A con being being held in the same prison as baby killer Lucy Letby has given her two-word judgement of the former nurse who is spending the rest of her life behind bars.
Letby, 35, is currently serving 15 whole life sentences for the murder of seven babies and the attempted murder of eight more at the notorious HMP Bronzefield near Ashford, Surrey. The jail insider is on the same wing in Houseblock Four, where Letby, along with some of the most dangerous female criminals in the country are housed.
The woman described Letby as being “very weird”.
The inmate, who we are not naming for fear of reprisals has spoken exclusively to the Mirror after Letby’s legal team claimed this week that she’s the subject of a miscarriage of justice. Despite her convictions in two trials and twice being refused leave to appeal, the campaigners put forward contrasting medical opinions of some of the evidence used in court in a bid to secure a fresh appeal, at a press conference on Tuesday.
Asked if she thinks Letby is innocent, the prisoner said: “It’s really hard to say, she is really odd, she’s very weird. I do believe her, but the unfortunate thing is she doesn’t come across as very sympathetic, she’s not very friendly. She’s just odd, she has a weird look, when she thinks someone is looking at her, she’s staring at people.”
Despite this, she added that Letby can also be really helpful to those around her, adding: “She’s super shy actually, but she will help wherever she can. In the houseblock 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 sh*t to her and she will try to help where she can.”
She added that Letby is unable to walk the corridors alone and is always accompanied by a prison officer, but as well as being for her own protection, the move is believed to be enforced in order to ensure that 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 some inmates, Letby’s relationship with another notorious prisoner has grown stronger. It was previously alleged that the serial killer had befriended Beinash Batool, who murdered her own step daughter, Sara Sharif.
A court heard that the 10-year-old was subjected to “unspeakable” violence for years before she was eventually 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 reported to enjoy playing cards together. Now, our prison insider reveals, their bond has grown stronger. She said: “She’s best friends with that Beinash which isn’t helping her at all, because everyone knows she’s guilty, guilty, guilty.”
And despite being convicted of brutally ending seven innocent and helpless young lives, the former nurse spends her time whining about her own life “wasting away” and even complaining about the campaign to have her convictions overturned.
The jail insider 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.”
In August 2023, a jury spent 22 days and more than 96 hours deliberating the string of charges levelled against neonatal nurse Letby. They eventually found her guilty of seven counts of murder and seven counts of attempted murder carried out between 2015 and 2016 at the Countess of Chester Hospital. She was found not guilty of two counts of attempted murder. However, verdicts were not reached on six counts of attempted murder.
Letby 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.
Meanwhile Letby’s campaign press conference appears to have garnered some support for the killer nurse 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.”
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.”
However, 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.