Inside the twisted mind of baby killer Lucy Letby exposed by her own hate-filled notes
A LEADING forensic psychologist believes depraved messages scrawled by baby killer Lucy Letby are the closest she’ll ever come to a confession.
Dr Sohom Das says the post-it note missives are not the delusional ravings of a psychopath but instead offer a “glimpse into Lucy Letby’s psyche” after she murdered seven infants and tried to slay six more.
Among the chilling phrases written in the killer’s hand was: “I don’t deserve to live.
“I killed them on purpose because I’m not good enough to care for them.”
In another disturbing memo, Letby, 33, wrote: “I am a horrible evil person.”
In capital letters, she added: “I AM EVIL I DID THIS.”
Dr Das has previously examined women who had killed babies, concluding they had psychotic delusions and had lost touch with reality.
But the psychiatrist doesn’t believe Letby – Britain’s most prolific child serial killer – was similarly afflicted.
He wrote: “That is not what we’re seeing in these Post-it notes.
“There is no evidence here of a mental illness so serious that it might reduce Letby’s criminal culpability.
“What does leap out at me are the expressions of self-hatred, guilt, shame and self-loathing, along with a low self-confidence – what psychiatrists call ‘negative cognitions’.”
As examples, he cites Letby’s use of phrases such as, “I don’t deserve Mum + Dad”, “Hate myself”’, “I am a horrible evil person”, “I don’t deserve to live’” and “The world is better off without me”.
The expert’s analysis came after Letby was told on Wednesday that she would die behind bars for her evil murder spree at the Countess of Chester Hospital.
The neonatal nurse was given whole life terms as she cowered in a cell, refusing to enter the dock.
In a televised sentencing at Manchester crown court, Judge James Goss told Letby it was a “cruel, calculated and cynical campaign of child murder” from June 2015 to June 2016.
Letby’s doodles are insights into the true motivation of a woman who presented a facade of bland normality to the world.
So impenetrable was Letby’s veneer of ordinariness that Detective Chief Inspector Nicola Evans, who oversaw interviewing officers, described the unassuming monster as “beige”.
A godmother to two children, cat-loving Letby was a”Mary Poppins” figure to friends in the resolutely middle class Hereford suburb where she grew up.
Detectives have suggested that the deeply unsettling scrawls discovered at her semi-detached Chester home had been left for them to find to bring to an end her murder spree.
But Dr Das doesn’t believe that was Letby’s motivation.
He called her a “remorseless killer” but warned she doesn’t have the typical traits of a psychopath.
The psychiatrist — who acts as an expert witness in court cases — added: “Her true motivations, I believe, are power, control and the thrill of being around the grieving process.”
On a green post-it note Letby had written in capitals: ‘NO HOPE’, ‘DESPAIR’, ‘PANIC’, ‘FEAR’, ‘LOST’.
Dr Das believes that might show a “modicum of awareness” that her deeds are “too terrible to imagine” and predicts that she may be suffering from depression.
Letby also wrote: “There are no words. I am an awful person – I pay every day for that.”
Dr Das says that somewhere within the killer’s mind, a small part of her may have been feeling guilt over her murderous actions.
He suggests that’s why the scribblings might be crammed onto small pieces of paper – which represent her “limited” conscience.
He suggests that’s why the scribblings could be crammed onto small pieces of paper — which represents her “limited” conscience.
And he suggests the chaotic writing and the heavy black pen used to write the words “hope” and “hate” suggest a mind “in turmoil”.
The expert also warns that some of her writings are contradictory.
She writes: “I haven’t done anything wrong’,” followed a few lines later by the damning: “I AM EVIL. I DID THIS.”
Dr Das predicts this is a moral conflict in Letby’s mind between right and wrong.
Unlike other criminals who convince themselves their offences never happened, the psychiatrist says Letby knows exactly what she did.
He concludes that she is “a remorseless killer, guilty of unprecedented crimes, but that does not mean she automatically has all the typical traits of a psychopath”.
Investigating officers also say Letby’s diaries, seized at her £180,000 pad during the probe, offered clues to her sickening spree.
And they reveal she used a “coded system” to chart significant moments in her life.
Detectives also discovered her dozens of the post-it notes and scraps of paper when she was first arrested in July 2018. When they arrested her a second time, they found she had continued her incriminating jottings.
Detective Inspector Rob Woods said: “The amount of material we found at her home address was, I think, a massive surprise to us when she was first arrested.
“It gave us a really good steer for the second occasion as to what sort of things we were looking for.
“Something that’s been very useful to the enquiry has been Miss Letby’s diaries.
“They appeared to be, and it became clear later that it was, almost a code of coloured asterisks …put in a diary that marked significant events.”
Only child Letby’s reference to “I don’t deserve Mum + Dad” in one note is a window into the insecurity she feels in her relationship with furniture boss dad Jon, 77, and accounts clerk mum Susan, 63.
One of her childhood friends said: “She told me she’d had quite a difficult birth herself and was quite poorly, and I think that’s affected a lot of her life.”
Her parents had been so proud of their daughter when she graduated in December 2011, they placed a congratulatory ad in the Hereford Times alongside a photo of Letby wearing a mortarboard.
Yet her telling missive suggests she felt she had not lived up to her parents’ expectations.
When a baby on ward suffered a collapse, she messaged a colleague who was moving to New Zealand saying: “Not brave enough to up and leave.
“I couldn’t leave my parents.”
Today, the question remains, will Letby’s motivation to murder ever become clear or will her scribblings remain the only insight into her state of mind?
Dr Dominic Willmott, a senior lecturer in criminology at Loughborough Univiersity, said nurses who kill appear to have a “pathological desire for attention and sympathy”.
Behavioural psychologist Jo Hemmings believes Letby is a psychopath who got “sadistic pleasure” from killing babies.
She says: “She has no conscience, she has no emotions as we understand them.
“No remorse, no guilt, nothing.”
Professor Wilson, meanwhile, believes she probably had a “hero complex” — a “desire to be the centre of everyone’s attention”.
It is a trait shared by other killer nurses which he describes as a “toxic narcissism” that demands “they should have power and control which they might have felt had been denied to them in other aspects of their lives.”
He added: “What better way of demonstrating that power than deciding who should live and who should die? Not so much an ‘angel of death’ but God-like.”
Straw: Get witnesses on stand
THERE are calls for a full public inquiry into the Lucy Letby case – and one former Cabinet minister says crucial witnesses must be compelled to give evidence.
Ex-Home Secretary Jack Straw urged the Government to beef-up the probe into the baby killer so evidence is given under oath.
He joined a growing chorus of campaigners, including families involved in the tragedy, for it to be put on a statutory footing.
Mr Straw said: “You can shame a lot of (witnesses) but you can’t shame them all.”
He added: “There may be witnesses in the Letby case who really ought to be on the stand, who are the most vulnerable in terms of the positions they have taken, and who won’t be bothered about being shamed.
“They would rather be shamed for their absence than actually appear on the stand. Being able to compel a witness is really very, very important. There isn’t really any direct connection between whether an inquiry is judicially led with full powers and whether it is speedy.”
Education Secretary Gillian Keegan said a beefed-up inquiry is “on the table” amid fears witnesses will not turn up, leading to concerns over a cover-up.
Health Secretary Steve Barclay announced an independent inquiry within hours of the verdicts last Friday.
Ex-Justice Secretary David Lidington said: “For me the balance of argument points to a statutory and public inquiry.”