Nurse Lucy Letby has been sentenced to a whole life sentence for murdering seven babies, and the attempted murder of six more, on a neonatal ward in Chester. Her shocking crimes make her among the most prolific UK female killers in modern British history.
The killer refused to appear in court in Manchester for sentencing. The 33-year-old’s sentence means she will never leave prison.
‘You will spend the rest of your life in prison’
Justice Goss addressed the absent Letby as he said: “These are offences of very exceptional seriousness.
“This was a cruel, calculated and cynical campaign of child murder involving the smallest and most vulnerable of children. You created situations so that collapses and causes of collapses could not be obvious.
“You checked up on parents… there was a deep malevolence bordering on sadism… you have no remorse… there are no mitigating factors… the offences are of sufficient severity to require a whole life order.”
Additionally, he said: “I sentence you to prison for life. I direct that the early release provisions do not apply. A whole life order on every offence and you will spend the rest of your life in prison.”
Here are the other most notorious female killers in the UK of all time.
Most prolific female UK female killers: Amelia Dyer
Nurse Amelia Dyer, born in 1836, may have killed up to 400 babies by strangulation or drowning. Known as ‘the Baby Farmer’ and ‘the Ogress of Reading’, she offered to take unwanted children from struggling mothers for a fee.
However, she kept the money for herself and killed the youngsters within days of receiving them, often dumping them in rivers.
She was executed aged 59 for the murder of just one child.
Mary Ann Cotton
Born in 1832, Mary Ann Cotton poisoned 21 victims. Among them were her mother, children, and three husbands.
She was only convicted for the murder of her stepson, and subsequently hanged at Durham Gaol.
However, she is believed to have killed 11 of her 13 children, and all but one of her four husbands, with arsenic.
Furthermore, it is thought her motivation for murder was insurance policy payouts.
Additionally, her execution was a brutal, botched affair. The trap door was positioned incorrectly, and the hangman was forced to press down on her shoulders to complete his macabre task.
Rose West
Rose West was put in jail for life in November 1995. She was found guilty of 10 charges of murder on the basis of joint enterprise with husband Fred West. He took his own life while in prison ahead of trial.
Her victims included her 16-year-old daughter Heather, her eight-year-old stepdaughter Charmaine, and her husband’s pregnant lover.
Additionally, the couple committed raped and killed many of their victims, and hid their bodies, at their family home in Gloucester.
Rose West, born in 1953, received 10 life terms with a whole life order. Furthermore, this was the second time this order was imposed on a woman in the UK. The first time saw it handed to Myra Hindley.
Myra Hindley
Moors Murderers Myra Hindley and Ian Brady killed five children in the 1960s. They received life sentences in 1966.
Their victims were 16-year-old Pauline Reade, 12-year-old John Kilbride, Keith Bennett, 12, Lesley Ann Downey, 10, and Edward Evans, 17.
John and Lesley Ann’s bodies were discovered on Saddleworth Moor, Greater Manchester, in October 1965. Furthermore, Edward’s body was found in an upstairs room at Ian Brady’s home. Additionally, Pauline’s body was finally found on the moors in 1987. But 12-year-old Keith Bennett’s body was never recovered.
Myra Hindley died from respiratory failure in 2002 aged 60.
Beverley Allitt
Beverley Allitt attacked thirteen children over 59 days in 1991, killing four. She was a nurse at Grantham and Kesteven Hospital.
The murders happened through insulin or potassium overdose, or by injecting an air bubble into the victims’ bloodstream.
She pleaded not guilty but was convicted in May 1993 and sentenced to 13 life sentences, with a minimum of 30 years.
Now 54, Beverley Allitt is detained at Rampton Secure Hospital in Nottinghamshire.
Read more: Nurse Lucy Letby found guilty of killing seven babies and attempting to murder six more
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