THE cop who nailed serial baby-killer nurse Beverley Allitt said jailed Lucy Letby was just “a scared little girl” after viewing of police footage of her initial arrest.
Retired Det Supt Stuart Clifton saw a bodycam clip of shocked Letby being read her rights at home — to be screened in a Netflix documentary out today.
It shows her bursting into tears as she looks towards her concerned dad when she is told she is being arrested on suspicion of murder.
Mr Clifton, who reckons the Letby conviction is this century’s worst miscarriage of justice, said: “I’ve nicked dozens of killers — and I’ve seen none react like that. She’s clearly in shock. She looks to me like a scared little girl.”
Footage of interviews police released to Netflix show Letby being quizzed over tot deaths in Countess of Chester Hospital’s neonatal unit.
In one, she is pressed over a supposed confession after she wrote on notes: “I killed them on purpose because I am not good enough” and “murderer”.
Letby tells police in the interview: “It was when I had not long found out I’d been removed from the unit.
“I was blaming myself, but not because I’d done something but because of the way people were making me feel.”
Mr Clifton said: “She looks like a bewildered woman who doesn’t know where to turn.”
Of questions where Netflix shows Letby answering “No comment,” he added: “She doesn’t help herself. It’s possible she was advised to do it by her legal representative.”
Letby’s barrister Mark MacDonald said: “Anyone who sees this documentary will see there are serious doubts with Lucy’s conviction.”
He said 30 experts agreed the convictions were unsafe.
Letby got 15 whole-life terms for seven murders and seven attempted murders in 2015 and 2016.
Two appeals were refused.
A submission to the Criminal Cases Review Commission is pending.
Police were asked to comment.
- A CORONER will today reopen inquests on babies Letby was convicted of killing as part of a process to re-register the deaths as unlawful killings.
Prison pamper lessons
Excl by Michael Hamilton
LUCY Letby has started a coveted beauty therapy course behind bars.
The eight-week workshops offer the prospect of work on the outside — and participants get their hair and nails done “like at a little spa”, a source says.
Letby, 36, is taking part with Sara Sharif’s killer stepmum Beinash Batool, 31, and nursery child abuser Roksana Lecka, 22.
But aristocrat baby killer Constance Marten has turned down the chance.
A source at HMP Bronzefield, Surrey, said: “These courses are the most popular in jail. Women get an NVQ and can leave and get a job, and previous prisoners worked at places like Superdrug.
“So people were shocked that this trio were allowed. Letby and Batool are on long tariffs and Lecka has gone in for eight years. Staff and inmates think they are being mollycoddled. They comment about them being beauty school dropouts.”
