A nurse accused of killing seven babies and attempting to kill 10 others wrote ‘I am evil, I did this’ in capital letters on a piece of paper that was found following a police search of her home, an English court has been told.
Lucy Letby also wrote: “I don’t deserve to live. I killed them on purpose because I’m not good enough to take care of them. I’m a terribly bad person,” they told Manchester Crown Court, reports RTE.
The notes were among other paper and sticky notes that also contained “numerous pleas of innocence,” prosecutor Nick Johnson KC told the jury.
Ms Letby, 32, denies attacking newborn babies in various ways, including poisoning, in an alleged shooting at the Countess of Chester Hospital neonatal unit between June 2015 and June 2016.
At the conclusion of the indictment’s opening, which began Monday, Johnson said that after Letby was suspected of being assigned to office duties in which she could not pose a danger to children until her arrest in July 2018 .
After her home on Westbourne Road in Chester was searched, “interesting items” were found, Johnson said.
Documents relating to numerous deceased or collapsed children were found along with sticky notes with tightly written words that included the names of some of her colleagues, the court heard.
According to RTE, Johnson told the jury “But I want to show you one note in particular,”
Pointing to a yellow sticky note displayed on the jury’s television screens, he focused on some of the words written in ink by Ms Letby.
Johnson said: “She wrote: ‘I don’t deserve to live. I killed them on purpose because I’m not good enough to take care of them, ‘I’m a terribly bad person’ and in all caps ‘I’m bad, I did that.’, reports the national broadcaster.
Johnson added: “Well, ladies and gentlemen, in a nutshell, that is her job in this case. Whether or not she did these terrible things is the decision she will have to make when she has heard all the evidence.”
In addition to the “I am evil” note, there were other written notes that the jury heard.
Johnson said those sentences included phrases like “Why/how did this happen? What process led to this current situation? What accusations were made and by whom?” and “Do you have written evidence to support your comments?”
The prosecutor said in her pleadings that Ms. Letby expressed her frustration that she was not allowed to return to the neonatal unit, writing: “I have done nothing wrong and they have no evidence, so why did I have to hide me?”
Johnson added: “His notes from her also expressed concern about the long-term effects of what she feared would be alleged against her and there are many protests of innocence.”
The trial, scheduled to last six months, began Monday and the jury has now heard the outlines of the seven murder charges and the 10 attempted murders.
These include allegations that Ms Letby attacked newborn babies using a variety of methods, including insulin poisoning and injecting the babies with air, preventing them from breathing.
Most of the babies were born premature, some were only a day old when they were allegedly attacked.
Jurors also heard Ms Letby send a condolence card to the parents of a baby she allegedly killed on the fourth attempt and was cut in the act of attacking the children by unsuspecting parents and doctors.
Some of the parents of the children involved attended the opening of the trial, directly opposite Mrs Letby’s own parents in the public gallery.
The defendant in the dock sat passively listening to the prosecutor, with a folder of papers on her lap.
A court order prohibits revealing the identities of the surviving and deceased children who were allegedly attacked by Ms Letby, and prohibits identifying parents or witnesses related to the children.
Mrs Letby, of Hereford, denies all allegations. The trial continues.
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