22 August 2023 , 13:24
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A behavioural expert has given a chilly insight into why "sadistic" Lucy Letby killed seven babies and tried to kill six more.
Britain's most prolific child killer will die in prison after she was ordered to spend the rest of her life behind bars, becoming only the fourth woman in UK history to receive such a sentence. The killer nurse was branded "evil" and a "coward" by her victims' parents and refused to appear for her sentencing hearing on Monday.
The 33-year-old was working at the Countess of Chester Hospital 's neonatal unit when she went on her year-long killing spree, joining the list of the UK's most twisted child killers, including the Moors murderers Ian Brady and Myra Hindley and the so-called Angel of Death paediatric nurse Beverley Allitt. Letby, from Hereford, stood trial after being accused of deliberately harming the infants in various ways, including by injecting air intravenously and administering air and/or milk into the stomach via nasogastric tubes.
Jo Hemmings said Lucy Letby found 'sadistic pleasure' in killing babies (TalkTv)Behavioural psychologist Jo Hemmings has since shared her thoughts on Letby, claiming she got “sadistic pleasure” from killing babies. Appearing on TalkTV, she explained: "She undoubtedly was born a psychopath. If we look at all these psychiatric conditions being part nature, part nurture. Very rarely is someone born evil, okay so born a psychopath. She has no conscience, she has no emotions as we understand them. No remorse, no guilt, nothing. It is a strange blank slate and she, I think, was someone hiding in plain sight.
"An ordinary looking girl, she tried out various things in her life to see how they felt. She had good friends, she had a close family, she had a lot of support. Nothing was really driving her. It is really hard to get our heads around what pure psychopathy is like. She found her purpose and her purpose was either nursing and going into neonatal nursing specifically or by ending up there and killing these babies. This was her mission, zero empathy. She found something she got, definitely, sadistic pleasure from."
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She continued: “It’s incredibly rare to have that level of sadistic psychopathy, it really really is. I would hate people to think this was in any way common place, so that's one thing to take away from it. But yes, part of her sadism, she carried on following up with these parents. She chose the gown [one of the babies she killed was buried in], she sent the condolences note, she virtually stalked these people after killing their babies. She was addicted to that behaviour.
"Now, behind bars what will happen, they don't discuss it again. It will never be talked about. She has now disassociated herself from what she has done. In fact she never really related to it. No matter how she managed to manipulate in that way, because you have got no empathy and no conscience, of course you just think the outcome is great. I have got people liking me and I am popular but I am also managing to kill these babies. It is a shocking sentence to utter, because it is impossible for most of us to try and get our heads around what on earth that must feel like for a human being to have that level."
Letby will be sent copies of victim impact statements read out during her sentencing after refusing to appear in the dock at Manchester Crown Court. The judge, Mr Justice Goss, ordered that she be sent a transcript of his sentencing remarks and copies of the statements read out by the families of her victims. He said: "The defendant, Lucy Letby, has refused to attend court for this sentence hearing. Accordingly, I have to sentence her in her absence. I shall deliver the sentencing remarks as if she was present to hear them. And I direct that she is provided with a transcript of my remarks and copies of the victim personal statements read to the court."