Lucy Letby Is Found Guilty – Some Theories On Her Methods & Motives
This has been a disturbing and mind boggling case, in particular for those with a background in hospitals, and the care of neonates. It is also an incredibly convoluted study on abnormal human psychology, considering her role, her outward appearances, and the fact the victims were so defenceless, and innocent – more so, than any other human being could possibly be.
The verdict is finally in, convicting the former neonatal intensive care nurse of murdering seven babies, and attempting to murder several more. What a terrible ordeal for all those involved.
The verdict is opening up a much wider investigation, into all the baby deaths in locations she worked, during the entire time she worked as a nurse. Fortunately, she only worked for about five years, but even so, it will be an astronomical task, to delve into her entire history on every single shift.
It is also bringing out issues that could not be discussed during the trial, and the deliberations. In leading up to the murders, she must have tried a few other devious things, with many near misses, or with outcomes that were assumed to be natural.
Now, they will have to comb through hundreds more charts, and potential cases. Hindsight will now add a lot more skepticism, and a lot less benefit of the doubt. It is likely there is much more to be revealed in the coming months. The veil of secrecy is lifted. Any loyalty toward her will evaporate, perhaps with the exception of her parents.
When it comes to abnormal psychology, it is very difficult to assess her conduct based on normal values. However, one of the things this might bring to light, is that the issue of abnormal psychology, is more prevalent than we like to believe.
There is a popular YouTube doctor named Les Carter, who has done many videos about narcissism, and all the various tentacles surrounding this personality disorder. His videos are designed to help the victims recover, and gain a better understanding of the abuser’s mindset. He is outlining ways to help victims regain self worth, boundaries, and control over their own lives.
Dr. Les Carter has garnered over one hundred million views. This means the subject of abnormal psychology, and abuse from narcissistic personalties, is affecting millions of people. Therefore this type of personality disorder, and all that is associated with it extending to antisocial behaviour, psychopathy, sophisticated deceptions, gaslighting, sadistic tendencies, manipulations, and other destructive traits, are not as rare as we originally thought.
In the case of Lucy Letby, all the traits Dr. Carter describes are now easier to see, once the verdict is in. Before there was a full investigation and final verdict, few people wanted to admit what actually happened. But now, her personality traits will be put under a microscope, and seen with much more clarity.
Although the depths of depravity in her case may never be fully understood, I believe the root of it is narcissism. She was the centre of her own universe, and the babies she victimized were simply part of her narcissistic supply. They were easy targets, as they had no way of defending themselves, or telling anyone about it.
As a part of this dark trait, she also had sadistic elements to her personality, because much of what she did was akin to torture. She also appeared to get pleasure out of the grief, and devastation she caused for the parents, and families of those babies.
At the heart of it though, in my opinion, was her desire to be the top dog on the ward. It still boils down to dominance and control. Once you graduate as a nurse, you soon find out there is a distinctive hierarchy in the medical system.
From various reports on the Internet and true crime podcasters, it appears Lucy Letby aspired to become a nurse, and when she achieved her goal, the parents were very proud. They were proud to the extent it was published in local papers, and her achievement was a very big deal.
Many people would claim such a reaction is normal, as all parents are proud of their child’s accomplishments. But once more details emerge, I am inclined to think it was over the top. In most cases, a parent’s pride does not lead to abnormal behaviour, but if she was already predisposed to narcissism, her expectations surrounding her achievements as a nurse, would be more than what is reasonable.
Whatever an adult decides to do, is not the fault of the parents. No parent is perfect, and if we are honest, we all must admit to making some dreadful mistakes. If anything should humble us, it is in the fact we have failed those we love the most, in countless ways.
Yes we have to work hard to raise them, and some get far better care than others. Some get way too much attention, and others get way too little attention. Sometimes too much advantage can be a disadvantage. Therefore, even good intentions, and inadvertently spoiling them, can go awry.
In other cases, kids live in what appears to be an idyllic environment, yet they may be affected by tensions between parents, or strictness, or rigidity, or laxity, or unfairness, or too much concern about what the neighbours think, or too much focus on money, or subtle forms of emotional abuse. We simply do not know what goes on in families, and how things are interpreted by the children.
Our children grow up by the grace of God. Some are very resilient, some are naturally kind and good hearted. Others are an incredible handful, leaving parents at their wits end.
One cannot help but wonder if her need for attention, and inclination toward harming others, was evident during her childhood. You have to wonder if the sadistic aspects of her personality showed in the way she treated animals, like puppies and kittens. Or if she was mean to smaller children, or deceptive and manipulative to the extreme. It is not that uncommon for parents to think their little darling can do no wrong.
