Lucy Letby’s ‘mysterious lover’: how the killer told the court she couldn’t be in love with a married doctor because she had a ‘house, a car and a boyfriend’ – but no one ever identified him
Lucy Letby claimed she had a mysterious boyfriend while trying to debunk allegations that she was having an affair with a married doctor on her ward.
The NHS nurse has been exposed as Britain’s worst child serial killer of modern times and was sentenced yesterday to a staggering 14 life sentences.
At her trial, she was questioned about her relationship with a counselor who became her “best friend” when she killed babies at work.
Letby, 33, insisted they were ‘nothing more’ than ‘trusted’ friends and denied being ‘in love’ with the doctor, who requested anonymity at the start of the trial.
On one occasion Letby went to London with the doctor, and would go a second time before the trip was cancelled.
At her trial, Lucy Letby was questioned about her relationship with a counselor who became her ‘best friend’ when she killed babies at work
He had sent her a message that ended with a big red heart emoji.
Nick Johnson KC, the prosecutor, asked her to read the message aloud, but then had to ask her twice before finally referring to the emoji. “It’s a heart,” she told him.
Letby had responded to the doctor’s love heart with one of her own, paired with a smiling face emoji.
“It’s a smiley face and a heart,” she said.
Mr. Johnson asked, “But wasn’t he your boyfriend?”
Letby replied, “It’s not a relationship at all. It’s a friendship.”
Mr Johnson further referred to a note in which the nurse tells herself she is “an awful person” and laments the likelihood that “I’ll never know what it’s like to have a family.”
The lawyer asked, “When you wrote this, why did you think you would never have a family?”
The living room of the house where Letby lived in Cheshire before she was arrested
The bedroom in the house, which had meanwhile been sold
Mr. Johnson said, “You had a house, you had a car, you had a friend?”
“Yes,” the nurse replied.
The trial heard no further evidence about this apparent relationship. It is not clear how long it lasted and who the friend was.
Alternatively, he may have been a figment of Letby’s imagination.
The nurse is not known to have had any romantic relationship, with a close friend’s mother saying, “There were no boyfriends, at least not that I knew of.’
Similarly, her devious nature was exposed at trial, with the judge explaining how she went to great lengths to trick her colleagues into thinking the deaths under her watch were just a matter of “bad luck.”
The nurse killed seven babies and tried to kill six more
Letby not only falsified medical records, but also attacked babies when colleagues were on break and contaminated food that they would later consume without realizing it.
Attempting to explain away her scathing note, Letby claimed that she “didn’t see a future for myself” because she felt senior staff were trying to hold her accountable for what she believed were shortcomings at the hospital.
Mr. Johnson asked, “But you had a good time?”
Letby replied, ‘Yes, there were times in those years when I had a good time. Yes.’
The nurse killed seven babies and tried to kill six more.