Lucy Letby’s upbringing shows the convicted serial killer loves no one but herself, a bestselling writer and criminologist has said. Letby, 35, from Hereford, is serving 15 whole-life orders after she was convicted of murdering seven infants and attempting to murder seven others between June 2015 and June 2016.
A new book by Christopher Berry-Dee exploring cold-blooded murders by medical professionals, including Beverley Allitt and Dr Harold Shipman, delves into Letby’s younger years in a bid to understand what might lie behind her evil acts. In Talking with Serial Killers: Murderous Medics, Berry-Dee finds that unlike other serial killers there is no evidence to suggest Letby had a “brutal or disadvantaged” childhood.
But in a bombshell conclusion he finds Letby didn’t love her mum and dad, Susan and John Letby. The writer asks: “[D]id she truly love her parents? Of course she didn’t. Her so-called love and respect for her mother and father was all a sham, with no consideration for their feelings at all. Lucy Letby only loves herself.”
In his new book, Berry-Dee asks if there were any signs in Letby’s childhood that she would go on to become a serial killer.
Berry-Dee himself has interviewed and interrogated more than 30 of the world’s most notorious killers, including Dennis Nilsen, Ted Bundy and the Yorkshire Ripper, Peter Sutcliffe.
On the surface, Letby was doted on by her parents, the author argues. She thrived at school, worked part time as a teen in WHSmith and graduated in 2011 with a degree in child nursing from the University of Chester.
Letby’s parents are described in the book as being unhappy their only child moved 100 miles away from the family home in Hereford to start her nursing career at the Countess of Chester Hospital in Chester.
But Berry-Dee writes that they helped their daughter buy her first home, a £179,000 semi-detached house a mile from the hospital.
Taking a closer look, the writer goes on to describe small signs of discontent, raised during Letby’s trial in 2022.
Text messages between Letby and colleagues “hinted” she felt “smothered” by her mum and dad sometimes, while also feeling guilt at having moved away.
One message sent by Letby, quoted in the book, reads: “My parents worry massively about everything and anything, [they] hate that I live alone, etc.
“I feel bad because I know it’s really hard for them, especially as I am an only child, and they mean well”. She continues: “[It is] just a little suffocating at times and constantly feeling guilt”.
Berry-Dee’s book goes on to examine the psychological impact of controlling parents, if Letby’s can be assumed to be “a little too inclined” in that way.
He points to a 2019 study which showed children who felt their parents were controlling were at an elevated risk of depressed moods, apathy and psychological stress.
The author is quick to observe there is no suggestion Letby’s parents were “strict authoritarians”, arguing perhaps they were “overinvesting” in her, wanting the best for their daughter while being overprotective and “somewhat restrictive” because of her “difficult” birth.
Tensions may have resulted from the difference between Letby’s mindset and her parents’ perceptions, according to Berry-Dee’s analysis.
His chapter on Letby includes reflections on pyschologists who suggested she was or is a “covert narcissist”, who craved from others the attention she received from her parents in childhood.
Berry-Dee writes: “There might be some truth in this because other text messages sent throughout the period of her NHS killings reveal how she sought sympathy and admiration from colleagues – a sort of neediness, both clingy and attention-seeking”.
The writer likens Letby to the neediness of former nurse Beverley Allitt, who received 13 life sentences in 1993 for the murder of seven infants and attempted murder of seven others in Lincolnshire.
In his book, Berry-Dee goes on to cite claims Letby became “animated” after some of her murders, “as though revelling” in what she had done.
The writer concludes his study of Letby by observing that some people will say Letby spending the rest of her life in jail is sufficient punishment. But Berry-Dee ends: “Not to me it isn’t. She’s still breathing. Her victims are not”.
Talking with Serial Killers: Murderous Medics is published by Bonnier Books and is priced at £16.99. It is available from all major retailers, including Amazon and Waterstones. It can also be purchased in audio and e-book formats.
