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Lucy Letby turns 35 today with her first birthday in prison since she was convicted of murdering seven babies and trying to kill seven more between 2015 and 2016
Child killer Lucy Letby will have her birthday cards sniffed by dogs for drugs, as she spends her first birthday in prison, says an ex-prison officer.
It will be a very different birthday experience for Letby than she will have experienced before her arrest for the murders of newborn children while working as a nurse at the Countess of Chester Hospital.
Letby was convicted of murdering seven babies and trying to kill seven more between 2015 and 2016. And she was handed her 15th whole-life term in July for attempting to murder a premature baby girl, meaning she will spend the rest of her time behind bars.
She will turn 35 on January 4, after a festive period treated like any other time of the year for her and other inmates at HMP Bronzefield, in Surrey, where she is believed to be held. And for her birthday there will of course be no celebrations, in fact she will have to “watch her back” says retired prison governor Vanessa Frake, who spent 27 years in the service often dealing with notorious and celebrity criminals.
“The long and the short of it is that her birthday will be like any other day in prison! She will not be allowed birthday presents or a cake, candles etc. So it will be like any other day in jail for Letby,” she told The Mirror.
If she receives birthday cards, they will need to be vetted and her mail is also checked for drugs. Vanessa continued: “Nothing takes place, it’s just another day in prison. She will be allowed cards sent in, but they will be censored and the drug dog will be sent to sniff out any drugs in the mail.”
On the HMP Bronzefield website, it states that there are 572 women in the prison split into four houseblocks. It said: “Each wing has a servery unit for women to collect their food which they can choose to eat together on the wing or take back to their cells. We provide telephones in each room which is integral in helping women to maintain their family ties.”
And so a regular day would see the women unlocked at 8pm and then at 9pm they can go for their lessons or work. The website says: “They will break for lunch at 12:00hrs for two hours. In the afternoon they will return to their work location. At 16:30hrs the women will return to their houseblocks for association and dinner before lock up at 18:45hrs.”
As a high profile child murderer, Letby will be a target for other prisoners. “She will be with other like minded criminals on the vulnerable prisoner unit. She will always have to look over shoulder, she’s a high profile child murderer, doesn’t go down well with the rest of the population,” said Vanessa.
And on whether she will be on suicide watch, she continued: “She will be risk assessed and it will be decided by a multi disciplinary team whether she’s on a suicide watch or not. These are nothing to do with any threats from other prisoners, they are based solely on the risk she poses to herself!”
Over Christmas, Letby will not also not have received any personal gifts from her mother, Susan, and father, John. “There are usually no social or legal visits on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and Good Friday,” Vanessa said. “Her parents will not be allowed to buy her Christmas gifts.”
She explained that visitors can generally send money to prisoners and order newspapers and magazines, and some prisons allow personal belongings to be sent or exchanged every six months or so. But, she added: “You cannot just send random items to any prisoner, particularly Letby.” If Letby has seen her parents across the festive period, the meetings will not have been held in private, according to Vanessa, because “the rules state social visits must be in sight and sound of prison officers”.
