Who is Lucy Letby, and why does her case remain contested even as a UK inquiry blames hospital failures?

A British public inquiry concluded on Tuesday that hospital managers could have stopped nurse Lucy Letby from killing more babies in her care had they acted against her sooner, delivering its long-awaited findings nearly two years after she was convicted, Reuters reported.

Letby is serving 15 whole-life prison terms for 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.

Also read: Baby killer nurse Lucy Letby sentenced to whole-life term in UK


The convictions made her Britain's worst serial child killer of modern times. She has always maintained her innocence, and a growing campaign in recent years has argued she was the victim of a miscarriage of justice.

Who is Lucy Letby?

Letby, 36, was born in Hereford in central England. She completed a nursing degree at Chester University in the northwest before joining the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital.

What is the Lucy Letby case about?

Over 18 months from January 2015, the neonatal unit saw a sharp rise in baby deaths and serious collapses. Senior doctors grew alarmed as infants deteriorated suddenly and unexpectedly, failing to respond to resuscitation, while others who collapsed and survived did so in ways that defied medical norms. Police and medical experts investigating the pattern eventually focused on one common factor: Lucy Letby. She was arrested in July 2018, then again in June 2019 and November 2020, when she was charged with murdering seven babies and attempting to kill another ten between June 2015 and July 2016.

What was Letby convicted of doing?

Prosecutors said Letby attacked 17 babies on the ward, poisoning some with insulin and mostly injecting air into their bloodstream or stomachs, or force-feeding them excessive milk. Her victims included twins and triplets; in one case she killed two siblings on consecutive days. The youngest baby she murdered was a day old, the oldest an 11-week-old girl she attacked four times before her death.

Most attacks happened during night shifts when Letby was on duty, often shortly after parents had left their child's bedside. Police said she had kept medical records at home referencing some victims and had searched social media for their families.

Letby denied wrongdoing throughout, blaming poor ward conditions and the doctors working there. She was convicted in August 2023 of seven murders and seven attempted murders, acquitted on two counts, with juries unable to agree on six others. A re-trial the following year convicted her of trying to murder another newborn. Police have said they were unable to establish a motive.

What did the Thirlwall Inquiry find?

The UK government set up the inquiry, chaired by Lady Justice Kathryn Thirlwall, to examine how the killings went undetected and how the hospital responded to warning signs before Letby's arrest. Her remit explicitly excluded Letby's guilt or motive; the Court of Appeal had already settled that question, and Thirlwall told hearings she approached the inquiry on the basis that Letby is guilty, according to reporting reviewed alongside Reuters.

Hearings ran from September 2024 to February 2025 at Liverpool Town Hall and cost more than £18.5 million. They heard that by early 2016, senior managers, including then-medical director Ian Harvey and then-director of nursing Alison Kelly, knew of an unusually high death rate on the unit and rising concerns about a specific nurse, yet failed to trigger safeguarding action. Letby was removed from nursing duties only after two triplet brothers died in June 2016.

Thirlwall's published findings on Tuesday concluded there had been a "complete failure" to protect babies at the hospital, and that some deaths could have been avoided had dysfunctional management acted sooner on concerns.

The report is expected to recommend NHS-wide changes, including tighter insulin storage controls, mandatory procedures when deliberate harm is suspected, formal regulation of NHS managers, and wider use of CCTV in neonatal units.

Is Lucy Letby innocent?

Letby has always maintained her innocence and has launched a series of appeals, all rejected by the courts, including two refused permission to appeal in 2024, Reuters reported.

Even so, an online campaign has grown over the past three years arguing she was wrongly convicted. Some medical specialists have questioned the trial evidence, including neonatal doctor Professor Shoo Lee, who has said his research was misused and that he and other international experts do not believe any babies were attacked, arguing instead that there were medical mistakes and failures at the hospital.

Also read: 'I am a horrible evil person': A neonatal British nurse found guilty of killing seven newborn babies

Lawyers for the victims' families have dismissed this international panel's conclusions as a rehash of arguments already rejected in court, per earlier reporting. The case has been referred to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), which is examining whether her convictions are safe; there is no timeline for its decision.

Are there more victims, or ongoing investigations?

Police reviewed Letby's entire career at the Countess of Chester Hospital and at Liverpool Women's Hospital, where she trained, to check for evidence of other attacks. In January, prosecutors said no new charges would be brought, a decision police called disappointing.

An investigation into the Countess of Chester's management remains ongoing, with three senior members of the hospital's leadership arrested last July on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter.

(With inputs from Reuters)