Lucy Letby is serving 15-whole life orders after being convicted of murdering seven children at the Countess of Chester Hospital and here is an insight into her bizarre prison life
Lucy Letby’s life in jail has been revealed including an ‘eerie similarity’ in her room to her routine as a nurse and how she mixes with another child killer.
The 35 year old is understood to be one of 527 inmates at HMP Bronzefield and was fast-tracked to receiving ‘enhanced’ prisoner status when she arrived for her own protection. She is based in Unit Four and follows a different prison life to most of the other inmates due to her status.
Letby, from Hereford, is serving 15 whole-life orders after she was convicted of murdering seven infants and attempting to murder seven others, with two attempts on one of her victims, between June 2015 and June 2016.
And the way she keeps her room at the prison is very different to others which are generally messy with inmates taking little interest in tidiness, said a prison insider.
“So many of the prisoners here don’t even know how to do the basics like change their sheets or keep things clean, but her cell is always spotless,” a prison source told the Mail. “There isn’t a thing out of place or a speck of dust, it feels eerily clean. It almost reminds me of a hospital ward. But that doesn’t feel right to say, for obvious reasons.”
Letby was given a whole life order in August 2023 and a regular day at the prison would see the women unlocked at 8am and then at 9am they can go for their lessons or work.
Prison guards are used to going to inmate’s rooms and waking them up but it is reported that Letby is already dressed and ready to go when she is unlocked. With her ‘enhanced’ status she has plenty of options during the day from a beauty salon to barista training and educational workshops.
The prison website states of the routine for inmates: “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.”
Guards at the prison have to take care who Letby meets with for her own protection but it is reported that they allow her to mix with Beinash Batool, who was sentenced for the murder of 10-year-old stepdaughter Sara Sharif.
And the pair are said to get on well together. A Bronzefield source said: “I wouldn’t call them friends – I don’t think Lucy has any friends – but they mix a lot together. There is a bit of unspoken solidarity between them, given they are both in for such horrific crimes. Who else would mix with them?
“They both have cushty jobs with Beinash being in charge of the unit library and Lucy doing the cleaning – though this causes a bit of friction with other inmates.”
Another woman who Letby mixed with until she was recently released was Linda De Sousa Abreu – a married former prison officer who was jailed after she was filmed having sex with an inmate.
“The three of them didn’t really communicate much but they would come out and mix at the same time. Batool, De Sousa and Letby together – such a trio of misfits,” reportedly said the source. “You’ve got a nurse in there for murdering babies, another child killer, then a prison officer there because she made a porn video in a prison cell, all shuffling about in a Category A prison together. Utterly bizarre.”
As a high profile child murderer, Letby will be a target for other prisoners, says retired prison governor Vanessa Frake, who spent 27 years in the service often dealing with notorious and celebrity criminals.
From January to September 2024, there were a reported 243 assaults at Bronzefield alone, with 16 classed as ‘serious’.
“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.
