Lucy Letby was taught to write down darkest thoughts, friend claims
A bombshell new documentary on child killer Lucy Letby will offer a new explanation behind a number of scribbled notes written by the nurse which were used as evidence to convict her.
Britain’s most prolific child serial killer is currently serving 15 whole-life sentences for seven murders and seven attempted murders of babies while working at the Countess of Chester Hospital.
Notes such as “I am evil, I did this” were scrawled on a scrappy notepad found in her house, which also read: “I killed them on purpose because I am not good enough to care for them and I am a horrible evil person.”
“Hate” was also written in block capitals with heavy ink and circled, while the note is headed: “Not good enough.” But the notes also included other phrases such as: “I haven’t done anything wrong” and “we tried our best and it wasn’t enough”
The NHS neonatal nurse is currently serving 15 whole life sentences for seven murders and seven attempted murders of babies while working at the Countess of Chester Hospital.
According to The Times, a new ITV documentary will put forward a new explanation for the notes, which were presented by the prosecution as amounting to a confession – despite some of the notes appearing to deny her guilt.
Dawn is a childhood friend of Letby with whom she studied her A-Levels at Aylestone School in Hereford. The 35-year-old, who did not want her last name to be published, said the pair were taught while in school to write down their most dark thoughts during “peer-support training sessions”
Speaking to the Lucy Letby: Beyond Reasonable Doubt? documentary, she said: “At all of those training sessions, it was recommended to us that, you know, if you’re feeling overwhelmed, you write down everything that’s going through your mind that is, you know, troubling you.
“So, all of the dark thoughts, all of those inner voices that you can’t silence. You just write it all down on a piece of paper to get it off your mind.”
Letby has lost two attempts to challenge her convictions at the Court of Appeal so far, but questions are growing about the safety of Letby’s convictions after multiple experts have cast doubts over some of the evidence used in the trial in August 2023.
The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) is reviewing an application by Letby’s legal team, which includes a 300-page report from chemical engineer Helen Shannon and professor Geoff Chase, who refute claims made by the prosecution that Letby “undoubtedly” poisoned two babies by spiking their feeding bags with insulin.
Ms Shannon and Prof Chase, who were given access to the babies’ medical notes, say they could have been born with specific types of antibodies in their blood which can cause a high reading of insulin.
Speaking to the documentary, Ms Shannon said according to The Times: “What was presented in court as this is smoking-gun evidence of poisoning actually looks pretty typical for a pre-term neonate.
“And we can’t see any justification whatsoever for the prosecution statement that it could only be poisoning.”
Dawn also tells the documentary about the moment Letby was found guilty: “I think I was at work when I heard that they were, sort of, returning the verdict, and sort of tuned in and I think I just sat there dumbfounded for a while, not really knowing how to process what I was hearing,” she said.
“I didn’t think it was real. I immediately switched to thinking: ‘Well, what’s next, you know? What happens next? This can’t be it. She can’t just spend the rest of her life in prison’.”
Cancer and Alzheimer’s ‘strongly’ linked to toxic chemicals in food
Toxic chemicals present in our air, food and water have been strongly linked with a huge number of environmental problems and serious health issues, including cancer, obesity, dementia, infertility and ADHD.
Describing toxicity as “the most underrated threat facing humanity”, a new report has warned that the “contamination of humans is endemic” and that the risks to planetary and human health are “widely underestimated”, with the impact of pesticide use on cancer rates potentially rivalling that of smoking.
More than 3,600 synthetic chemicals from food contact materials, such as packaging and pesticides, are present within human bodies globally, the report revealed, 80 of which are feared to be especially dangerous.
Chemicals known as Perfluoroalkyl and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) were found in almost everyone tested, with 14 per cent of European teenagers having blood levels high enough to pose serious health risks.
Among the shocking findings is the link between pesticide use and leukaemia, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and bladder, colon and liver cancer – including suggestions that prenatal pesticide exposure increases the odds of childhood leukaemia and lymphoma by more than 50 per cent.
Evidence was also gathered showing that synthetic chemicals humans are exposed to have contributed to a global decline in sperm count – for example, men with high levels of certain PFAS have been found to have less than half the normal sperm count of those with low levels.
Amid escalating cancer rates, declining fertility, and a surge in chronic diseases, the team behind the report are warning that the current international approach to managing synthetic chemicals is “inadequate” and “misunderstood”, as they call for more coordinated action across the world and better standardisation to safeguard humans and the planet alike.
‘The Invisible Tsunami’ report was created by Deep Science Ventures’ science team with The Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment, following an eight-month investigation involving an analysis of peer-reviewed scientific papers as well as interviews with researchers, non-profit leaders, entrepreneurs and investors.
The industrial economy has created more than 100 million new chemicals, with 350,000 currently in commercial use after production surged 50-fold since the 1950s, according to the researchers. They explained that toxic chemical exposure, via air, food, and water, originates from fossil carbon feedstocks, which are the carbon-containing components extracted from fossil fuels.
The team warned the production of persistent chemicals, a group of toxic chemicals that remain in the environment for a long time, has grown so large that “a safe planetary boundary has been breached”. As an example, they said PFAS have “contaminated the entire planet”, with rainwater levels often surpassing safe drinking water limits and the chemicals found in the blood of almost the entire population.
Non-persistent pollution is equally widespread, with World Health Organization (WHO) data showing that almost all of the global population (99 per cent) breathes air that exceeds the agency’s guideline limits and contains high levels of pollutants.
The team said the report outlines “strong” causal and correlational links between toxicity and a variety of severe human health conditions, including cancer, obesity, Alzheimer’s, pregnancy complications, ADHD, fertility issues, heart conditions, and respiratory ailments.
Beyond human health, they warned toxic chemicals are causing “noticeable and widespread” damage across ecological systems, affecting biodiversity and the delicate balance of natural environments.
“This research, collating peer-reviewed work, shows that humanity is facing a widely underappreciated exposure to chemicals through food, air and water,” said Dr Adam Tomassi-Russell, director of climate at Deep Science Ventures.
“The scale of the problem appears widespread and research shows the need for a fundamental shift in how we approach our understanding, funding and innovation efforts to solve this problem.”
Jeremy Grantham, co-founder and chair at The Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment, added: “Toxicity is the most underrated threat facing humanity.”