort of psychological or empathetic disorder as manager or director to fail to act when babies are dying like flies, there is one common factor, and your response isn't to immediately investigate and take that common factor out of the equation as a safety measure.

They just refused to act for 3 years (where 17 babies died mysteriously or had near-fatal unexplained events in one year) - except silence, threaten and bully the doctor and seven (!) pediatric consultants who repeatedly raised the alarm and called for outside investigation. Since the murderer was removed from the neonatal ward in 2016, there has apparently been 1 baby death. In total, in 7 years.

I don't know how you would live with yourself knowing that you actively aided a serial killer by refusing to listen to multiple people warning you about them and pleading with you to act.

[–] AstroViking@lemmy.world 108 points 1 year ago (3 children)

This is a huge point. They knew. They shushed it up. They need to be all brought to account as well.

[–] HeartyBeast@kbin.social 53 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Letby put in a formal complaint saying that she was being bullied by the doctors who were complaining about her. A panel upheld her complaint and the doctors had to apologise.

Gah

[–] ThrowawayPermanente@sh.itjust.works 19 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think I just found some more people who should be fired

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[–] sarjalim@lemm.ee 42 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (5 children)

Yes, it's impossible that they didn't at least entertain the idea that she was guilty with so many incidents and so many people speaking out. And the execs immediate response to that is to... silence the whistleblowers, to maintain the reputation of the hospital. Absolutely repulsive. They come very close to being accessories to the murders, in my opinion.

[–] livus@kbin.social 17 points 1 year ago

It has to be Criminal negligence at the very least.

The reviews they themselves commissioned (when they should have gone to the police) said at least 4 deaths should be forensically investigated and they ignored it.

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[–] r00ty@kbin.life 26 points 1 year ago (1 children)

They just refused to act for 3 years (where 17 babies died mysteriously or had near-fatal unexplained events in one year) - except silence, threaten and bully the doctor and seven (!) pediatric consultants who repeatedly raised the alarm and called for outside investigation. Since the murderer was removed from the neonatal ward in 2016, there has apparently been 1 baby death. In total, in 7 years.

They also made them write and sign a written apology to her.

[–] sarjalim@lemm.ee 18 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

And try to force them to attend a mediation session with the murderer, actively discourage them from going to the police... Fail to report the baby deaths appropriately to the NHS, fail to do the initial investigation about the first three deaths the executive team had decided on. Fail to present to the board of trustees that the conclusion of two external reviews were that some of the baby deaths should be forensically investigated. Fail to do any investigation. Refuse to reassign the murderer for months while more murders and attempted murders happen, then reassign them into a position where they have access to manipulate the narrative. And additionally order the whistleblowers to cease email communications about the issue...

I think I missed a few things as well, there's just too many things wrong in this picture.

[–] r00ty@kbin.life 6 points 1 year ago

Yes. It's a disgusting story from start to finish.

[–] dyathinkhesaurus@lemmy.world 23 points 1 year ago

Some of these chief execs may be corporate psychopaths themselves, and they'd be more interested in arse covering and making sure they're protected than having external powerful strangers poking thru everything they do.

[–] WhaleScenery@lemmy.world 18 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I think what makes me even sadder is that Ian Chambers (one of the directors at the hospital where Letby committed her crimes) left his job shortly after Letby was charged… only now to be interim director of nursing at a Salford NHS trust.

He spent years enabling Letby and covering up her crimes, gaslighting and silencing numerous senior doctors… only to go somewhere else and continue managing at a high level the moment that there was a risk of facing consequences for his failures.

I don’t know what’s more disturbing- the fact that Chambers moved on once he realised the jig was up, or that another trust ACTUALLY HIRED HIM. Disgusting.

[–] scarabic@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You’d probably deny, deflect, and accuse everyone else of 20/20 hindsight, while taking the one piece of your soul that’s shouting no! I failed those kids! and packing it away in a closet with no door where no one can hear it scream.

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[–] renlok@lemmy.ml 47 points 1 year ago (3 children)

This story is horrendous, most killers seem to gain something from it. But this woman just kills babies for no reason then hates herself for it afterwards. The whole story is just awful, what a terrible person.

[–] DarkThoughts@kbin.social 20 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Is there any attempt of a transcription of the note? It's almost impossible to read anything. She's very obviously unwell, to put it lightly. Still makes me wonder what is going through the heads of people like her in those moments.

[–] livus@kbin.social 21 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Some of them I can't make out but the green one is readable if you read the left side first (it's in two columns).

It starts off saying the police think she did it but that's slander and discrimination, but then turns into admitting she did it and a lot about how she's a bad person and doesn't deserve her parents and will never have a family of her own.

Closest she comes to a motive in it is "I killed them on purpose because I'm not good enough to care for them, I am a horrible evil person."