After graduation, she took a post-basic NICU certification, which in the UK, gives a nurse a higher level of recognition and responsibility. In Canada, these post-basic certifications are quite common, and are often a requirement to work in specialty areas. They do not exalt a nurse into a goddess-like state of importance. But there are some nurses who put on airs of superiority, usually in order to cover up feelings of insecurity.
The jumbled notes, and various text messages she wrote, do support the theory that she did have the dichotomy of both shame, and supreme arrogance within her troubled psyche. This is something Dr. Carter goes into detail about, as he describes this personality disorder.
Once she graduated, she would have soon realized the role of a nurse is not at the top of the medical pyramid. It is a highly task oriented role, and not as exalted as she would have liked, given the hierarchy within such a system. She may have become disillusioned. She was not the super star centre of attention she had envisioned herself to be. She had to craft a way to overcome the mundane tasks of everyday life on the ward.
She would have soon realized it was the doctors who wrote the orders, did the diagnostics, and had a superior role. Therefore, given the highly competitive nature of the narcissist personality, she had to devise ways to control, and play a game of one-upmanship.
She became the ward puppet master. She was the centre of attention, like the creator and director of her own reality TV show, involving human drama in a hospital setting. Only she was dealing with real lives. And clearly those lives did not matter anywhere near as much as her own life mattered. The people around her were little more than props, to serve her own ego and sadistic entertainment.
She found a way to create drama on the ward, and bring everyone running to her side. They could not figure out what was going on, but secretly she knew. How clever. That would give her not only the attention she craved, but also the superiority and control, over and above everyone else on the ward.
All normal people who are unexpectedly called upon to intubate, or do CPR, insert IV’s, or give treatments in an emergency situation, become stressed. Especially when it involves neonates, or children.
They are suddenly and without warning, thrust into a situation involving intense focus, and often have fear of making a mistake. Sometimes it is difficult to intubate, or get the IV into the vein. They know they are in a position of life or death decisions, and competencies.
Sometimes they cannot locate the proper equipment, or have to rely on someone else who does not know where things are. But in all of the collapses she caused, she would be equipped, because she knew what was about to happen.
For a person who has no empathy, and orchestrated the drama, she would have a completely different viewpoint. The stress she sees in others, reinforces her accusations of their faults and incompetence. She is making her observations, and reactions, from a position of superiority and judgment, even though she is the one who caused the catastrophe.
Projection is a common defence mechanism in such a personality type. She was seeking ways to project her own insecurities onto others, in order to make herself feel superior. She made frequent references to the lack of qualifications, and the errors made by others. Even though she was the common denominator in all of the sudden collapses, the only admissions she made, were on the scrawled post-it notes found in her house.
Yet because other people do tend to have empathy, she also drew upon them later, for sympathy, and affirmations of what she had to go through, how calm she was, and how well she did, considering the unfortunate situation. She followed up with a “poor me” and “why does it always happen to me” outreach for sympathy from co-workers. It is as diabolical as it gets.
Her manipulations included a married doctor who she had a relationship with, and whose support she had brought into her corner. When there was a collapse, and he was on call, he came running to work alongside her. Afterwards the two of them would share lengthy dialogues via texts, and he would offer his sympathy, support, and encouragement.
Although he was never named during the trial, he will still have a lot of explaining to do. Not only to his wife, but to his professional association as well. Although affairs are common in hospitals, murder is not. There were text messages between them after he met with other doctors who had concerns about her, and were raising alarm bells. I think those are the ones that might land him in hot water.
Her doctor friend was kind enough to reassure her after one such meeting. He disclosed some confidential information from the meeting, telling her she had nothing to worry about, and her charting was spot-on. They also talked about how well they worked together. She wanted him there when she needed him.
It was also disclosed, without a lot of detail, what most of us would view as being more than a co-worker relationship, as they did do some things together outside the hospital. So far, it was described as shared meals, and shopping trips. How many people would see such activities as being nothing more than a friendship between colleagues? How many other nurses did he go on shopping trips with, or out for dinner? One does wonder.
On one of the exchanges between the two, he asked her if she wanted him to pick up some lunch for her. She wrote dreamily about him in her diary. They shared emoji hearts, and other signs of a warm and fuzzy, so-called colleague friendship.
I worked in a hospital setting, and did have a few doctors make advances, which was bait I am glad to have avoided. I also witnessed the affairs that developed between a few others.
