A nurse accused of murdering seven infants has denied harming any kids as she gave proof for the primary time, crying at one level as she instructed the court docket “everything is just gone”.
Lucy Letby can also be accused of 10 tried murders between 2015 and 2016, allegedly utilizing strategies comparable to injecting air into the infants or poisoning them with insulin.
The prosecution alleges Letby was a “constant malevolent presence” within the neo-natal unit of the Countess of Chester Hospital in Cheshire.
The jury lastly heard from the 33-year-old, seven months into her trial.
She instructed Manchester Crown Court on Tuesday she had in all probability cared for a whole bunch of infants on the hospital.
Lucy Letby trial because it occurred
Letby mentioned it was “sickening” when she found she was being blamed for numerous child deaths whereas doing the job she “loved”.
“It was devastating. I don’t think you could be accused of anything worse than that,” she mentioned.
Asked by her barrister if she ever did something “meant to hurt any of them”, she replied: “No, I only did my best to care for them.”
Letby mentioned she by no means needed to hurt any child, saying it was “completely against everything that being a nurse is… I’m there to help and to care”.
The defendant instructed the court docket concerning the 3 times she was arrested by police, on suspicion of homicide and tried homicide of infants – calling it “traumatising”.
Letby turned tearful on a number of events throughout Tuesday’s proof, comparable to when proven a photograph of her bed room throughout a police search.
She additionally appeared to cry and wipe her eyes when her barrister, Ben Meyers KC, requested how exhausting it was to deal with her state of affairs.
“Everything about me and about my life, and the hopes I had for the future, everything is just gone,” mentioned Letby – who later mentioned she had been recognized with post-traumatic stress dysfunction.
Among objects recovered throughout the search of Letby’s house in Chester included a Post-it notice present in a diary.
Among phrases written on the notice have been, in capitals, “I am evil I did this”, the court docket has heard.
Letby additionally wrote: “I don’t deserve to live. I killed them on purpose because I’m not good enough to care for them. I am a horrible evil person.”
Mr Meyers requested her: “When you say killed them on purpose does that mean you’ve gone and done something intentionally?”
Letby replied: “No”.
Asked to elucidate, she mentioned it meant she hadn’t “been good enough and that I’ve somehow failed in my duties and my competencies”.
Letby mentioned she’d written it as a result of “I felt at the time I had done something wrong and I thought I’m such an awful, evil person… that I had made mistakes and not known”.
Mr Myers requested: “What did you thought you had done?”
“That somehow I had been incompetent and I had done something wrong to affect these babies. I felt I must be responsible in some way,” Letby replied.
She mentioned the scrawled notice “was a way of me expressing how I felt at the time that I wasn’t able to say to anyone else”.
Family of the alleged victims – who can’t be named – watched from the general public gallery as Letby gave proof, as did her personal dad and mom.
Letby, from Hereford, denies all of the allegations.
The trial continues.
Source: information.sky.com”