"THE KILLER NURSE: LUCY LETBY, 7 DEAD BABIES & THE NETFLIX DOCUMENTARY DIVIDING A NATION"

0:03 Caalarogashark Media. Good morning. I'm Red Carter, Tuesday, February tenth, twenty twenty six taking a break from the courtrooms today to talk about something you've probably already seen in your Netflix queue. Maybe you've already watched it. Maybe you're one of the sixty million people who've clicked on it in the last six days. The Investigation of Lucy Letbee, Netflix's number one documentary worldwide right now, ninety minutes about a British neonatal nurse convicted of murdering seven babies attempting to murder seven more. Sentenced to fifteen whole life orders. That's the harshest sentence in the British legal system. She will die in prison. But here's why it's number one on Netflix and not just another true crime documentary because half the people who watch it think she's a monster and the other half think she's innocent. Lucy let Be thirty six years old former nurse at the Countess of Chester Hospital in northern England. Between June twenty fifteen and June twenty sixteen. Prosecutors say she went on a killing spree in the neonatal unit, injected air into tiny bloodstreams, poisoned babies with insulin, overfed them with milk to restrict their breathing, manipulated breathing tubes, attacked the most vulnerable patients on the planet,

1:33 premature infants fighting for their lives. Police searched her home after her arrest found handwritten notes post it notes. One of them read, I am evil. I did this case closed right? Monster caught? Lock her up, throw away the key except now. An international panel of fourteen medical experts says there's no evidence she killed anyone. Says the babies died from natural causes or bad metal care at an understaffed, failing hospital. Says the prosecution's key evidence was based on a misinterpretation of a nineteen eighty nine research paper. Says the scientist whose work was cited at trial was never asked to testify, and when he finally reviewed the case, he said his research was misused. The Criminal Case's Review Commission is considering whether this is a miscarriage of justice.

2:23 Letb's defense team has submitted thirty one expert reports from twenty six specialists. The Thoroughwall inquiry into what happened at the hospital has been delayed until after Easter. Three former senior hospital staff were arrested last June on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter, and Netflix dropped a documentary right in the middle of all of it, using artificial intelligence to digitally disguise the faces of witnesses, showing never before seen footage of Letb's arrest at her parents' home. Her parents, who had no idea Netflix had the footage, said watching it would likely kill us. I'm read Carter today. The case of Lucy Letb, the murders, the trial, the conviction, the doubt, and whether Netflix just made a true crime documentary or accidentally exposed the greatest wrongful conviction in British history.

3:14 This is celebrity trials. Lucy Letbe was born January fourth, nineteen ninety in Hereford, England. Only child. Father sold furniture. Mother was an account's clerk. Unremarkable childhood, went to church school, attended Hereford's sixth form College. Wanted to be a nurse from a young age. Why neonatal nursing specifically A childhood friend told the BBC that Letby had a difficult birth herself nearly didn't survive. Was grateful to the nurses who saved her life wanted to do the same for other babies. She studied nursing at the University of Chester three years of training, did placements at Liverpool Women's Hospital and the Countess of Chester Hospital. Graduated in September twenty eleven with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing, specializing in child nursing.

4:08 First person in her family to go to university. But there were early warning signs. Maybe or maybe they were just the struggles of a new nurse learning her profession. Depends on who you ask. Her first clinical assessor, Nicola Lightfoot, failed her on her final year placement, said let Be was lacking in clinical and medication knowledge, needed more experience reading nonverbal signs of distress from parents. At the thorough Wall Inquiry in twenty twenty four, Lightfoot used a specific word to describe let Be cold. Let Be requested a new assessor passed her retrieval placement. Graduated January twenty twelve.

