Lucy Letby’s jail routine has been revealed by a fellow inmate in custody alongside the convicted baby killer – saying she does one thing every morning to get fellow female lags on side.
The former nurse who is serving 15 whole life sentences for the murder and attempted murder of 15 children, is held inside the notorious women’s prison HMP Bronzefield, near Ashford in Surrey, with some of the UK’s most dangerous female convicts. One of those on the same wing as Letby has spoken exclusively to the Mirror after campaigners made fresh claims on Tuesday that she’s the subject of a miscarriage of justice.
The inmate told the Mirror that Letby, 35, makes toast for all her fellow prisoners in her wing of Houseblock Four every morning as they sit down for breakfast at 8am. By 9am she is off to work in the laundry, taking dirty clothes from the women and returning them clean.
Speaking to the Mirror, our insider who we are not naming due to fear of reprisals, said: “In the house block there are three wings and we are on the same wing. She does the toast in the morning, she does the laundry for our wing, so yeah she’s very pleasant , very reserved, she’s always nice to people even when they are being shit to her and she will try to help where she can.”
Despite her convictions in two trials and twice being refused leave to appeal, a team campaigning on the 35-year-old former NHS worker’s behalf claim put forward contrasting medical opinions of some of the evidence used in court in a bid to secure a fresh appeal. However, Letby appears unhappy about the conduct of the ongoing campaign.
Despite brutally ending seven innocent and helpless young lives, the former neonatal nurse spends her time whining about her own life “wasting away”. Our jail insider, who has asked us to protect their identity for fear of reprisals, revealed: “She’s worried about the time this is all taking, the last trial was one year long, with zero defence experts, but now they are going to have these 14 people, how long is the trial going to be, what court is going to be able to manage a year-long trial. Meanwhile, she’s 35 years old, she’s in the prime of her life and her life is wasting away.”
Her serving toast and laundry roles appear to bring out contrasts in Letby’s character. Our insider said: “She is really odd, she’s very weird. She doesn’t come across as very sympathetic, she’s not very friendly, she’s super shy actually, but she will help wherever she can. She’s just odd, she has a weird look, when she thinks someone is looking at her, she’s staring at people.”
The source said that Letby has been unable to walk the corridors of the jail alone and is always accompanied by a prison officer. But as well as being for her own protection, the move is to ensure Letby is unable to harm other inmates. The insider said: “Lucy has to be accompanied by a guard everywhere she goes, she is considered dangerous and also is vulnerable to other prisoners.”
While she may have problems with other inmates, Letby’s relationship with another notorious prisoner has grown stronger. It was previously reported that the serial killer had befriended Beinash Batool, who murdered her own step daughter, Sara Sharif. A court heard the 10-year-old was subjected to “unspeakable” violence for years before she was killed. Batool, 30, was convicted of murdering the little girl along with her husband Urfan Sharif, 43, and both were given life sentences. After she was jailed, Batool struck up a friendship with Letby, with the pair said to enjoy playing cards together. Now, our prison insider reveals, their bond has grown stronger, saying: “She’s best friends with that Beinash.”
In August 2023, a jury spent 22 days and more than 96 hours deliberating the string of charges levelled against neonatal nurse Letby. They found her guilty of seven counts of murder and seven counts of attempted murder carried out between 2015 and 2016 the Countess of Chester Hospital. She was found not guilty of two counts of attempted murder. Verdicts were not reached on six counts of attempted murder.
She was retried on one count of attempted murder in July 2024 and found guilty. Letby was sentenced to 15 whole-life prison orders meaning she will spend the rest of her life in prison. She lost two bids to challenge her convictions at the Court of Appeal last year.
A public inquiry has been launched in the wake of Letby’s convictions and has heard police are investigating other baby deaths linked to the hospital where she worked. Amid the Thirlwall Inquiry, it emerged Letby had been questioned under caution in prison by detectives probing deaths and non-fatal collapses at both the Countess of Chester and also at Liverpool Women’s Hospital, where she trained as a student.
On Tuesday, at a press conference led by her barrister Mark McDonald KC, MP David Davis branded Letby’s case “one of major injustices of modern times”. They produced “medical evidence” from 14 neonatal medical experts which they say debunks the medical evidence presented at trial by the prosecution.
Retired medic Dr Shoo Lee, who co-authored a 1989 academic paper on air embolism in babies, presented the findings of a panel who said they had compiled an “impartial evidence-based report”. He went on to give seven examples of how the care of each baby had, he claimed, wrongly been blamed on Letby, when there was “clear evidence” something else “really happened”.
The Criminal Cases Review Commission has said it would assess an application by Letby’s campaign group and determine whether there was new evidence which presented a reasonable chance of a conviction being overturned.
Meanwhile the press conference appears to have garnered some support for Letby among some of her fellow killers and other inmates at Bronzefield. Our source said Houseblock Four is made up of three wings with about 50 women on the block, who are all super enhanced prisoners able to watch TV in their own cells. The insider revealed: “Everyone watched the press conference and everyone is still talking about it. She’s been made a massive scapegoat. When she walked in no-one thought she was innocent, they used to be really really nasty. Now I’d say 70% of people believe she’s innocent.”
The insider said Letby’s friendship with Batool had set some inmates against her, saying it “isn’t helping her at all, because everyone knows she’s guilty, guilty, guilty., she added “I do feel it’s different with Lucy, I think Lucy is innocent.” She said Letby had complained about her mental health, claiming: “She gets zero mental health support, she’s been begging, begging for mental health support and she’s getting nothing.”
But despite the ongoing campaign, asked if Letby believes she is getting out of prison, the source said: “No, I’ve asked her about that, exactly that, she just says she takes a day at a time, because that’s the only way to get through it. You can’t have hope. I think she has day-at-a-time hope, it’s just enough to get her through, a day at a time.”
A spokeswoman for Sodexo, the private firm that runs HMP Bronzefield told the Mirror they do not comment on individual prisoners.
