FROM personalised playlists to cute Disney plaques and lovingly inscribed cards – the mountain of post was like something a pop star might receive from their hordes of devoted young fans.
Instead, it was all sent to convicted baby killer in such huge numbers that staff have been forced to take extreme measures.
Killer nurse Lucy Letby was convicted of murdering seven babies in her careCredit: SWNS
Some insist Letby has been made a scapegoat for hospital failingsCredit: Getty
There is growing campaign to see Letby get a retrialCredit: News Group Newspapers Ltd
The Sun understands HMP Bronzefield in , where Letby, 35, is serving 15 whole life orders, had to abandon processing her mail to save on manpower.
Instead, it’s claimed, Letby’s lawyer Mark McDonald – who has described her as – had taken to reading the well-wishes over the phone in a bid to raise her spirits.
The ex-nurse, who we reported last month is and , was convicted of murdering seven and attempting to kill seven more at Countess of Chester Hospital, following two trials in 2023 and 2024.
However, there are growing concerns that she could be the victim of a miscarriage of justice – with a swelling fanbase of supporters, including experts, fighting her corner.
In one note seen by The Sun, one said: “So many people believe in you, I am just one of many. My dearest wish is for you to be free.”
Mum of two Sarah Thomas, who runs group Lucy Letby Discussions, is among the former nurse’s army of supporters.
She helped to arrange collecting cards and presents to be sent to the prisoner last – and is doing the same again this year.
She reveals that she was given a holding address – with any post for Letby sent to Mr McDonald, who then forwarded it to the prison – and says the barrister told her: “There were so many cards etcetera for her that the prison officers wouldn’t allow them all to be delivered to her.
“He actually read out some of our messages to her over the phone.”
She continued: “The prison officers said there was too much – so many cards and letters from people, they couldn’t let her have them all.
“I imagine they’ve got to open them all and check they’re not inappropriate, so it takes up a lot of people’s time.”
Sarah added: “Mark said she was very comforted by the messages, so that was nice.”
Sarah Thomas collected scores of cards and notes for LetbyCredit: Sarah Thomas
Sarah sent her a Tinker Bell plaque, as well as Christmas and birthday cardsCredit: Sarah Thomas
Sarah’s birthday card to Letby included a ‘lots of love’ messageCredit: Sarah Thomas
Sarah Thomas runs the Lucy Letby Discussions group on FacebookCredit: Sarah Thomas 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.
The mum, who cares for her two disabled children, said she sent Letby Christmas and birthday cards, as well as two little plaques of Winnie the Pooh and Tinker Bell, plus a card to her parents.
Sarah told : “Please continue to endure and stay strong.”
And she told Letby herself in a birthday card: “Lots of love.”
Sarah also asked her group members if they wished to send any well-wishes or gifts.
“I got loads of messages, and wrote them on Christmassy paper and put them into the card and packaged it up,” Sarah said.
She estimates she included around 100 messages in the Christmas card, which she sent last November.
One person said: “As this year of sadness ends, we live in anticipation for the dawn of a New Year where those who love you and support your innocence will continue to work hard for you.”
Sarah said one person sent Letby a CD of music they thought she’d like, while others posted notebooks and pens for the prisoner to write her own letters.
Fans’ reasons for supporting Letby are sometimes unclear, with many online claiming they’ve always known she was innocent but offering little by way of explanation.
Others have harboured a more warped fascination with the case and Letby herself, which has led to odd declarations of love, sexual fantasies, and talk of pilgrimages to her old home.
New evidence
Meanwhile, her legal team, led by barrister Mr McDonald, earlier this year appealed her convictions with the Criminal Cases Commission after a panel of experts deemed them medically unsafe.
And last month, he said he had
This is giving the killer nurse “hope” after she became a “broken woman” behind bars, he said.
The barrister said he has 26 separate experts and 1,000 pages of fresh evidence to back up his claim, which he has passed on to the CCRC.
He said: “There is obviously a concern here among experts that something is seriously wrong.
“A year ago, when I went to see her, she had lost everything, and she said no one believed her, she was a broken woman.
“Now, seeing these experts saying no was committed, she has hope.”
The CCRC investigates potential miscarriages of justice, and Letby’s legal team hopes her case will be referred back to the of Appeal.
Two previous appeals have been rejected – however, if Letby’s legal team are able to uncover new evidence, a new trial could eventually be greenlit.
Lawyers for the families of Letby’s victims rubbished the international panel’s findings as “full of analytical holes” and “a rehash” of the defence case heard at trial.
A Christmas card with a message to LetbyCredit: Sarah Thomas
Sarah’s card and message to Letby’s parentsCredit: Sarah Thomas
Sarah sent the cards and gifts to a holding addressCredit: Sarah Thomas
Letby is known to be a Disney fan, particularly Winnie the PoohCredit: Sarah Thomas
And in February, a CCRC spokesperson said: “We are aware that there has been a great deal of speculation and commentary surrounding Lucy Letby’s case, much of it from parties with only a partial view of the evidence.