4:49 Let Be started working at the Countess of Chester Hospital's neonatal unit, cared for premature babies, sick newborns, the most fragile patients in medicine. She seemed to it in a twenty thirteen staff profile, she said she enjoyed seeing them progress and supporting their families. She helped raise funds for a new neonatal unit, volunteered for extra shifts. Seemed dedicated, but she also told colleagues she found non intensive care work boring. Wanted the sickest babies, the most critical cases, the ones fighting for survival. July twenty thirteen, let Be and a senior nurse set an infant's morphine infusion rate at ten times the correct amount. The deputy ward manager suspended let Be from administering controlled drugs. Let Be was upset complained to the unit manager, who was on leave during the incident. The suspension was lifted a week later after let Be complained it was an overreaction. April twenty sixteen, let Be administered antibiotics to a baby that wasn't prescribed them.

5:54 Classified it as a minor error, was reassigned from night shifts to day shifts. The use incidents could mean something, or they could be the normal mistakes of a busy nurse in an understaffed unit. Nurses make medication errors, it happens. Doesn't make them murderers. But here's where the story turns dark. June twenty fifteen, the Countess of Chester Hospital's neonatal unit typically saw two or three infant deaths per year, normal for a unit that size. Tragic, but expected when you're caring for the most fragile patients. In June twenty fifteen, alone, four babies collapsed, three died. The neonatal death rate more than doubled. An independent monitoring project found the death rate was at least ten percent higher than expected between June twenty fifteen and June twenty sixteen. Something was wrong. Lead neonatologist, doctor Stephen brarie noticed a pattern. One nurse was on shift for every single collapse, every single death, Lucy let Be, but Brariy initially dismissed it. There was only one other qualified junior nurse in the unit. Let Be often worked extra shifts to cover staffing shortages. Of course, she'd be present for most incidents. Statistical coincidence, not evidence of murder.

7:11 Nobody had any concerns about her practice, Brariy said, except the deaths kept coming, baby after baby, collapse after collapse, and Lucy Letby was always there. The hospital conducted an informal review classed the deaths as medication errors. No police involvement, no formal investigation, just internal reviews that went nowhere. February twenty sixteen, the Care Quality Commission visited, heard about difficulties raising concerns with management. Found short staffing and skill mix issues, but praised the overall culture. Said staff felt well supported and able to raise concerns. Nobody mentioned the elevated death rate.

7:52 May twenty sixteen, the executive team deemed the spike in deaths coincidental, no substantial action taken, the baby's kept dying and Lucy let Be kept working. June twenty sixteen, let Be returned from a holiday in Ibisa, two more babies died almost immediately. Doctor Brarie called the duty executive demanded let Be be removed from the unit. The duty executive insisted she was safe to work. Two more dead babies, a doctor begging management to remove a nurse, management saying no, make it make sense. Finally, at the end of June twenty sixteen, the hospital's executive directors discussed involving police, decided against it. Instead, they ordered a review from the Royal College of Pediatrics and Child Health. Let Be was removed from the unit. On June thirtieth, transferred to an administrative role, and just like that, the collapses stopped. The mortality rate returned to normal coincidence or confirmation. But here's what happened next that should make your blood boil. The Royal College reviewed the unit, found insufficient staffing and senior cover, but praised Letby's nursing skills. Called the concerns about her a subjective view with no other evidence. Recommended further case reviews.

9:09 Let Be filed a formal grievance about being removed from clinical duties. The hospital board upheld it, said her removal had been orchestrated by the consultants with no hard evidence. The chief executive met with Letby and her parents in December two thousand sixteen, apologized on behalf of the hospital, promised the doctors who raised concerns would be dealt with. The doctors who tried to stop the killing were forced to write Lucy let Be a letter of apology. February two thousand seventeen, the whistleblowers apologized to the suspect, your tax dollars at work, well, your n h S contributions at work. March two thousand seventeen, four consultants, including Brarie, went directly to Cheshire Police. Enough was enough. Management wouldn't act, so they went around management. Let Be was due back on the unit. May third, Police opened Operation Hummingbird, the investigation that would eventually lead to Lucy Letbe's arrest, trial and conviction, but it took another year and a half before she was even arrested. We'll be right back with the evidence that convicted Lucy let Be. The post it notes, the Facebook searches, the sympathy cards, and the handwritten confession that prosecutors say proves she murdered seven babies. Welcome back to celebrity trials. I'm reed Carter. July third, twenty eighteen,