I don’t think I ever came across a nurse in a working environment, where a doctor offered to pick up some lunch for her. The only case I could imagine an innocent lunch offer happening, is if the doctor went out to buy lunch for everyone. Although it could happen, I never did see that either. Not even donuts. Usually it was a grateful patient who brought in the donuts.
She also shared multiple other texts with co-workers seeking attention, and support for how she handled herself in the crisis situations. Even after she was taken off night shift, she did not clue in or realize the gravity of the suspicions against her. She continued her rampage while on the day shift, long after several doctors had voiced grave concerns about what was going on with her. She was mad at them for conspiring against her. How dare they!
It got to the point where she was so heady and high-minded, she became increasingly reckless. Part of this might have been because she had been the poster face for a fund raising campaign that generated a significant sum of money for the hospital.
She was the trustworthy sweet young nurse, a fresh face, depicting a dedicated nurse holding up an infant onesie for the photo-ops. This might have been part of the reason the hospital administration did not want to pursue the allegations against her. After all, she had recently been part of a successful PR campaign with her innocent looking face plastered everywhere.
I believe Lucy Letby learned the ropes soon after she graduated, and simultaneously recognized the hierarchy and constraints of her role. She then used her knowledge, combined with the trust, and the opportunities to do surreptitious harm, in order to elevate herself to a position of control and domination on the ward. She would be the one to call the shots, because she had methods involving sophisticated deception, and manipulation of all those around her.
To confirm just how much of a power play she was involved in, it is incredible to realize she had the hospital administrators siding with her against the doctors who were raising alarms. The administration made it clear they planned to reinstate her, and then had the gall to force an apology. Not only did she expect them to apologize and be willing to work with her, but she also demanded they were to be “happy to work with her”.
It must have been a sickening ordeal for those doctors. She nearly got her way, and if nothing else, she played enough head games, and power plays to cause them severe psychological and emotional distress. They knew they had legitimate concerns, yet they were being gaslit, undermined, and dis-qualified. To be patient and humble in such circumstances would have been incredibly difficult.
When a police investigation was finally launched, the doctors received some well deserved validation. It took the team of doctors, combined with a team of police officers, and some dogged determination on their part, to overcome her clinical knowledge, and expert ability to con and lie – in order to finally get her backed into a corner.
At a certain point, she eventually had her meltdown moments. At long last, some intrinsic revelation came to light in her dark soul. It took an incredible effort to get things to that point. For a significant period of time during the protracted battle with the doctors, she clearly believed she was going to get away with murder.
Even after her first two arrests, she managed to get out on bail. She must have had a lot of confidence in her ability to get herself out of a bind. When she was arrested for a third time, without bail, it became pretty clear the police were convinced she was guilty.
She was just one person, a spoiled, haughty, self-indulgent nurse, who did not even have a solid or lengthy track record – yet it took a monumental effort to first put a stop to the harm she was doing, then to finally convict her. It took a team of doctors, a team of police officers, a prosecution team, and a team of jurors to bring down this one young woman.
The babies were dehumanized, and used as narcissistic supply. What is most horrific of all, is that the methods she used, and the injuries she inflicted, in many cases, were torture. Force feeding a large amount of milk and air into the stomach of a tiny baby, is torture. One can only imagine the pain and discomfort this would have caused.
If any adult can envision someone standing over them with a bucket of milk, and forcing it into their stomach with a primitive pump, until the stomach is so distended, it interferes with the diaphragm and breathing, displaces organs, and causes severe hypoxia – what else could it be called but torture?
In a similar vein, using a syringe to push air into the veins, causes a large bubble of air to travel to one of the chambers of the heart, or to the brains or lungs, and cause a catastrophic collapse.
In other cases, a sharp instrument caused bleeding in the throat. Could she have used a guide wire, or a metal laryngoscope blade to cause those injuries? In addition, she put at least two babies into insulin shock, which is something done by fascists in another era, to cause harm to patients, in particular psych patients.
In another case, a child had a traumatic liver injury. One can only wonder, and shudder at the thought of what else she may have done to those poor defenceless babies during her reign of terror.
One thing for certain, is that narcissists will use vulnerable people as targets for their destructive tendencies. They will use incredibly devious schemes, plots, and deception to cover their tracks. They will never admit wrongdoing, or show remorse.
In addition, one of the key takeaways, is to notice how much their lives matter. They do not consider the effect on the victims. Lucy Letby cried and claimed she had PTSD because she was arrested in her pyjamas, and was devastated to be faced with consequences. After all, she professed her innocence. What more did they expect?
The police did a good job. Even though it was a very complex case, with a plethora of medical terminology to deal with, they did not back off. Like the jury, they deserve a great deal of credit for bringing justice to the families.
