December 25, 2024
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The Papers: ‘Ten chances’ to stop Letby and ‘How many more?’

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By BBC News
Staff
Lucy Letby’s conviction for murdering seven babies and attempting to kill six more in her care on a neonatal ward leads nearly all the front pages. Juxtaposing a picture of the smiling nurse at work holding a newborn baby with Letby’s expressionless police mugshot, the Daily Mirror’s front page asks: “How many more?”.
The Times reports the government will launch an independent inquiry into how a “cold, calculating killer” was able to harm the vulnerable children in her care at the Countess of Chester Hospital between June 2015 and June 2016. The paper notes Letby was cleared of two attempted murders, while the jury were unable to reach a verdict on six other attempted murder charges.
The Daily Mail’s headline highlights what it says were 10 missed opportunities to stop Letby, branding her “Britain’s worst child killer”. The paper reports hospital bosses face an inquiry into their “failure to act on a string of warnings” and police are reviewing the care of up to 4,000 babies in the hospital.
The hospital ignored warnings about Letby as far back as October 2015, when doctors told hospital managers she was dangerous, the Daily Telegraph says. A front page commentary from columnist Allison Pearson says “Letby case is a betrayal of all we hold dear: innocence, motherhood and trust”.
The Daily Express headline also says some of the babies lives “should have been saved” if warnings about Letby had been listened to. The paper reports that instead senior doctors were made to apologise to the nurse, who murdered some of her newborn victims by injecting them with air and insulin, or overfeeding them.
Letby preyed on highly vulnerable babies and often attacked “moments after their parents or nurses had left their side”, the Guardian reports. Police were “finally contacted” about suspicions about her in 2017 and she was arrested a year later, the paper says.
The i weekend ‘s story notes that inspectors visited the neonatal ward at the time Letby was killing children and rated it “good”. The parents of the child victims have called the killer a “hateful human being” who took everything from them, the paper reports.
The FT Weekend leads with its report that Japanese investment firm Softbank has taken full control of UK microchip designer Arm. And the day before the women’s World Cup final, it reports the “backlash” against Fifa president Gianni Infantino’s comments that women should “pick the right battles” in their fight for equality.
And with England’s women contesting that final at 11am on Sunday, the Daily Star has turned to its predictive asparagus psychic to predict the outcome – and it is that the Lionesses will beat Spain on penalties. The paper’s “100% infallible asparamancer” also reckons it will be a “nerve-wracking” experience.

A photograph of Lucy Letby taken in police custody is on many front pages, which the Daily Mail has published alongside a caption describing her as having “the eyes of evil”.

“A cold, calculating killer” reads the headline in the Times, while the Sun describes her as “twisted”. The Daily Express says “babies lives could have been saved” if hospital chiefs had gone to the police when doctors first voiced their concerns.

Many of the papers pick up on comments made by a police officer during the trial that Letby hid behind a “beige identity”.

The Guardian says her “ordinariness” helped to hide her crimes, which the Daily Mail agrees with. The fact that she was “nondescript”, the Mail says, allowed her to “go under the radar”.

Some highlight another picture of Letby, taken in 2013 for a local newspaper to publicise a fundraising appeal at the Countess of Chester hospital. The Daily Mirror says she went from “poster girl” to “monster on the wards”.

The Daily Telegraph says the expectation that Letby will not attend her sentencing on Monday has been “met with outrage”. A Ministry of Justice source is quoted in the paper as saying “it is a final insult to victims and their families when criminals don’t stand up to what they’ve done in court.”

The Sun argues that she should be “dragged into the dock to hear her fate”.

The newspaper’s editorial columns largely focus on how to prevent a case like Letby’s happening again.

The Guardian says the NHS must learn from shocking failures – that partly stem from an unwillingness to confront the worst-case scenario.

The Times asks “how ready are all NHS hospitals to heed the concerns of whistle-blowers and act on them promptly?”.

The Daily Express says “we may never know what exactly motivated Letby to commit her evil acts” – but there are important questions raised about how the case was handled that must be answered.

The Daily Mirror says it is “the very least” the families of the children deserve.

Meanwhile, the Telegraph reports that Rishi Sunak has “scaled back” plans for a major cabinet reshuffle next month.

The prime minister is now said to be focusing on replacing ministers who have said they want to step down at the next election, such as Defence Secretary Ben Wallace. Downing Street has told the paper it refuses to comment on “reshuffle speculation”.

Sources have told the Mirror that the King is to hold a royal summit at Balmoral to lay out the future direction of the monarchy. The paper says a central part of his plans will be to use what is described as the “star quality” of the Prince and Princess of Wales to help bind the Commonwealth together.

Michel Roux Junior has told the Times he has “very complicated feelings” about his decision to close his two-Michelin-starred restaurant in London, Le Gavroche.

He has been in charge for more than three decades and says being at the restaurant almost every day for all that time has “taken it’s toll”. The 63-year-old says he will likely be a “gibbering wreck” when the day comes to serve his final guests.

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