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British Nurse Found Guilty Of Murdering Seven Babies
Published
9 months agoon
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EditorA British nurse was found guilty Friday of murdering seven newborn babies and trying to kill six others at the hospital neonatal unit where she worked, becoming the UK’s most prolific child killer.
Lucy Letby, 33, had been on trial since October last year, accused of either injecting her sick or premature young victims with air, overfeeding them with milk or poisoning them with insulin.
The victims’ families said in a joint statement read outside Manchester Crown Court in northern England said: “Justice has been served.”
But they cautioned: “This justice will not take away from the extreme hurt, anger and distress we have all had.”
The jury, some of whom were in tears after they were discharged, deliberated for 22 days, returning their first guilty decisions on August 8, which could not be reported until Friday because of a court order.
Letby fought back tears in the dock after the initial verdicts were read out. She was not in court Friday to hear the jurors’ final determinations.
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They eventually acquitted her of two counts, and could not reach decisions on six others. Prosecutors have asked for 28 days to consider whether to seek a retrial on those charges.
‘Betrayal’
Letby will be sentenced on Monday and has reportedly told her lawyers she will not attend court to hear her fate but she faces the prospect of never being released from prison.
The nurse was arrested following a string of deaths at the neonatal unit of the Countess of Chester Hospital in northwest England between June 2015 and June 2016.
Described by the prosecution as a “calculating” woman who used methods of killing that “didn’t leave much of a trace”, Letby had repeatedly denied harming the children.
“Time and again, she harmed babies, in an environment which should have been safe for them and their families,” said senior prosecutor Pascale Jones, calling the killings “a complete betrayal of the trust placed in her”.
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The court was told that colleagues raised concerns after noticing that Letby was on shift when each of the babies collapsed, with some of the newborns attacked just as their parents left their cots.
The prosecution said Letby “gaslighted” her colleagues into believing the string of deaths were “just a run of bad luck”.
‘Playing God’
Letby’s final victims were two triplet boys, referred to in court as babies O and P.
Child O died shortly after Letby returned from a holiday in Ibiza in June 2016, while child P died a day after their sibling.
Letby was also said to have attempted to kill the third triplet, child Q, but the jury was unable to reach a verdict on the charge.
Prosecutors said by that time Letby was “completely out of control”, adding that “she was in effect playing God”.
Letby was arrested and released twice. On her third arrest in 2020 she was formally charged and held in custody.
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During searches at her home, police found hospital paperwork and a handwritten note on which Letby had written: “I am evil, I did this.”
Letby later tried to explain the note by saying she wrote it after being placed on clerical duties following the death of the two triplets.
Defence lawyer Ben Myers told the court Letby was “hardworking, deeply committed” and “loved her work”.
Letby also suggested that a “gang” of four senior doctors pinned blame on her to cover for the hospital’s failings.
When she gave evidence at the trial, she insisted she “always wanted to work with children” and said it was “devastating” to find out she was blamed for the deaths.
Police are investigating Letby’s entire tenure at the Countess of Chester and at the Liverpool Women’s Hospital where she also previously worked, sifting through more than 4,000 neo-natal unit admissions between 2012 and 2016.
Nigel Scawn, medical director at the Countess of Chester, said the case had a “profound impact” on the hospital’s patients but “significant changes” have been made since Letby worked there.
The government meanwhile announced an independent inquiry into Letby’s case, and will look at how concerns by clinicians were dealt with by hospital management.
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UK Health Secretary Steve Barclay said it would help the victims’ parents and families “get the answers they need” and “help… identify where and how patient safety standards failed to be met”.
Her case revived memories of two of Britain’s infamous medical murderers, doctor Harold Shipman and nurse Beverley Allitt.
Shipman, a general practitioner, hanged himself in prison in 2004, four years after being convicted of killing 15 of his patients.
A later public inquiry concluded he killed about 250 patients with lethal morphine injections between 1971 and 1998.
Allitt — a nurse dubbed the “angel of death” — was jailed for life in 1993 after being convicted of murdering four young children in her care, attempting to murder three others and other offences.
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Headline
Google To Offer AI-generated Answers In Search Results
Published
9 hours agoon
May 14, 2024By
EditorGoogle has announced it would introduce AI-generated answers to online queries made by users in the United States, in one of the biggest updates to its search engine in 25 years.
“I’m excited to announce that we will begin launching this fully revamped experience, ‘AI overviews,’ to everyone in the US this week,” Google chief executive Sundar Pichai said at an event in California on Tuesday, May 14.
Google’s search results will feature an AI summary at the top of the page before the more typical unfurling of links.
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The AI answers generated by Google’s Gemini technology will offer succinct summaries of what it found on the internet with links to the online sources that supplied the information.
“You can ask whatever’s on your mind or whatever you need to get done – from researching to planning to brainstorming – and Google will take care of the legwork,” said Google Search team boss Liz Reid.
The change comes as Google feels growing pressure from AI-powered search engines like Perplexity, and from the rumors that OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, is building its own AI search tool.
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Searches through AI chats have also appeared on Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, with users able to get information from the web without Google.
The change will soon spread to other countries, Pichai added, making it accessible to more than a billion people.
Headline
College Volleyball Player Killed In US Nightclub Shooting
Published
9 hours agoon
May 14, 2024By
EditorAlbany State University volleyball player Mariam Creighton has been tragically killed in a nightclub shooting in Atlanta.
Atlanta Police Department said on Tuesday, May 14, that the incident happened around 2:28 AM on Sunday, May 14, when officers responded to shots fired at the Elleven45 establishment.
Six people were shot, two of whom were pronounced dead at the scene, Creighton and 20-year-old Nakyris Ridley.
The police department said in a statement;
READ ALSO: Nigerian Burnt To Death In Bangkok Car Crash
“Preliminary investigation indicates the shooting occurred during a physical dispute at the location that escalated to gunfire.”
Creighton was a member of the ASU Golden Rams volleyball team, and was one semester from graduating from the HBCU with a biology degree.
Her family said she was at the club on Sunday celebrating her niece’s birthday. “It’s just senseless,” Creighton’s sister, Tiffany, said. “My sister was just out having a good time, and now our lives are just altered forever.”
A 35-year-old Nigerian man identified as Daniel was burnt to death in a car accident in Bangkok, Thailand.
Bangkok’s Prawet Police Station, confirmed the identity of the Nigerian national in a statement on Tuesday, May 14, 2024,
Daniel, whose Thai wife came to confirm his identity with the police, died on Saturday, May 11, when his car crashed into a road median and caught fire.
This serious road accident occurred at 5:30 a.m. on a three-lane road near Soi Phatthanakan 53/1, Suan Luang Subdistrict and District, Bangkok.
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When officials received the report and arrived at the scene, they found a gray Toyota Vios with Samut Prakan province license plates overturned and engulfed in flames, blocking the middle of the road.
The officers spent about 10 minutes spraying water to extinguish the fire, but the car was completely damaged by the flames.
At that time, rescuers had to use cutting and prying equipment to remove the driver’s body from the wreckage and send it to the Police Hospital for an autopsy. They found a document with a front-facing photo of a foreign man.
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Eyewitnesses stated that they saw the car driving at high speed in the far right lane before losing control and crashing into the road median.
The car spun and hit a palm tree with such force that it flipped over and ended up on its roof in the middle of the road.
At that moment, good Samaritans tried to pry open the door to help the unconscious driver, but before they could pull him out, sparks ignited, and the car quickly caught fire.
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