10:43 police arrested Lucy let Be at her parents' home in Hereford, suspicion of eight counts of murder and six counts of attempted murder. Searching her home, they found something unexpected over two hundred and fifty confidential nursing handover sheets documents about the babies, any relating specifically to the babies who collapsed and died arranged in chronological order. When police asked her about them, let Be said she brought them home by accident two hundred and fifty documents organized chronologically about specific dead babies by accident. Google search history is forever, and apparently so are nursing handover sheets when you take them home and file them like trophies. But the handover sheets were just the beginning. Police found handwritten notes, post it notes scrawled in Letby's handwriting. One note read I am evil I did this. Another I killed them on purpose because I'm not good enough. Prosecution presented these as confessions, written admissions of guilt, the killer acknowledging her crimes in her own handwriting. But there were other words on those same notes. Words the prosecution didn't emphasize slander, discrimination, I haven't done anything wrong. I feel very alone. Let Be's defense now argues those notes weren't confessions. They were the ramblings of a distressed woman who'd been removed from her job, accused of terrible things, and told by a therapist to

12:14 write down her feelings, a woman processing the horror of being accused, not confessing to it. Her current attorney, Mark MacDonald says in the Netflix documentary she was told as a form of therapy to write down her feelings. The words I am evil, I did this existed alongside words that suggest she didn't believe she did anything wrong. Make it make sense because both interpretations are plausible, and that ambiguity is at the heart of this case. Let Be was bailed in July twenty eighteen, re arrested June twenty nineteen, bailed again, Finally arrested for the third time November tenth, twenty twenty, this time no bail. Charged with eight counts of murder and ten counts of attempted murder, later adjusted to seven murders and fifteen attempted murders relating to seventeen babies.

13:07 She spent twenty three months in custody before her trial began October tenth, twenty twenty two, Manchester Crown Court, before Mister Justice Goss Lucy let Be pleaded not guilty to all charges. The trial lasted one hundred and forty five days, one of the longest murder trials in British history. The babies were referred to as Baby A through Baby Q, their identities protected by court order no names, just letters representing tiny lives. Prosecutors alleged Letby's methods varied. She injected air into blood streams, which can cause fatal air embolisms.

13:48 She poisoned babies with insulin, causing dangerous blood sugar drops. She overfed infants with milk, inflating their stomachs and restricting breathing. She manipulated breathing tubes, each method designed to look like a natural complication of premature birth. It was, after all, one of her favorite ways of killing, Prosecutor Nick Johnson told the jury, referring to air injection, the prosecution's case rested on several pillars. First, let Be's presence. She was on shift for an extraordinary number of collapses and deaths. A chart showed her presence correlated with virtually every suspicious incident. When she was removed, the incident stopped. Second, the handwritten notes I am evil, I did this. Prosecutors called them confessions. Third, her behavior. After Baby A died in June twenty fifteen, let Be texted her manager offering to do more shifts.

14:47 Said she needed to take an intensive care baby soon. From a confidence point of view, three days after a baby died on her watch, she wanted more sick babies. After Baby E died, let me send a sympath the card to the parents on the day of the funeral. Normal maybe, except she photographed the card before sending it and kept the photos on her phone. Why photograph a sympathy card unless you're collecting souvenirs. She had to be told more than once not to enter a room where grieving parents were mourning their dead child. Intrusive, obsessive, like she wanted to witness the grief she'd caused. She searched for the parents of dead babies on Facebook after they died.

