Lucy Letby may have attacked more than 30 babies after officers found "suspicious" incidents while she was on duty, detectives fear.
Last Friday, the 33-year-old nurse was convicted of murdering seven premature babies and attempting to murder six more while working at The Countess of Chester Hospital. She is facing a whole-life sentence today. She was found not guilty of two counts of attempted murder and the jury was unable to reach a verdict if she tried to kill another four.
During searches of Letby's address, a number of closely written notes were discovered. On one green Post-it note she wrote: "I don't deserve to live. I killed them on purpose because I'm not good enough to care for them", "I am a horrible evil person" and in capital letters "I am evil I did this".
Following her conviction, the Government ordered an independent inquiry which will investigate the handling of concerns raised by staff at the hospital and what action was taken by regulators and the wider health service. It will also look at the circumstances behind Letby's offending.
It is understood detectives are examining the cases of 30 infants who may have been harmed but survived, The Guardian reported. Detectives identified the “suspicious” incidents at the Countess of Chester hospital where Letby worked, and she was found to be on duty for each of these unexplained collapses, the paper added.
These cases are separate from the 17 babies in the 10-month trial at Manchester Crown Court. It comes as police are also investigating the entirety of Letby's career and are looking at whether she committed her first horror crimes at Liverpool Women's Hospital.
Her convictions so far only focus on a period between March 2015 and July 2016 when 17 babies died and 15 suffered non-fatal collapses at the latter hospital's neonatal unit.
Police are now reviewing the care of 4,000 babies Letby may have come into contact with during a spell at the Countess of Chester from January 2012 to the end of June 2016 and two work placements at Liverpool Women's Hospital in 2012 and 2015.
Crown Prosecution Service reviewing lawyer Pascale Jones said: "Lucy Letby was entrusted to protect some of the most vulnerable babies. Little did those working alongside her know that there was a murderer in their midst. She did her utmost to conceal her crimes, by varying the ways in which she repeatedly harmed babies in her care."
Prosecutor Nick Johnson KC said Letby falsified medical notes to cover her tracks and gaslighted doctors and nurses to persuade them the collapses were "just a run of bad luck". She was also prepared to publicly trash the reputations of colleagues "in an effort to get away with it", the prosecutor added. Letby denied all the allegations, and was cleared of two counts of attempted murder.