Smiling and soft-eyed, a baby in her arms, head propped up, a nurse looks into the camera. The blonde woman with the ponytail wanted to take care of the little ones, it had been her wish since school. But now her name has been burned into the criminal history of an entire country. Lucy L. killed seven babies and tried to kill six others – on Friday a jury found her guilty of murder and attempted murder.
The 33-year-old will most likely spend most of her life in prison. The sentence will follow this Monday: In the case of murder, life imprisonment is mandatory in Great Britain, the judge sets a minimum period of imprisonment. Observers believe it is possible that L. will never be free again.
It is the worst string of child murders in recent UK history, media outlets have said after the Manchester Crown Court verdict. “Angel of Death” is what the tabloid “Sun” calls the convict. The 33-year-old was accused of attempted murder in other cases, but the jury could not agree on a verdict even after weeks of deliberations.
Some jury members broke down in tears when the case was finally closed, the BBC reports. For 145 days they had heard gruesome details. In some cases the nurse murdered by injecting air into the babies, in others she overfed the newborns with milk. Sometimes there were a few hours between murder attempts, sometimes weeks. Five boys, including two brothers from triplets, and two girls died. All had been cared for in the premature baby ward.
This went on for about a year in the Countess of Chester Hospital in the western English city of Chester, from June 2015 to June 2016. Employees and superiors certainly became suspicious. Because L. was always nearby when a child died unexpectedly or was suddenly fighting for its life. But for a long time nothing happened. Employees who raised their concerns were even forced to apologize, the BBC has researched.
When L. was finally withdrawn from the ward, she was working in an office where she had access to sensitive patient records. She was only arrested long after the crime. The director of the clinic apologized. The Ministry of Health announced a comprehensive review of the case. And investigators want to review the care of about 4,000 babies.
The motive is still completely unclear even after the months-long process. Some experts assume that L. was looking for attention, for example from a young doctor with whom she had fallen in love. “We may never know why this happened,” the parents said in a statement.
The ex-nurse vehemently rejected the allegations to the end. The children died of natural causes or as a result of wrongdoing by others, she claimed. She wrote condolence cards to parents whose babies she had killed. But documents found on her weighed heavily on the nurse. “I’m bad, I did that,” it said on a note.
The case is reminiscent of the patient killer Niels Högel, known as the “death nurse”, who the Oldenburg district court sentenced to life imprisonment in 2019 for murder in 85 cases. He worked as a nurse in intensive care medicine and, according to the regional court, killed a total of 85 patients by administering drugs that were not medically indicated.
The guilty verdict will not alleviate “the extreme pain, anger and distress”, the families emphasized in the parents’ joint statement. “We are heartbroken, devastated, angry and numb.” Some families would have preferred a different verdict, it said with a view to the other charges. In these cases, the public prosecutor examines an appeal. The media emphasized that it was not impossible that the woman had attacked other babies. In a clinic in nearby Liverpool, where L. previously worked, two child deaths are being investigated.
