Chilling link between Lucy Letby’s crimes and Angel of Death nurse Beverley Allitt | UK | News

Lucy Letby became Britain’s most prolific child serial killer in modern history when she was convicted of murdering seven babies at the Countess of Chester Hospital in August 2023.

Letby, who denied all charges against him and was sentenced to life imprisonment, will never be released from prison. But 25 years ago, another nurse, known as the Angel of Death, terrified the nation after four babies in her care were murdered.

Beverley Allitt was in her early twenties when she began her grisly murder spree in a Lincolnshire hospital in 1991. Allitt, who worked at Grantham and Kesteven Hospital, was also convicted of causing grievous bodily harm to six other children.

He was convicted two years later and sentenced to 13 life sentences with a minimum of 30 years in prison. Allitt was later reportedly transferred to Rampton Hospital in Nottinghamshire Mirror.

The Thirlwall Inquiry, which examined whether hospital management had learned from Letby’s crimes, revealed a disturbing link between two women whose crimes were committed two decades apart.

In her opening speech at the Thirlwall Inquiry, Rachel Langdale KC referred to the Clothier Inquiry carried out in the wake of Allitt’s crimes.

He said: “However, sadly, 25 years later another nurse working in another hospital murdered and harmed babies in her care.”

Ms Langdale told the Thirlwall Inquiry that evidence would be taken from a senior lecturer in the children’s nursing program at the University of Chester, where Letby qualified in 2011, who confirmed that the Allitt case was part of student teaching and learning.

Barrister Sir Robert Francis KC, alongside GP Harold Shipman, was charged with examining how the NHS responded to Allitt’s killing spree.

Tamlin Bolton, the lawyer representing the families of six Letby victims, said: “He was asked to look back at things like: [Harold] Shipman, Beverley Allitt, Central Staff investigated and considered subsequent recommendations.

“What the recommendations are, how they should be implemented, whether they are implemented and how they help or change NHS practice.

“Hopefully families will be asked to make submissions and suggested what they would like to see to prevent this from happening in the future.”

Sir Robert led a five-year investigation into nearly 1,200 deaths at Mid-Staffordshire NHS Trust in 2010 caused by substandard care and serious staff shortages. This created a “duty of integrity” in healthcare that remains in force today.

But Ms Bolton said relatives of Letby victims wanted Lady Thirlwall’s inquest to be a “strong reminder” of that duty.

He said: “Most of the families I represented did not know that their child had a stroke, they did not know that the death rate was increasing in the hospital neonatal unit. In short, they knew that investigations were taking place, but they did not really know why.”

Letby, 34, is currently serving 15 life sentences for murdering defenseless babies and attempting to murder seven more over a 12-month period from 2015 at the Countess of Chester Hospital, where she worked as a neonatal nurse.

Ms Langdale said: “To ordinary, decent, right-thinking people, Letby’s actions will remain incomprehensible. We will not allow witnesses to speculate about his motives or mentality.’ In opening remarks by Lady Justice Thirlwall, the senior Court of Appeal judge said: “

In Ms Justice Thirlwall’s opening statement, the senior Court of Appeal judge said: “At the center of this investigation are the babies who died or were injured and their parents. “I don’t think I can describe the emotions or feelings that these parents have already experienced, but I will remind you of what has happened since the birth of their child.

“First each parent celebrated the birth of each child, then while things were going well for those babies, each suddenly and unexpectedly collapsed. Some of the babies recovered, some survived, but some died, with lifelong consequences.”

“Deaths and injuries occurred in 2015 and 2016, and parents were told that the cause of their deaths and lifelong difficulties were natural causes, so each parent experienced and lived with that deep pain the loss of a new life and the promise of it.”