Lucy Letby – "I AM EVIL I DID THIS

 "I am a horrible evil person... I AM EVIL I DID THIS."

"I don't deserve to live. I killed them on purpose because I'm not good enough to care for them."

"I'll never have children or marry... I will never know what it's like to have a family... despair."

We will never have a full understanding of what drove Lucy Letby to harm and kill vulnerable infants under her care; to know what urged this dark desire and the enjoyment of the pain she inflicted on parents.

What has struck Happy Jack is the absence of any substantial Christian commentary on this.

Should we try to understand this undoubted manifestation of evil? Or is it best to just accept Lucy Letby's own explanation - that she is evil and deserves to die? 

Let’s here what Justice Goss had to say in sentencing her:

"You acted in a way that was completely contrary to the normal human instincts of nurturing and caring for babies … The babies you harmed were born prematurely and some were at risk of not surviving, but in each case you deliberately harmed them intending to kill them … The great majority of your victims suffered acute pain as a result of what you did to them. They all fought for survival; some, sadly, struggled in vain and died …

"Loving parents have been robbed of their cherished children and others have to live with the physical and mental consequences of your actions. Siblings have been deprived of brothers and sisters. You have caused deep psychological trauma, brought enduring grief and feelings of guilt, caused strains in relationships and disruption to the lives of all the families of all your victims …

"It is no part of my function to reach conclusions as to the underlying reason or reasons for your actions. Nor could I, for they are known only to you ...

"This was a cruel, calculated and cynical campaign of child murder involving the smallest and most vulnerable of children, knowing that your actions were causing significant physical suffering and would cause untold mental suffering … There was a deep malevolence bordering on sadism in your actions … You have shown no remorse. There are no mitigating factors."

The motivation behind such Lucy Letby's horrific killing spree is as unfathomable to experts who have spent years profiling murderers.

Gemma Peplow at Sky News offers an overview:

The judge, having discounted Lucy Letby's actions as falling outside of all known "typical" killer profiles, one expert offered this insight:

"So to answer the question, what is the motivation? It's really hard to actually know. When people do things like this and don't fit into those categories, it's usually out of some sort of jealousy or some sort of anger."

One of the lines in the note by Lucy Letby found by police, which was shown to the court during her trial, said she had an "overwhelming fear... I'll never have children or marry... I will never know what it's like to have a family... despair".

"I think at a stretch you could say she was jealous of these happy families. I think maybe [an explanation could be] that she is somehow connected potentially to the emotional process of grieving. She was present when a lot of these babies died, sometimes when they weren't even her patients, it's almost like she went out of her way to be part of that. And that's something I've never heard of or seen in my clinical experience, but it's the only logical answer I can come to."

"People can commit horrible crimes and still feel guilty. In fact, serial killers, especially disorganised serial killers, often battle with this internal kind of conflict, so they feel compelled to go out and kill but they also feel at times guilty of their actions as well. But whatever that part is, it obviously wasn't present enough for her to tell the truth during a criminal trial."

Maybe these two observations holds a key to an understanding sin. 

A search of Christian websites revealed just three articles, none of which really addressed our question.

The first by Katherine Bennett in the Catholic Herald is more of a general thesis on the "upside-down world” we live in, where while Letby killed babies on a ward, a nurse in another part of the hospital was getting paid to kill babies in utero, concluding: "We are crazy without God.”

She asked: “Do our lives really only have value to the extent that someone else wants us to live?” Answering, “We are living with the consequences of a “no” to God our father, a “no” to truth, beauty and goodness, a “no” that ushers in a “yes” to the father of lies, ugliness and evil.”

Are Lucy Letby's murders so unthinkable in a world that considers the killing of a baby with Down’s syndrome a “right”, that calls for abortion on demand up to birth? "Are we so blind that we cannot see the lies, the ugliness and the evil that lurks beneath what bubbles up to the surface?"

On one level, this commentator is correct. As a society, our consciences have become "deeply corrupted", and yet her 'answer' remains inadequate.

Another by Peter Holloway at Premier Christianity, doesn't address our search for understanding at all.

He reminds us that God's love is unbounded and extends to everyone equally; that divine grace is unmerited and given without favour; that Jesus never seeks retribution; and that in God’s economy of grace, we must see justice and mercy as coexisting together. His is a call for restorative justice. One not seek to replace the state’s criminal justice system (retributive justice), but to complement it; to move forward and enable possibilities for transformation by repairing harm.

And finally, Shelby Bowen of Charisma News, attributes Lucy Letby's actions to demons possessing her and influencing her decisions. "Anyone who has murderous intent in their heart and acts it out, especially against innocent babies is being influenced by Satan ... For Christians it is clear why serial killers do the things they do. As we near closer to the return of Jesus, the world will continue to grow darker as the enemy becomes more apparent in his schemes."

In Happy Jack's opinion, none of the above "answers", secular or Christian, are entirely satisfactory in addressing the central questions: What drove Lucy Letby's evil desire to harm and kill infants under her care, and what caused her to give in to them? What opened the door to evil and why did she give into it in such a cruel and malevolent manner?

One is a question about human weakness in the face of temptation to sin; the other about grace and its operation in our lives. 

A common expression of my Irish Catholic mother comes to mind: "There but for the grace of God, go you or I." This is an acknowledgement of humility; that were it not for the work of God's grace and, perhaps, one's upbringing among those formed in God's grace, any number of trials or tribulations could befall a person that  leads them to give into internal or external temptation,

 

Shelby Bowen ends her article with a request for prayer and so will Happy Jack: 

"Pray for Letby, that God would set her free and pour His love over her. Pray for the families that lost their babies that the Holy Spirit would comfort their hearts. The Bible says that Jesus is near to the broken hearted, and that is a promise we can rest in every day."