UNITED KINGDOM — Described as the United Kingdom's most prolific child serial killer in modern history, the case of British neonatal nurse Lucy Letby and the seven infants whom she killed has shocked the nation, with people taking to social media to express anger and call for more action to be taken.

On Monday (Aug 21), the 33-year-old was sentenced to life imprisonment with no prospect of release. 

Letby was arrested following a string of baby deaths at the neonatal unit of the Countess of Chester Hospital in northwest England between June 2015 and June 2016. 

The prosecution said that Letby attacked her vulnerable and prematurely born victims, often during night shifts, by either injecting them with air, overfeeding them with milk or poisoning them with insulin.

She had also tried to kill six other babies while they were in her care.

Letby’s 10-day trial and sentencing has caused a stir online. Her name was the trending search term in Google since Monday and multiple discussion threads on online forum Reddit were dedicated to speculating about the case as more details about her childhood, alleged affair with a doctor and the motive behind the murders were circulated. 

In a viral Reddit thread posted in a news sub-forum on Aug 18 that detailed Letby's guilty verdict, many of its users expressed shock and disbelief at the brutality of her crimes. 

One wrote: “What possesses someone to do something like this? What sequence of life events leads someone to consider this as an acceptable outlet?”

As Letby's motivations for her heinous crimes are unknown, other Redditors took a guess.

One wrote: “She even contacted the parents of one of the babies she murdered to offer her condolences. Maybe one of those killers that enjoys the thrill of playing God with people’s lives.”

As of Wednesday afternoon, the post has received more than 19,300 upvotes and 2,200 comments.

Another link to a news report detailing Letby’s sentencing was posted to the same news sub-forum on Monday.

This led to many Redditors criticising the inaction of hospital management staff members, while others focused on the efforts of the medical consultants at the hospital who tried to raise the alarm about Letby’s crimes. 

A top comment read: “I also want action against all the management and CEOs that went against all the doctors and nurses who raised the alarm, but were bullied and silenced because it would look bad for the hospital.”

Another Redditor agreed with the top comment, writing: "This should be higher. The fact it went on for so long shows a systemic flaw based on bad management."

Other users went straight to the point, with one saying: "Great. Now sentence the hospital administrators who ignored the concerns raised by doctors and other nurses relating to Letby."

FIRST SIGN OF TROUBLE

News reports from England stated that the unnatural infant deaths were first noticed in 2015 by the neonatal's lead consultant, Dr Stephen Brearey, who first raised concerns after three babies had died.

Nobody suspected foul play at that time, The Guardian reported.

However, two more infant deaths in August and October that year led Dr Brearey to raise further concerns with senior hospital management staff members.

Dr Brearey had reportedly done so multiple times but was met with dismissal, BBC news channel reported.

In February 2016, another consultant, Dr Ravi Jayaram, said that he saw Letby standing and watching when a baby seemed to have stopped breathing.

It was only after more incidents that Letby was finally removed from the neonatal unit and transferred to a separate office. 

BBC reported that over the next 11 months, senior management staff members would deny efforts to involve the police to avoid a “catastrophe” for the hospital.

Instead, they opted to invite an external firm to review practices in the neonatal unit and forced the consultants to apologise to Letby.

After many failed attempts to take Letby off duty — and after a few more deaths in 2016 — Dr Brearey, along with other consultants, finally sat down with the police in May 2017.

A criminal investigation into the suspicious baby deaths was launched, resulting in Letby's arrest in 2018 — three years after Dr Brearey first raised the alarm.