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[–] PersnickityPenguin@lemm.ee 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)
[–] TenderfootGungi@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What sane person kills another human being on purpose and without cause?

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[–] ArchmageAzor@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago

I'm no psychologist but from what she's doing she seems to have a need for power and control, and surrounds herself with infants who are pretty easy to control. I would not be surprised if the killings occured after the victim began to cry (like any baby does) and she was unable to get them to stop, undermining her fragile self worth and sense of control and leading to a period of aggression, during which she kills the infant. Once it's done and the object of her aggression is gone her mind clears up and she realises what she's done, and enters a state of remorse. I doubt she does it because she wants to, I'm sure she's a very disturbed person, and her mental health issues are what prevented her from seeking help and from stopping. Of course some of the blame lies with the people who were aware and let it happen. It's like letting a hungry wolf into a daycare and doing nothing to stop it.

[–] Especially_the_lies@startrek.website 6 points 1 year ago (4 children)

I can't say that I've followed this case closely, but I have never heard a reason why. Obviously, she's sick, but how do you do something like this "just because"?

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[–] Etterra@lemmy.world 32 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Her scrawled note thing looks like the kind of insane ramblings you'd see in a horror game. There is something deeply, disturbingly wrong with that woman and I hope they get a shrink in there to see what the hell it is. Those families deserve to know why someone would do this kind of nightmare shit

[–] crapwittyname@lemm.ee 14 points 1 year ago

Exactly right. We need to root out how this happened if we want to stop it happening again. That would probably include an honest long look at the NHS in general and whatever went on in her mind in particular. It's never going to be as simple as "this woman's a monster". We need to know what impulses she felt and what justifications she told herself, knowing it was the worst kind of wrong. And how did she get into a position where it was possible. The families deserve answers and we all need to know it can't happen again.

[–] Asymptote@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 1 year ago (2 children)

You're not exaggerating

I wonder if she had sought out psychiatric help years ago but found a dead end.

Recently had a case in Denmark with a mass murderer who had been in loads of contact with psychiatric institutions but he apparently felt even more alone as a result.

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[–] theKalash@feddit.ch 31 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

I always wonder, how many single-time murderers are there for every serial killer? Like how many nurses, doctors or other people with an opportunity just took and murdered once. How many people might get away with that?

Every serial killer has his first kill ... but how many people have a first kill and then think ... nah, I'd rather not do that but don't get caught.

[–] AllonzeeLV@lemmy.world 43 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (15 children)

It also makes me wonder, if someone kills let's say 10 people, by let's say using lethal gas that remotely releases in all their apartments at the same time.

Does that make them a parallel killer?

[–] floofloof@lemmy.ca 25 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

What if you killed people, one at a time, all over the universe, travelling from crime scene to crime scene in a space bus? Would you be a universal serial bus killer?

[–] Rakust@kbin.social 8 points 1 year ago

Mass murderer.

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[–] ClarkFlankblast@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

After Nurse Cullen, I'm sure that it is more than people would be comfortable with.

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[–] Bristlecone@lemmy.world 23 points 1 year ago (9 children)

Scary how normal this woman looks...

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[–] autotldr@lemmings.world 18 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This is the best summary I could come up with:


Nurse Lucy Letby has been found guilty of murdering seven babies on a neonatal unit, making her the UK's most prolific child serial killer in modern times.

She was convicted following a two-year investigation by Cheshire Police into the alarming and unexplained rise in deaths and near-fatal collapses of premature babies at the hospital.

Her defence team argued the deaths and collapses were the result of "serial failures in care" in the unit and she was the victim of a "system that wanted to apportion blame when it failed".

Senior Crown Prosecutor Pascale Jones said the nurse "did her utmost to conceal her crimes, by varying the ways in which she repeatedly harmed babies in her care".

The lead consultant at the neonatal unit where Letby worked has told the BBC that hospital bosses failed to investigate allegations against the nurse and tried to silence doctors.

Prior to the government's announcement, Dr Nigel Scawn, executive medical director from the Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, said he was "deeply saddened and appalled" at Letby's crimes.


The original article contains 1,505 words, the summary contains 176 words. Saved 88%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

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[–] Vex_Detrause@lemmy.ca 17 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

There are so much anger to the nurse on this thread, which is justified. Where are the pitchfork for the executives and managements? Looks like there was concerns early on, multiple discussion of foul play but no actions was taken. Imagine a PE teacher, another teacher has concern of foul play, then more teachers has concern that he/she shouldn't be around kids, an expert recommended an outside investigation, appointing the PE teacher to child abuse and safety committee, more kids came forward of foul play, the teacher was moves to a different school to teach.. There should be a process that stops her from having access to newborn after Baby A died and foul play was a concern! Not after baby 6! The management should have criminal charges of negligence on these deaths and assaults. It should be seen as a whole system failure and not just one who is at fault.

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