“You’re going to spend the rest of your life in jail,” Judge James Goss summed up. The 33-year-old nurse, “cold, calculating, cruel and tenacious” according to the prosecution, was sentenced to irreducible life – a rare sentence in English law synonymous with life in prison without possibility of release – by the Manchester court for the murder of seven premature babies and six attempted murders on Monday August 21. The case sparked fear in the United Kingdom.
“There was premeditation, calculation and deviousness in your actions,” Mr. Goss insisted, referring to “a calculated and cynical campaign” of killings, “bordering on sadism” and without remorse. At the woman’s home, handwritten notes were found on which she had written, “I’m evil, I did it.” On other notes, she proclaimed her innocence.
The judge justifies the “exceptional gravity” of the sentence in relation to the crimes. He felt that only the killer could know her motives but noted the “detached enthusiasm for resurrections” she showed when attempting to revive children she had harmed.
The murders took place between June 2015 and June 2016. Lucy L. notably injected intravenous air into premature newborns, used their nasogastric tubes to send air or an overdose of milk into their stomachs. . The woman would attack babies after their parents left, when the nurse in charge went away, or at night when she was alone. She then sometimes joined collective efforts to save newborns, even assisted desperate parents, going so far as to write cards to grieving parents.
Lucy L. absent for sentencing
Already absent from court on Friday when she was found guilty, Lucy L. refused to attend the pronouncement of her sentence, broadcast live on British television. This refusal aroused the frustration and anger of the families of victims who wanted the nurse to listen to their last testimonies.
“When you’ve committed such horrific crimes, it’s cowardly not to confront the victims,” ??British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said on Monday, adding he was considering legislation to stop it happening. The British government has also ordered an independent inquiry which will look “into the circumstances behind the horrific murders and attempted murders of babies”. It will need to “ensure families get the answers they need.”
Since Friday, questions have multiplied, in particular on the fact that Lucy L. was not arrested earlier. According to the British press, doctors would have launched alerts as early as 2015, but the management of the hospital would not have listened to them or would not have acted, concerned about the reputation of the establishment.
Police continue to review thousands of cases for any additional victims of Lucy L. On Sunday evening, The Guardian newspaper reported that police were investigating dozens of “suspicious” incidents, involving 30 babies, in the hospital where she worked.