She became very upset when the married doctor she was in love with entered the court room to give his testimony. She was angry and upset when she was taken off the ward, and given administrative duties, to the extent she filed a grievance against the hospital for what she perceived as “unfair treatment”. Clearly her life mattered, right down to the expectation of fair treatment, yet what kind of fair treatment did her victims get?
Perhaps this case will serve as a wake up call, not only for hospitals, but for all people, to realize this type of disorder is contributing to widespread societal problems, and harm to innocent people.
Some say she was so ordinary she was beige or bland. Others say she was jealous of the parents of the babies, who had each other, and were having a family together, while she was a lonely spinster with just her cats.
I think she may have felt jealous and coveted those things. But we have to keep in mind, she started killing babies when she was just twenty-five years old. In addition, she must have had thoughts of doing so before she actually did it. So how does a person in their early twenties come to the conclusion they will never have children, never have a family etc.? She was young and single with an active social life. She could have easily met someone outside of work to partner up with.
Instead, she chose to become fixated on a married doctor, who was also a co-worker. Is that why she thought she would never marry? Because he was not available? Yet she was making a choice to go after someone who was married. So she was making tangible choices.
Given the idea she may have been jealous or covetous, it appears she was coveting a married co-worker, instead of making a wiser choice in a larger pool of available young men. She was self-sabotaging. People who really do want to find a partner and settle down, will find one. Only in rare exceptions of extreme oddities in looks or personality, does a person who wants a partner, get totally rejected by the opposite sex.
I think the most telling components of Letby’s thought distortions, can be seen in those jumbled notes she wrote. They are skewed, layered, dichotomous, self-incriminatory, and not the least bit fastidious or organized.
I think she was on a narcissist path of catastrophic self implosion. For some reason she had a fractured self, a broken identity alternating between self exaltation, and self recrimination. There was an irreconcilable splitting of her self image and self worth. On one hand it was grandiose, and on the other hand it was morose.
Now that she has been convicted, in hindsight I bet she realizes she threw away a wonderful life. In retrospect, she had it all. She had a good job, her own house, doting parents, a good standard of living, an active social life, holidays, dancing, freedom, fitness, and an entire ocean full of fish in the sea.
But when her childhood water wings were removed, she drowned herself, merely for a lack of being constantly put on the pedestal of being special. It was too far to fall, and it shattered her. Her Disney world movie of seeing herself as a princess in real life, was unattainable. She did not leave sparkles everywhere she went. She had to construct another way to be special, no matter what it took, or who it took away from this world.
I know many people do not want to consider the existence of evil, as everything destructive must be a mental health disorder. If it can be deemed a mental health disorder, the person is sick, not evil. Similar to the Lindsay Clancy case, another murderous nurse, who is said to have had postpartum depression, so she strangled all three of her children.
People come out in droves with sympathy, and exclaim how she needed help. She did get help. She was going to a mental health outpatient clinic five days a week. She had been doctor hopping to the extent she had thirteen different psych meds prescribed to her over a four month period. She was also addicted to benzos.
In addition, her husband was working from home to help support her. She got far more help than the average woman with young children gets. If she was so disabled from a mental health disorder, how did she drive, act normal, socialize, and take her children to appointments, etc.? Why were they not taken away from her until she got sorted out?
And perhaps more than anything else, how did she plan the murder of three young children right down to the minute? She sent her husband on an errand, and then diverted him more by asking him to pick up a children’s laxative at the pharmacy, when she knew darn well the child would never need the medication, based on what she had so meticulously planned out.
Postpartum depression is a real condition, and many women do suffer from it temporarily, usually within the weeks after giving birth, as the hormones adjust.
However, they seldom kill their children. The other factor is that the incidence of female and male filicide is the same. Men do not get diagnosed with postpartum depression, so how does anyone explain the fact that men kill children too?
There has to be a component of evil combined with mental health disorders, and other stressors, usually financial. It is frequently combined with substance abuse, and marital conflict as well. Lindsay Clancy did not want to go back to work. She expressed it in her many FB posts about her resentments, rage, and mental health difficulties prior to the murders.
We have to come to terms with the fact evil does exist in this world. Turning a blind eye only leads to denial, excuses, and the belief that a person who does such things can find an easy diagnosis, and defence for committing such atrocious crimes. Her first question after the fact was “Do I need an attorney?” How many people honestly believe it is the first question a truly psychotic person would ask after killing three small children?
