THE CARER WHO KILLED

Lucy Letby has been sentenced to life in jail for the murders of seven babies under her watch

- DENNIS CAVERNELIS

THERE was nothing about her that screamed serial killer. One detective working on the case described her as "so vanilla" and "so beige" with her Zumba classes, holidays in Spain and bedroom filled with stuffed animals.

And this bland image is one of the reasons Lucy Letby was allowed to get away with murder for so long.

Young, girl-next-door pretty and apparently passionate about nursing, she seemed like a godsend to the worried parents of babies at their most vulnerable. If the ill and premature babies didn't make it, she mourned with the families and often sent cards filled with kindness.

But behind the façade lay a murderer whose modus operandi included either injecting babies with air, force-feeding them milk or poisoning them with insulin.

The 33-year-old became the UK's worst child serial killer when she was recently found guilty of killing seven babies and trying to take the lives of six more.

She was handed a rare "whole-life" sentence, which means she'll never be released on parole - the harshest punishment under British law since the abolition of the death penalty in 1969.

Letby was described by Justice James Goss as carrying out a "cruel, calculated and cynical campaign of child murder".

"There was a deep malevolence bordering on sadism in your actions. You have coldly denied any responsibility for your wrongdoing. You have shown no remorse. There are no mitigating factors."

Letby's conviction and sentencing isn't the end of this tragic story. Executives at the Countess of Chester Hospital in northwest England where she worked are being investigated as part of a probe dubbed Operation Hummingbird.

A team of up to 70 detectives and medical experts are examining the records of more than 4 000 babies born at the hospital and at the nearby Liverpool Women's Hospital where Letby also worked to establish if there were more victims of her deadly spree.