“Lucia bathed [Baby E], an action that I deeply regret, and dressed him in a woolen dress,” his mother said. “He was buried in that dress, a gift from Lucy’s chosen unit. I feel disgusted by the choice we made. Not a single day goes by without anguish over this decision.”
Baby E was a twin. His brother survived but he has severe learning difficulties, which his parents believe is due to Letby poisoning him with insulin.
Yet for many months, the soft-spoken Letby never dealt with the onslaught of sudden emergencies and totally unexplained deaths on his watch.
Maybe it was that superficial smile, that semblance of friendliness, that studied lack of memorability. But whatever the reason, hospital administrators silenced senior doctors who raised the alarm and even ordered an apology for impugning their reputation.
And so Letby continued to play God with impunity. Not just in matters of life but death, presumably taking sadistic pleasure in the continuing effects of his actions.
He stole documents from the hospital, kept documents and notes as mementos of his shifts dealing death at will, and, in obscene flourish, gave away teddy bears and sent fake sympathy cards to parents.
Meanwhile, the parents were trying to cope with the unbearable loss of a child. One mother said that she wore sunglasses permanently to hide the tears of her other children and that she had trouble eating and sleeping. She said her partner wished he had died instead of his baby. Another father said that one day he thought of ending his life.
The nurse tried to kill Baby G twice. Her father’s statement in court said he believed God had saved her daughter, but in Letby “the devil found her.”
Many parents said their children’s memories have been tarnished by learning what Letby had done.
In the darkness of the days, weeks and months that followed [Baby C]’s death, I would open his box of memories,” his mother told the court.
“I would smell his familiar scent, I would touch his handprint. Her hand and footprint became a pendant, I wore it around my neck. It made me feel closer to him.
“On July 3, 2018, when Lucy Letby was first arrested, these few tangible memories I had of my son felt tainted…She took those hands and footprints, I felt so conflicted as to what that meant, So I stopped using them.”
Only now do you feel like you can use them again. The verdict has been reached, Letby will never be released. But this is not the end of the horror.