Lindsay Clancy’s youngest child was eight months old, yet there are people who are still announcing he was a newborn. In fact, the little guy was found in her husbands office, which made me wonder if he was trying to crawl away to escape her murderous rampage.
She would most likely have killed the older children first, as they would have been harder to control, especially the five year old. In addition, the youngest was the only one who was transferred to a hospital, and lived for awhile, which makes me think he was the last one she attacked.
When you think about it, few things could be more horrific. Lindsay Clancy was a nurse who worked in labour and delivery. Like Lucy Letby, she must have had more demons than anyone recognized.
In my opinion evil can co-exist with mental health disorders. Not all people with mental health disorders are evil, but some of them are a combination of both. Most people with mental health disorders are not violent or evil. They are struggling. But unfortunately, some people do become evil.
In addition, not all people who are evil would even be diagnosed with a mental health disorder, until they are convicted of some serious crimes. People can do a lot of relationship damage without being charged with a crime. As Dr. Carter points out, it is especially so in toxic family dynamics, where there is a need for one person to have absolute power, dominance and control. Certain others get destroyed in the process.
As much as people are not inclined to believe evil exists, many more do not want to bring the Bible into the equation either. We do know that some so-called Bible thumpers can be evil too, especially if they take scripture out of context, and use it for their own selfish agenda, or as a tool of deception. But those people are not true Bible believers, so there is a differentiation to be made.
Similar to Lucy Letby taking her medical knowledge out of context, and using it as a weapon, instead of advanced knowledge to improve care, some religious people also take the Bible out of context as well. They are simply using the Bible to serve a selfish agenda. They use scripture to mask their true intentions, under a cloak of pseudo-religious deception.
This causes people to mistrust, doubt, and to dispel what the Bible has to say about evil. However, if you do not take the Bible out of context, and do not use it to abuse power, there is much wisdom and insight to be gleaned from the Bible. There is also prophecy to help describe, and warn us about the scenarios we might come across, especially during the end times.
Thankfully, the jury did do a sincere public service by diligently examining all the evidence put forth. If they did end up without a verdict, or an acquittal, it would mean she would have been able to carry on working as a nurse. Perish the thought!
In recognizing the existence of evil, we do not dispute the existence of good. The Bible does say we are like the wheat and the tares, living and growing alongside each other. We don’t have to become totally cynical or paranoid, just vigilant and aware.
Hospital administrators need to step up, and take responsibility for addressing concerns brought forth. They don’t want to believe it could happen. They are going to face much criticism, and wish they had responded in a more timely fashion. They need to stop the denial, and put policies in place to protect the patients.
Since the days of Adam and Eve eating the forbidden fruit, we have been thrust into the knowledge of both good and of evil.
One thing I did notice in many of the comments surrounding the Lucy Letby case, is that nurses, midwives, and those with knowledge of a hospital setting, believed there was serious wrongdoing without any rational explanations.
However, many of the lay people who made comments did not understand, and could not see why a nurse would do these things, therefore she cannot possibly be guilty.
As we all know, there is a fine line between innocence until proven guilty, and guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. No one wants to see someone be wrongfully convicted. But in this case, there were many unexplained collapses, combined with multiple mechanisms of injury. There is simply no way those things could have happened by accident.
I think Lucy Letby had knowledge, and evil intentions, but also lacked the experience to know that sudden collapses normally do have explanations. Things like infections, failure to thrive, congenital anomalies, heart defects etc. can, and do cause deaths. But the key difference is – those deaths are explainable.
But babies who are premature, and do not have conditions that would lead to sudden collapse, do not just die for no apparent reason. Letby seemed to think it would all be chalked up to prematurity and bad luck.
She is a classic case of where a little bit of knowledge in the wrong brain, can do a great deal of harm. She lacked both experience, and compassion, even though she was cunning and devious. She got a thrill out of all the drama she created.
When I refer to end times as described in the Bible, I am not referring to end times, as revolving around doomsday prophecy. But rather, it is the period of time that has been unfolding gradually over the past two thousand years, and intensifying as we get closer to the final chapters.
In Timothy chapter 3 verse 1-4 we are given some forewarning of what to expect. It’s not a reference to madness, but rather a state of mind for some, with sinister undertones, and widespread repercussions for those who fall victim to such individuals.
“1 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.
4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;” 2 Timothy 1-4 KJV
We would be wise to take heed, and to recognize there is evil in this world. There is much deception surrounding evil, often masquerading as good, or harmless, or trustworthy. Vigilance is required now more than ever before. Children need to be protected.
Copyright Valerie J. Hayes and Quiet West (2023). Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author/owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Valerie J. Hayes and Quiet West with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.