15:30 Prosecutors called it intrusive curiosity. After the third baby death in two weeks in twenty fifteen, let be text at a colleague, I think there is an element of fate involved. There is a reason for everything. Fate O reason for everything. Prosecutors said that was let be acknowledging she was the reason. Fourth the medical evidence. This is where it gets complicated and where the entire case may fall apart. The prosecutions lead expert witness was Dewey Evans, retired consultant pediatrician not currently practicing. He contacted police after reading about the investigation and offered to help. Reviewed sixty one cases narrowed them to twenty two Evans concluded let Be had injected air into baby's blood streams, based partly on skin discoloration he observed in medical records modeling purple patches on the skin.

16:24 He cited a nineteen eighty nine research paper by doctor Shue Lee from the University of Toronto to support his theory that this modeling was diagnostic of deliberate air embolism. But here's the problem. Doctor Shue Lee was never asked to testify at trial, never consulted, never told his research was being used to convict someone of murder. When Lee finally reviewed the case, he was horrified, said his research was misused. The modeling described by Evans wasn't the same phenomenon he'd written about. His paper dealt with air embolisms caused by high pressure ventilation equipment, not deliberate injection. February twenty twenty five, Lee chaired an international panel of fourteen clinicians who examined the medical evidence. Their conclusion in all cases death or injury were due to natural causes or just bad medical care. No murders, no deliberate harm, just a failing hospital with inadequate staffing killing babies through incompetence and a nurse who happened to be present because she worked the most shifts. The defense at trial argued exactly this.

17:35 Ben Myers, defending let Be, told the jury his client denied everything. Said the deaths could be explained by the hospital's well documented staffing shortages, high giene issues, and inadequate care. Said, correlation isn't causation. Just because let Be was present doesn't mean she killed anyone, But the jury didn't buy it. August eighteenth, twenty twenty three, after deliberating for more than seven six hours, the jury returned their verdicts. Guilty of murdering seven babies, guilty of attempting to murder six others, not guilty on two counts, hung on six more. Lucy Letb showed no visible reaction. She had refused to attend court for the verdicts, watched via video link from her cell.

18:21 Mister Justice Gass sentenced her to life imprisonment with a whole life order for each count, fifteen life sentences. She would never be released. July twenty twenty four, a retrial on one of the hung counts, Baby K another conviction, another whole life sentence, fifteen total Lucy let Be was officially Britain's most prolific child killer of the modern era. But was she coming up the case against the case? Why fourteen international medical experts say there's no evidence Lucy let Be killed anyone, Why her defense team submitted thirty one expert reports seeking a retrial, and why Netflix's documentary might be the most important true crime film ever made or the most irresponsible. Welcome back to celebrity trials, I'm read, Carter.

19:23 Here's where this case gets uncomfortable. Because either Lucy let Be murdered seven babies and tried to murder seven more, or the British criminal justice system convicted an innocent woman based on flawed medical evidence, confirmation bias, and a post it note taken out of context. There is no middle ground. One of those things is true. Let's lay out the case for doubt the medical evidence. Doctor Shue Lee, the Canadian neonatologist whose nineteen eighty nine research paper was the cornerstone of the prosecution's air embolism theory, says his work was misused. Says the skin discoloration the prosecution point to as proof of deliberate air injection wasn't the same thing he wrote about, says the baby's deaths can be explained by natural causes or substandard care. In February twenty twenty five, Lee assembled a panel of fourteen international clinicians. They reviewed all the medical evidence from the case. Their conclusion was devastating.

20:21 They did not find any murders. Every single death, they said, could be attributed to natural complications of prematurity, or to the well documented failures of the Countess of Chester Hospital inadequate staffing, delays in treatment, hygiene problems, a unit that was described by multiple reviews as understaffed and overwhelmed. The prosecution's expert, witness Dewey Evans, was criticized by the Court of Appeal for making no effort to provide a balanced opinion. Evans was retired not currently practicing. He volunteered to help police, essentially appoint himself the case expert, and his conclusions are now being challenged by active practicing neonatologists from around the world.