“We ask that everyone remembers the families affected by events at the Countess of Chester Hospital between June 2015 and June 2016.”
Sarah told The Sun: “I’ve been involved in the campaign for the last year.
“I followed Lucy’s case from the start, but I originally thought she was guilty.
“The Facebook group back then were all echo chambers saying she’s guilty, but since then I’ve been interacting with more and more experts who believe her convictions are unsafe.
“They had good arguments, and I did my own research, and now I’m of the she’s probably innocent.”
Sodexo, which runs Bronzefield in , did not wish to comment when approached by The Sun.
Letby said ‘I’m innocent’ as she was led from the dock when she was sentencedCredit: AFP
Footage released by police shows the moment Letby was arrestedCredit: Derbyshire Constabulary COMMENT: I covered Lucy Letby case from her first arrest...Here's why I know she's guilty
By , Digital Court Editor
AT every step, Lucy Letby was a coward.
She was a coward when she refused to come back into court after the first guilty verdicts filtered in.
She was a coward when she hid in her cell instead of facing her victims’ families at sentencing.
And she was a coward when she targeted newborn babies who were barely bigger than her hand.
Now she is being a coward again and hiding again behind her lawyers.
Letby’s case was one of the most unusual I have ever worked on. It took nine months of harrowing evidence before the jury were finally sent out.
Then it was a further 22 days before the verdicts were reached.
But the case actually began years before when police released a statement confirming a woman had been arrested on suspicion of murdering babies at the Countess of Chester Hospital.
It didn’t take long to get Letby’s details – officers had raided a home that linked to the nurse and her Facebook had her work details.
The smoking gun really came though when a staff profile emerged. Holding up a tiny baby-gro in her scrubs, Letby spoke out how long she had worked at the hospital and what her role was.
The nurse said: “My role involves caring for a wide range of babies requiring various levels of support.
“Some are here for a few days, others for many months and I enjoy seeing them progress and supporting their families.”
Letby also revealed she was undergoing “extra training” to enhance her “knowledge and skills within the Intensive Care area”.
The “career-driven” nurse was even described as a “champion for children”.
But as we later found out, the killer hid under this “cover of trust” to “gaslight” everyone around her, including her own colleagues.
Usually in these cases, the suspect’s social media will be a treasure trove – posts about hating work, glamorous pictures, sharing a major dislike for children for example.
Letby’s was not. She was, as the police always described, beige.
When the case finally came to court, it was hard to predict what way the jury would go. Listening to reams of complicated medical evidence over such a long period of time may have ultimately been detrimental to convicting Letby.
As it was, the evidence wasn’t clear-cut.
We were told the collapses and deaths of the 13 babies were not “naturally-occurring tragedies” but instead the work of “poisoner” Letby.
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 of course found to be the “common denominator” among the deaths and collapses.
But there was no billion-to-one DNA linking her to the killing spree. We heard Letby had been seen hunched over some of her victims before they fell ill but no CCTV showed this.
Instead, the jury could only rely on the medical evidence provided by the very experts who are now claiming their input was misinterpreted.
They are among a growing number of researchers and politicians calling for Letby’s convictions to be quashed due to a miscarriage of justice – much to the dismay of her victims’ families.
And yes, these experts are smart – they are more intelligent than me, than Letby, than the lawyers who prosecuted her.
But it’s like everyone has overlooked the fact there was other proof that was enough to convince me she was guilty.
Bubbling under the surface of her outwardly-calm demeanour was a twisted chaos that exploded from the nurse in the form of handwritten diary entries.
One that gave away her guilt 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”.
Letby also screamed for help on Post-Its and begged “Kill me” as she revealed her inner turmoil.
As the death toll rose, the notes became more frenzied.
In one, Letby scrawled: “I can’t do this anymore. I can’t live like this.
“No one will ever understand or appreciate what it’s like.”
How is it so easy to suddenly overlook these cold hard facts? Letby was obsessed with the families of her victims – an innocent person does not stalk the grieving parents of a dead child on social media.
The jury certainly didn’t forget Letby’s confession when they made their decision. Neither did a second jury at her retrial for attempting kill another baby.
Nor did the top judges who TWICE refused when her team applied for permission to appeal against her convictions.
Yes Letby’s case could return to court but why does that mean the outcome would be any different?
The Criminal Cases Review Commission could return the case to the Court of Appeal but equally, they may not.
The Court of Appeal could refuse the request for a retrial. A retrial could take place but a jury might still convict her.
And then what? The families of her victims will be forced to listen again to the harrowing final details of their newborn babies’ lives before they were cruelly snuffed out by Letby.
A jury made their decision, Letby was not simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, she was a killer.
It is time we left her to rot.
