One of the country’s leading forensic psychiatrists has revealed the possible psychological explanations for Lucy Letby’s evil murders and claimed her manically scrawled notes, found by police in her Chester home, is the only glimpse into her depraved mind.
Dr Sohom Das said that Letby, who was found guilty of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder six more and was sentenced to a full-life term on Monday, had a “morbid urge to feed off” the grief of parents who had just lost their children.
Writing in the MailOnline, the NHS practitioner claimed Letby’s “poisoned twisted mind” can be examined by casting an eye over her scribbled written notes found in her home.
The accomplished author of In Two Minds: Stories of Murder, Justice and Recovery from a Forensic Psychiatrist, wrote: “Those scribbled notes are, quite simply, a glimpse into Lucy Letby’s psyche.
“There is no evidence here of a mental illness so serious that it might reduce Letby’s criminal culpability.
“What does leap out at me are the expressions of self-hatred, guilt, shame and self-loathing, along with a low self-confidence…”
Dr Das said Letby, although exhibiting some of the telltale signs of a clinical psychopath, did not have “all the typical traits”.
Examining the contradictory scribbles of the child-murdering nurse, including ones which said “I haven’t done anything wrong” and “I AM EVIL. I DID THIS.”, the psychiatrist said that Letby demonstrated a “narcissistic entitlement” that she was above the law, something commonly exhibited by psychopaths.
However, Dr Das noted that many typical indicators of psychopathy were not present in Letby’s behaviour, he explained: “She was not sexually promiscuous, for example, nor does she seem to be a generally parasitic and deceptive individual across every aspect of her life.”
The notes found in her semi-detached property were filled with desperate phrases that indicated that deep down she knew what she was doing was profoundly wrong, according to the psychiatrist.
Dr Das said written expressions such as “I don’t deserve Mum + Dad” and “The world is better off without me” are evidence of this.
The expert paid specific attention to one phrase written by Letby in particular: “I killed them on purpose because I’m not good enough to care for them.”
He said that taking the sentence at “face value” is a mistake and that in reality it’s reflective of her “self-pity”.
He explained: “Her true motivations, I believe, are power, control and the thrill of being around the grieving process.
“We know that Letby wanted to be present when parents were overwhelmed by grief, even when the dead babies had not been her own patients.”
Despite being one of the country’s top mental analysers, the Dr doesn’t believe Letby will ever be completely understood.
He said: “I doubt whether we will ever fully understand her. Because she will never leave prison, she is unlikely to get the kind of intensive psychiatric support that could lead to real remorse.
“Without that, it’s very unlikely she could have an epiphany that explains what she has done.”
In the absence of anything else, Dr Das said that the mangled notes are all he has to go on, in order to get into the head of Britain’s most notorious child serial killer.
