Moment monster nurse Lucy Letby is led away from home in handcuffs after arrest for murdering seven babies

THIS is the moment Lucy Letby was led away from her home in handcuffs after being arrested for killing babies.

The nurse today became Britain’s most prolific child killer after she was convicted of murdering seven babies in a year-long reign of terror.

Lucy Letby is taken away in handcuffs after murdering babiesCredit: Cheshire Constabulary

She was today convicted of murdering seven babies

Letby, 33, also attempted to kill six others as she became a “constant malevolent presence” on the ward at Countess of Chester Hospital.

Chilling footage has now been released of the moment the murderer was arrested at her home back in July 2018.

It comes as…

An officer can be seen knocking on her front door before Letby, wearing a blue jumper, answers the door looking stunned.

The bodycam footage then switches to the nurse being led away in handcuffs as she breathes rapidly.

While being loaded into the back of a car, Letby tells officers: I’ve just had knee surgery”.

Do you know Lucy Letby? Call The Sun on 0207 782 4368 or email [email protected]

After her arrest, police searched her three-bedroom home and discovered a chilling cache of evidence.

The nurse had scribbled haunting notes in diaries and on Post-It notes, including one that read: “I am evil I did this”.

The note added: “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 person”.

Other notes were declarations of love for a doctor colleague, who cannot be identified, that she repeatedly confided in as her death toll rose.

There were also some that bore the messages “Kill me” and “Help me” along with the names of some the babies she murdered.

In one, Letby scrawled: “I can’t do this anymore. I can’t live like this.

“No one will ever understand or appreciate what’s like.”

She also wrote “I loved you”, adding: “I wanted you to stand by me but you didn’t.”

It was this married doctor who became her “best friend” while she was murdering babies that caused the only sign of emotion in the calculating nurse.

The medic broke down in court as her “sweetie” gave evidence against her and attempted to leave the dock.

In texts exchanged between the pair, he told her she was “one of a few nurses I would trust with my own children”.

But Letby’s fixation with her colleague led her on a sinister path of “attention-seeking” as she sought to make sure she would not be forgotten.

Letby was convicted of seven counts of murder following a nine month trial and 22 days of jury deliberation.

The monster’s sickening death toll makes her the UK’s most prolific killer nurse and one of Britain’s worst-ever female serial killers.

She was also found guilty of attempting to murder a further six babies as the families of some of her victims comforted each other in court.

Letby had denied 22 offences in total and was accused of murdering seven babies and attempting to kill ten others.

She had wept as the first set of verdicts was delivered, but refused to enter court as the case was brought to a close today.

Her mum Susan also wailed “this can’t be right” as it was revealed her daughter had been found guilty of killing babies.

Jurors failed to reach verdicts on six remaining counts of attempted murder against four babies- causing some families to storm out.

She was cleared of two counts of attempted murder against two babies.

The prosecutor has now asked for 28 days to consider if there will be a retrial.

An independent inquiry has now been ordered by the government that will examine how concerns raised by doctors were dealt with and the circumstances surrounding the deaths.

Police are now probing 4,000 babies Letby cared for at the hospital from January 2012 to the end of June 2016, as well as two work placements at Liverpool Women’s Hospital in 2012 and 2015.

Speaking after the case today, the families of Letby’s victims said her conviction does not take away the “extreme hurt, anger and distress” they have suffered.

They added: “Words cannot effectively explain how we are feeling at this moment in time. We are quite simply stunned.

“To lose a baby is a heartbreaking experience that no parent should ever have to go through, but to lose a baby or to have a baby harmed in these particular circumstances is unimaginable. Over the past seven to eight years we have had to go through a long, torturous and emotional journey.

“From losing our precious newborns and grieving their loss, seeing our children who survived, some of whom are still suffering today, to being told years later that their death or collapse might be suspicious, nothing can prepare you for that news.”

The monster used insulin and air to inject newborns while working on the neo-natal ward.

The collapses and deaths of the children were not “naturally-occurring tragedies” and instead the gruesome work of “poisoner” Letby.

During a mammoth trial, jurors were told some of the newborns were repeatedly targeted by the nurse – including one baby Letby is alleged to have killed after three previous failed attempts.

