Shivangi Sinha
Between June 2015 and June 2016, the Countess of Chester Hospital in England experienced an alarming and unexpected increase in infant deaths. Staff became increasingly concerned as more babies collapsed or died without clear explanations, and Lucy Letby, a neonatal nurse, was identified as being present during each incident. When police launched a formal investigation, multiple strands of evidence began to align against her, leading to her arrest. Netflix’s ‘The Investigation of Lucy Letby’ traces the case and the turbulent legal proceedings that raised as many questions as it answered.
Lucy Letby Was Removed From the Neonatal Unit Before a Police Investigation
Lucy Letby was born on January 4, 1990, in Hereford, England. Her parents, Susan and John Letby, worked as a furniture salesman and an accounts clerk and lived a largely ordinary, middle-class life. She was their only child and was raised in a loving, supportive home, with her parents prioritizing her education. Lucy attended St. James Church of England Primary School, followed by Aylestone School and Hereford Sixth Form College. From a young age, she aspired to become a neonatal nurse. She began pursuing that goal by enrolling in the University of Chester’s BSc (Hons) Children’s Nursing program in 2007.
During her studies, Letby also worked as a student nurse at the university. She became the first member of her family to complete a college degree when she graduated in 2011. By December 2012, she had finished a placement at Liverpool Women’s Hospital and soon began working as a registered nurse at the Countess of Chester Hospital, where she was assigned to the neonatal unit. In March 2014, she completed a specialization in neonatal care, followed by further intensive care training in early 2015 at Liverpool Women’s Hospital. From June 2015 onward, a sharp rise in neonatal collapses was noted, and Letby was noted to be present during the incidents.
In the months that followed, further infant deaths occurred, deepening internal concern within the hospital, though Letby was not publicly identified. In July 2016, she was removed from clinical duties and reassigned to the Patient Experience Team in a non-patient-facing role. The following month, she was transferred to the Risk and Patient Safety Office, a move she reportedly resented. In September 2016, Letby filed a formal grievance. That December, the head of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health met with Letby and her parents and issued an apology regarding the suspicions. In January 2017, the hospital board upheld her grievance.
Lucy Letby’s Journal and Diary Entries Were Taken as Evidence Against Her
In May 2017, the hospital trust announced that the matter had been referred to the police and that a formal inquiry would be launched. Investigators began reviewing the cases and noted that Lucy Letby appeared repeatedly in incidents flagged by the hospital, though this was initially attributed to her role as one of the few highly trained nurses assigned to critical cases. On July 3, 2018, she was arrested at her home on suspicion of eight murders and six attempted murders and questioned about the deaths. With limited evidence at the time, she was released on bail.
As the investigation continued, police uncovered troubling material, including diary entries in which she referred to herself as the killer, confidential medical documents relating to deceased infants, highlighted dates of deaths, and social media searches of victims’ families, along with messages to friends describing events at work. Letby was arrested for a second time on June 10, 2019, and released on bail three days later. While on bail, she was placed under interim suspension by the Nursing and Midwifery Council in March 2020. She was arrested for a third time on November 10, 2020, and on this occasion was denied bail.
That same month, Letby was formally charged with seven counts of murder and fifteen counts of attempted murder, all of which she denied, entering not guilty pleas. Her trial began in October 2022, where prosecutors alleged she harmed infants using methods including insulin poisoning, air embolism, and physical trauma. In August 2023, the jury convicted her of seven counts of murder involving seven babies and seven counts of attempted murder against six others. She was acquitted on two attempted murder charges, while jurors could not reach verdicts on six additional counts.
Lucy Letby is Serving a Lifelong Sentence in England Today
Within days of the verdict, Lucy Letby was sentenced to life imprisonment with 14 whole-life orders. In December 2023, she was struck off the nursing register. Although she maintained her innocence, she did not contest her removal. In January 2024, Letby sought permission to appeal her convictions, with her defence arguing there was no direct physical evidence and that the medical findings were unreliable, attributing the deaths to alleged hospital negligence rather than deliberate harm. The Court of Appeal rejected her application in April 2024. In June 2024, she was retried on one of the outstanding attempted murder charges, found guilty, and given a fifteenth whole-life order.
In the months and years after Letby’s convictions, the case continued to develop on several fronts. In October 2024, she sought permission to appeal her later conviction, arguing that intense media coverage had compromised the fairness of the trial, but the Court of Appeal dismissed the application. Meanwhile, police expanded their inquiries, examining whether Letby may have harmed additional babies. Investigators reviewed thousands of neonatal admissions at both the Countess of Chester Hospital and Liverpool Women’s Hospital, flagging cases involving unexplained collapses or deaths.
Letby was questioned under caution as part of these inquiries, and in July 2025, the Crown Prosecution Service confirmed it was assessing potential further charges based on new material. Separately, Cheshire Constabulary launched a corporate manslaughter investigation into the hospital’s leadership, leading to arrests of senior figures in 2025. However, in January 2026, prosecutors announced they would not pursue new charges against Letby after reviewing the evidence. She is currently serving her sentence at HMP Low Newton in Durham, England.
Read More: Susan and John Letby: Where are Lucy Letby’s Parents Now?