21:08 The insolent evidence two babies showed abnormal blood test results that prosecutors said proved insulin poisoning, but medical experts have since argued those results could be explained by contamination or by the way the tests were conducted, not proof of deliberate harm. The shift correlation chart. Prosecutors showed the jury a dramatic chart linking let Be to every suspicious incident, but critics say correlation isn't causation. Let Be worked more shifts than any other nurse. She volunteered for overtime, she covered for staffing shortages. Of course, her name appeared more frequently. If you work twice as many shifts, you're present for twice as many incidents. That's math, not murder. There's also the question of what the jury didn't hear. The defense at trial didn't call doctor Shu Lee, didn't present the expert testimony that's now emerging, didn't effectively challenge the prosecution's medical evidence. Some argue the defense was inadequate, that let Be didn't receive a fair trial because her attorneys failed to present the strongest case for her innocence. The handwritten notes I am evil I did this powerful evidence, but also potentially the scrawlings of a woman in psychological crisis, removed from her job, accused of the worst crimes imaginable, told by a therapist to write down her feelings. The same notes also say I haven't done anything wrong and reference slander and discrimination. If these were genuine confessions, why

22:40 would they also contain denials the hospital cover up. This is what really raises questions. The Countess of Chester Hospital's management actively resisted investigating the deaths, dismissed doctor's concerns, forced whistleblowers to apologize to the suspect, upheld let Be's grievance against the doctors who raised alarms, apologized to Letby's parents, tried to bring her back to the unit. Why Because if the deaths were caused by let Be, it's a criminal matter. But if they were caused by systemic failures at the hospital, understaffing, poor hygiene, inadequate training, then management is responsible. Senior executives are liable. The institution is at fault.

23:23 June twenty twenty five, three former senior staff members at the Countess of Chester Hospital were arrested on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter. The hospital itself is under investigation for corporate manslaughter. That's significant. If hospital management was so negligent that it constituted manslaughter, then the deaths might not have been caused by a killer nurse at all. They might have been caused by a broken system, and Lucy Letby might be the scapegoat. January twenty twenty six, the Crown Prosecution Service announced it would not charge let Be with any further crimes. Police had submitted evidence about nine additional bits, as the CPS reviewed it and said no, not enough evidence.

24:04 If let Be was truly a serial killer on a rampage, wouldn't there be evidence of more victims? Or does the CPS decision suggest the original evidence wasn't as strong as prosecutors claimed. The Netflix documentary The Investigation of Lucy Letb was produced by ITN Productions. Ninety minutes, premiered February fourth, features never before seen footage of let Bey's arrest at her parents' home, her police interviews, a mother of one victim speaking publicly for the first time, detectives who built the case, lawyers from both sides, medical experts who challenged the evidence. The documentary uses artificial intelligence to digitally anonymize some interviewees, creating AI generated faces that blink, cry, and move but aren't the real people. Viewers have called it unsettling, disturbing, and grotesque. One wrote the manipulated photos and computer generated images felt particularly grotesque. This was an abysmal judgment call by the producers. Let Be's parents condemned the documentary as a complete invasion of privacy, said they had no idea footage from inside their home would be given to Netflix, said watching it would likely kill us. Reviews are polarized.

25:22 The Guardian called it sensationalist. Others say it's the most balanced examination of a case that desperately needs re examination. The truth is probably somewhere in between. But here's what the documentary does that matters. It gives airtime to doubt. It lets medical experts explain why the evidence might not support murder convictions. It lets let Be's current lawyer argue her case. It shows a hospital consultant who worked on the ward admitting to a tiny, tiny, tiny sense of guilt and wondering aloud, did we get the wrong person? That question is now echoing across Britain. Did they get the wrong person? The Criminal Cases Review Commission is considering Letby's application. Her defense has submitted thirty one expert reports from twenty six international specialists. The Thoroughwall Inquiry report expected to examine the hospital's failures has been delayed until after Easter.