Her reign of terror was finally uncovered after staff grew suspicious of the “significant rise” in the number of babies dying or suffering “catastrophic” collapses.

Letby was found to be the “common denominator” among the deaths and collapses.

Between 2015 and 2016, two babies on the neo-natal unit were “deliberately” poisoned with insulin, which was “no accident”.

Some of the other babies were killed or harmed when air or milk was injected into their bloodstream or via a tube in their stomachs.

In some cases, Letby allegedly took up to three attempts before she managed to kill some of her victims.

One mum told the jury: “I could hear my son crying, and it was like nothing I’d heard before.

“It was more a scream than a cry – a sound that shouldn’t come from a tiny baby. It was horrendous.”

She also murdered another child, one of triplets, by injecting him with a lethal dose of air and inflicting trauma to his liver.

The nurse had returned to work that day after a week’s holiday to Ibiza with two friends.

Letby messaged a colleague saying she would “probably be back in with a bang lol”.

The nurse, who had special training in caring for ICU babies, showed an “unusual interest” in searching for her victims’ families on social media.

She also sent a sympathy card to a mum of a baby she allegedly murdered on the fourth attempt as she attempted to craft twisted relationships with her victims’ parents.

She also photographed a thank you card from the parents of two of her alleged victims as “something to remember”.

She said it was a “normal pattern of behaviour” for her to look for the parents of babies she had treated more than once on Facebook.

Away from the “cover of trust” she hid beneath was a cold-hearted killer who showed “no emotion” towards the tragic babies.

Women who kill – how Letby became one of the UK’s worst female serial killers

LUCY Letby’s horrific murder spree has gained her the grisly moniker of one of Britain’s most prolific female serial killers.

Here’s how her death toll of seven babies ranks among other sadistic women who kill.

Rose West

Along with husband Fred West, Rose abducted, tortured and raped her victims before burying them at their house of horrors in Gloucester.

She was convicted of ten murders, including stepdaughter Charmaine, eight, and daughter Heather, 16.

Myra Hindley

Branded the “most evil woman in Britain”, Hindley teamed up with monster Ian Brady to kill five children in the 1960s.

The twisted couple buried their victims on Saddleworth Moor but never revealed the location of 12-year-old Keith Bennett.

Hindley died in jail in 2002 after spending 36 years behind bars.

Beverley Allitt

Like fellow nurse Letby, Allitt embarked on a gruesome, 59-day killing spree.

The nurse murdered four children and grievously injured many others while at Grantham and Kesteven Hospital.

She was handed 13 life sentences in 1993 and is now languishing at Rampton Secure Hospital in Nottinghamshire.

Joanna Dennehy

Known as the Peterborough Ditch Murders, the monster killed three men over a ten-day period before dumping their bodies.

While on the run from police, Dennehy taunted police by attempting to kill two others.

She smirked as she was one of two women, the other being Rose West, to ever be handed a whole life tariff – meaning she will die behind bars.

Described as “beige” by police, there was nothing spectacular about the nurse that suggested at first she could be behind the killings.

But post-January 2015, the number of baby deaths and catastrophic collapses at the hospital significantly rose and links started to become clear.

Consultants grew concerned when they realised the children who died had “deteriorated unexpectedly”.

The babies who collapsed also did not respond to appropriate and timely resuscitation.

Prosecutor Nick Johnson KC said some of the babies “who did not die collapsed dramatically but then – equally dramatically – recovered”.

This “defied the normal experience of treating doctors”, jurors were told.

Mr Johnson branded Letby “devious” as she sought to distance herself from the high death rates.

The prosecutor said she”gaslighted” colleagues to persuade them that a rise in baby collapses was “just a run of bad luck”.

Jurors were also told she was “in effect playing God” by targeting the newborns.

The conviction has cemented her as the worst killer nurse in the UK – surpassing Beverley Allitt, who murdered four children and attempted to kill three others.

Chillingly, police fear Letby could be behind more attacks in other hospitals where she worked.

The charges Letby was convicted on in full

Child A, allegation of murder. The Crown said Letby injected air intravenously into the bloodstream of the baby boy. COUNT 1 GUILTY.

