LONDON: The police said they had been unable to find a motive for the attacks, saying their focus had been on providing answers to the parents and families of the victims of Lucy Letby. “Unfortunately, I don’t think we’ll ever know unless she just chooses to tell us,” said Detective Superintendent Paul Hughes, who led the investigation.
She denied any wrongdoing and blamed the hospital and doctors working there. Detective Chief Inspector Nicola Evans, the deputy senior investigating officer, described Letby as “beige”.
The police said they were reviewing Letby’s career prior to the period covered by the charges, at the Countess of Chester Hospital and at the Liverpool Women’s Hospital where she had spent part of her training. Detectives are looking at the more than 4,000 admissions made into the two hospitals’ neo-natal units from 2012 to 2016.
“This does not mean we are investigating all 4,000, it just means that we are committed to a thorough review of every admission from a medical perspective, to ensure that nothing is missed throughout the entirety of her employment as a nurse,” Hughes said.
Letby was born in Hereford in central 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.
Over 18 months from January 2015, there was a significant rise in the number of babies dying and suffering serious collapses at the neonatal unit of the Countess of Chester Hospital.
The police and medical experts were called in and as they looked for a cause, they eventually focused on one common factor Lucy Letby.