Our True Crime Podcast · Our True Crime Podcast

339. Nursing Uncertainty: The Lucy Letby Case

·59 min·3 clips

Police found notes reading, 'I killed them on purpose because I'm not good enough to care for them.'

1. Our True Crime Podcast episode 339 focuses on Lucy Letby and the Countess of Chester Hospital neonatal ward in Chester. 2. Hosts Jen and Cam frame the case, while Edward October narrates the episode and keeps returning to medical and legal uncertainty. 3. The episode asks whether Lucy Letby was responsible for repeated newborn deaths or whether the hospital’s collapse, staffing shortages, and flawed reasoning explain the pattern. 4. Letby is introduced as a quiet child from Hereford who studied at Islestone School, went to the University of Chester in 2008, and became a neonatal nurse in January 2012. 5. The Countess of Chester Hospital is described as a 1974 ward with leaky pipes, cramped spaces, too few staff, and delayed tests. 6. A 2014 inquest is mentioned as having found one baby died after a misplaced breathing tube. 7. The first major cluster in June 2015 involved Child A, his surviving twin, and another premature infant who died around the same period. 8. The hosts note that Letby texted her former mentor Margaret and said the sudden loss of Child A left her numb and bewildered. 9. Stephen Brary and Ravi Ejeram are quoted as saying the odds did not immediately make Letby suspicious, despite her presence at multiple cases. 10. Staff emails from pediatrician Allison Timmis warn the CEO about “20 hour shifts,” equipment shortages, and work that was “not safe.” 11. A formal review in January 2016 shows eight deaths in 2015 compared with two in 2013 and three in 2014. 12. By spring 2016, Letby was moved mainly to day duties, and the episode says the unit was still stretched by five new admissions, including a boy with hemophilia. 13. The episode describes a triplets crisis, a collapsed lung linked to ventilation pressure, and a mother later saying Letby was “almost as upset as we were.” 14. Letby later told a friend she feared hearing from doctors, asked whether she needed to worry about Dr. Gibbs, and said, “we’ve lost two babies I was caring for.” 15. An x-ray showing gas near one baby’s skull is discussed as a possible air embolism, and the episode says senior doctors then approached the executive board and police. 16. Retired pediatrician Dewi Evans is presented as a key prosecution expert who raised air embolism and nasogastric overinflation theories, including the statement that he knew of no published papers for the method. 17. The arrest section covers July 2018, house searches, and notes reading “I killed them on purpose because I’m not good enough to care for them” and “I am evil.” 18. The trial section covers disputed insulin cases, conflicting expert interpretations, Lucy Letby’s 14 days in the witness box, and the defense argument that correlation did not prove responsibility. 19. The episode’s tone is investigative and argumentative, with long stretches of medical detail, hospital politics, and direct host commentary on staffing and blame. 20. Listeners who like true-crime cases with medical evidence and statistical disputes will follow it; listeners wanting a brief, low-detail recap will probably skip it.

As heard by us

A careful look at a case where the clues pile up faster than the proof.

This episode stays with the Lucy Letby case and follows a neonatal unit where unexplained deaths, odd insulin results, and a widening police inquiry start to point in the same direction.

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Why you'd press play

You want the medical trail that turns suspicion into an arrest and keeps the evidence in view here.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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