26:16 Twenty twenty six. Inquests into five of the baby deaths were opened and adjourned in February. Coroners will examine whether the causes of death should be changed from natural or unknown to unlawful killing. Everything is still in motion, nothing is settled. And then there are the families, Because in every debate about evidence and experts and wrongful convictions, there are parents who buried their babies. They sat through one hundred and forty five days of trial testimony, heard prosecutors describe how their children were murdered, saw photographs, heard medical evidence, watched a jury convict the woman they believe killed their children.

27:00 The parents of Babies E and F issued a statement responding to the growing doubt misinformation is being circulated about what transpired in court. Having attended the trial ourselves, we are fully aware of what was said. They believe let be is guilty. They believe justice was served. And every time an expert questions the conviction, every time a documentary raises doubt, every time someone on social media calls let be innocent, these parents relive the worst moments of their lives One mother speaks in the Netflix documentary digitally anonymized a eye generated face, but the pain in her voice is real. She describes what happened to her child, describes sitting through the trial, describes what it's like to hear people say the woman convicted of killing her baby might be innocent. That's the cruelest part of wrongful conviction debates.

27:54 If let be is guilty, the doubters are torturing grieving parents by questioning a just verdict if let bebe is innocent. The prosecution traumatized these families twice, first by failing to prevent their baby's deaths through institutional negligence, then by convincing them a nurse murdered their children when she didn't. Either way, the family suffer. Either way, the system failed them. Here's what we know. For certain babies died at the Countess of Chester Hospital, more babies than should have. Something went catastrophically wrong. Whether that something was Lucy let Be, or the institution itself or some combination is the question that may define British criminal justice for a generation. Two juries found her guilty. The Court of Appeal rejected her appeals twice, but the medical evidence is crumbling. International experts are lining up to say the prosecution got it wrong. The CCRC is reviewing the case, the hospital is under investigation for manslaughter, and Lucy letb sits in HMP low Newton High Security Women's Prison in Durham, working as the U unit librarian.

29:01 Model prisoner, keeps her cell neat binge, watches shows on weekends, best friends with another infamous inmate, Baynash Battoul, convicted of murdering her stepdaughter, Sara Sharif. She maintains her innocence, has maintained it since the beginning. Says she didn't kill anyone. Says the notes weren't confessions. Says the deaths were natural. Fifteen whole life orders. She will die in that prison unless the CCRC refers her case back to the Court of Appeal, unless new evidence emerges, unless the system that convicted her acknowledges it may have made a terrible mistake that celebrity trials for Tuesday, February tenth, twenty twenty six, Lucy Letbe convicted of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder seven more at the Countess of Chester Hospital between June twenty fifteen and June twenty sixteen sentenced to fifteen whole life orders, the harshest sentence in British law. The prosecution says she injected air into bloodstreams poisoned with insulin and wrote I am evil. I did this on a post it note. The defense says the babies died from natural causes at a failing hospital and a traumatized nurse was scapegoaded for institutional failures. Netflix's documentary The Investigation of Lucy let Be has reignited the debate. International experts say the medical evidence doesn't support murder. The CCRC is reviewing

30:33 the case. The Thirlwall inquiry report is due after Easter. Three former hospital executives have been arrested for gross negligence manslaughter. This case isn't over, not by a long shot. Here's what I'll say. I don't know if Lucy let Be is guilty. I don't know if she's innocent. Nobody outside that neonatal unit knows for certain what happened to those babies. Two juries heard the evidence and convicted her. That matters. Juries don't convict lightly, But medical experts from around the world are now saying the evidence was flawed. That matters too. What I do know is this, babies died, whether they were murdered or failed by a broken health care system.

31:14 They deserved better, Their families deserved better. The truth deserves to come out, whatever that truth is. If let Be did this, she's exactly where she belongs. If she didn't, she's been in prison for years for crimes that never happened, and the people actually responsible for those babies' deaths have never been held accountable. Either way, someone failed those children. Make it make sense. I'm read, Carter. We'll be back tomorrow with your regular court coverage. This is celebrity trials.