Child B, allegation of attempted murder. The Crown said Letby attempted to murder the baby girl, the twin sister of Child A, by injecting air into her bloodstream. COUNT 2 GUILTY.

Child C, allegation of murder. Prosecutors said Letby forced air down a feeding tube and into the stomach of the baby boy. COUNT 3 GUILTY.

Child D, allegation of murder. The Crown said air was injected intravenously into the baby girl. COUNT 4 GUILTY.

Child E, allegation of murder. The Crown said Letby murdered the twin baby boy with an injection of air into the bloodstream and also deliberately caused bleeding to the infant. COUNT 5 GUILTY.

Child F, allegation of attempted murder. Letby was said by prosecutors to have poisoned the twin brother of Child E with insulin. COUNT 6 GUILTY.

Child G, three allegations of attempted murder. The Crown said Letby targeted the baby girl by overfeeding her with milk and pushing air down her feeding tube. COUNT 7 GUILTY, COUNT 8 GUILTY, COUNT 9 NOT GUILTY.

Child H, two allegations of attempted murder. Prosecutors said Letby sabotaged the care of the baby girl in some way which led to two profound oxygen desaturations. COUNT 10 NOT GUILTY, COUNT 11 JURY COULD NOT REACH VERDICT.

Child I, allegation of murder. The prosecution said Letby killed the baby girl at the fourth attempt and had given her air and overfed her with milk. COUNT 12 GUILTY.

Child J, allegation of attempted murder. No specific form of harm was identified by the prosecution but they said Letby did something to cause the collapse of the baby girl. COUNT 13 JURY COULD NOT REACH VERDICT.

Child K, allegation of attempted murder. The prosecution said Letby compromised the baby girl as she deliberately dislodged a breathing tube. COUNT 14 JURY COULD NOT REACH VERDICT.

Child L, allegation of attempted murder. The Crown said the nurse poisoned the twin baby boy with insulin. COUNT 15 GUILTY.

Child M, allegation of attempted murder. Prosecutors said Letby injected air into the bloodstream of Child L’s twin brother. COUNT 16 GUILTY.

Child N, three allegations of attempted murder. The Crown said Letby inflicted trauma in the baby boy’s throat and also injected him with air in the bloodstream. COUNT 17 GUILTY, COUNT 18 JURY COULD NOT REACH VERDICT, COUNT 19 JURY COULD NOT REACH VERDICT.

Child O, allegation of murder. Prosecutors say Letby attacked the triplet boy by injecting him with air, overfeeding him with milk and inflicting trauma to his liver with “severe force”. COUNT 20 GUILTY.

Child P, allegation of murder. Prosecutors said the nurse targeted the triplet brother of Child O by overfeeding him with milk, injecting air and dislodging his breathing tube. COUNT 21 GUILTY.

Child Q, allegation of attempted murder. The Crown said Letby injected the baby boy with liquid, and possibly air, down his feeding tube. COUNT 22 JURY COULD NOT REACH VERDICT.

Det Supt Paul Hughes confirmed Cheshire Police are looking into “some events” from Liverpool Women’s Hospital, where Letby was on placement in 2012 and 2015.

He said: “We obviously are committed to a thorough investigation across the entire footprint that Letby has been employed at the Countess of Chester Hospital and on placements at the Liverpool Women’s Hospital and as you would expect us to do conduct a thorough investigation.

“We will give an update on that particular part of the investigation when we can. The investigation needs to go on.”

The hospital is now facing questions amid possible missed opportunities after it was claimed colleagues had raised concerns.

Dr Nigel Scawn, medical director at the Countess of Chester Hospital, said lessons will “continue to be learned”.

He added: “I speak for the whole trust when I say how deeply saddened and appalled we are at Lucy Letby’s crimes.

“We are extremely sorry that these crimes were committed at our hospital and our thoughts continue to be with all the families and loved ones of the babies who came to harm or who died.

“We can’t begin to understand what they have been through.”

A court order prohibits identifying the surviving and deceased children and prohibits identifying parents or witnesses connected with the babies.

Letby will be sentenced on Monday.