August 21, 2023 - 10:00am
Last Friday, Lucy Letby was found guilty of murdering seven babies and attempting to kill six more while working as a paediatric nurse in a hospital in north-west England. The sheer level of malice it takes for someone to commit such atrocities hardly bears thinking about — but Letby is not, unfortunately, the first British nursing serial killer.
The first was Beverly Allitt, who murdered four babies in 1991, but then came Colin Norris, who was convicted of the murders of four hospital patients in 2002, then Benjamin Geen, who was convicted of the murders of two patients in 2003-2004. Finally, there was Victorino Chua, who was convicted of the murders of two patients in 2011.
Why have there been so many nursing killers in the UK in recent decades? One generic reason is that people who commit serious crimes, such as murder or rape, often do so through various institutions that can provide access and a cloak of respectability. This is something that nursing can provide, in the same way as medicine, church work and policing. No one automatically suspects that public servants such as nurses or police officers will have entered into these professions in order to do harm, but this is precisely why the likes of Lucy Letby and Wayne Couzens are attracted to them in the first place — to acquire positions of power and authority over vulnerable people.
Because of this risk, it is of vital importance that professions such as these have systems in place to identify dangerous individuals as soon as possible — ideally before they are even qualified to enter into the profession. The Beverly Allitt case, which attracted huge public attention at the time, did play a role in changing the way that nurses are regulated in this country, but not in the way that nurses were educated. This, I’m afraid, is the second reason that the nursing profession has become vulnerable to people like Letby.
Since 1990, nursing has aimed to professionalise itself by placing its training on a more academic footing in higher educational institutions, as opposed to the older apprenticeship model of nurse training, in which student nurses were paid employees of the healthcare institutions in which they were embedded.
The virtues of the older apprenticeship model of nursing, in which student nurses were trained in hospital-based schools, meant that they acquired their knowledge and skills primarily via experiential learning in clinical settings. This meant that nurses could be more rooted, localised and stable; it was not uncommon for nurses who trained in their local hospital to then stay there for the rest of their lives.
This, no doubt, bred a greater degree of insularity in the profession, but it also created a workforce with a greater web of social ties — and these thick social ties helped to act as a safeguard, revealing the likes of Letby much earlier.
People with psychopathic tendencies who wish to do harm to others tend to thrive in environments which are more atomised and deracinated. The questions that the nursing profession must now ask itself, in the wake of the Lucy Letby case, is whether the profession has become analogous to a big urban metropolis, with its weaker social ties and greater levels of anonymity — and, if so, what can be done to rediscover some of the older virtues that we left behind. Would Letby have been identified if she had been trained via apprenticeship? It behoves the nursing profession to ask the question.
Peter Hurst is a mental health nurse based in England.
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SubscribeWhile I would support a greater emphasis on apprenticeship type training for nurses I don’t think this was the issue in the Letby case. The problem seems to have been administrators unwilling to countenance the idea that “one of our angels of mercy” could be a killer.
Totally agree. These people are psychopaths. They have no real social ties. I highly doubt their path into the profession will change outcomes.
Lucy Letby appears to have had strong social ties.
Tut tut – any suggestion that she did not display any psychopathic tendencies is an automatic black mark. The whole article is pure speculation and theorising!
Yes, the very well produced BBC panorama programme had an expert on pychopaths saying that Lucy Letby was unusual as she didn’t display any, not any of the known signs of a psychopath. This is very frigtening. We are always disapointed, well I am, that psychopaths do not have a large sign centre forehead, but one that doesn’t show any signs at all of this insanity is truely a worry and a fear.
Or even ‘truly a worry and fear’. Sorry.
Or even ‘truly a worry and fear’. Sorry.
Appears…
Tut tut – any suggestion that she did not display any psychopathic tendencies is an automatic black mark. The whole article is pure speculation and theorising!
Yes, the very well produced BBC panorama programme had an expert on pychopaths saying that Lucy Letby was unusual as she didn’t display any, not any of the known signs of a psychopath. This is very frigtening. We are always disapointed, well I am, that psychopaths do not have a large sign centre forehead, but one that doesn’t show any signs at all of this insanity is truely a worry and a fear.
Appears…
Lucy Letby appears to have had strong social ties.
You make a good and 100% valid point, but I think that ‘managerial dysfunction’ is itself a product of the same environment that the article describes.
De-personalised, almost theatrically divorced from reality, the kind of management that clearly went drastically wrong is there all over our society… there is little difference between Dame Alison Rose failing to see what’s wrong inside her organisation and leaking lies in ‘damage control’ and these managers in the Chester hospital.
These people seem adrift despite their degrees, six figure salaries and command of the corporations and public sector hospitals, despite their command of the bland management speak waffle that is used to obfuscate not inform.
Honestly sounds like the author is just using this case to support his own views on how nursing should be organised.
The old system of apprenticeships not only sorted the ne-er do wells from the compassionate & dedicated nurses but also staffed the wards so patients were better cared for.
Exactly.
Totally agree. These people are psychopaths. They have no real social ties. I highly doubt their path into the profession will change outcomes.
You make a good and 100% valid point, but I think that ‘managerial dysfunction’ is itself a product of the same environment that the article describes.
De-personalised, almost theatrically divorced from reality, the kind of management that clearly went drastically wrong is there all over our society… there is little difference between Dame Alison Rose failing to see what’s wrong inside her organisation and leaking lies in ‘damage control’ and these managers in the Chester hospital.
These people seem adrift despite their degrees, six figure salaries and command of the corporations and public sector hospitals, despite their command of the bland management speak waffle that is used to obfuscate not inform.
Honestly sounds like the author is just using this case to support his own views on how nursing should be organised.
The old system of apprenticeships not only sorted the ne-er do wells from the compassionate & dedicated nurses but also staffed the wards so patients were better cared for.
Exactly.
While I would support a greater emphasis on apprenticeship type training for nurses I don’t think this was the issue in the Letby case. The problem seems to have been administrators unwilling to countenance the idea that “one of our angels of mercy” could be a killer.
This same shift in training has happened in Canada as well. RN programs used to be intensive, live-in-the-nursing-residence-attached-to-the-hospital, 2 year apprenticeships which provided a diploma in nursing. Then nursing leadership became haughty and (likely in part as a reason to demand higher salaries) changed it to a 4-year “degree” program. It was suddenly changed to try to make it equivalent to any other university degree in the eyes of the public.
The problem is that the amount of hands-on training decreased, and the amount of “fluff” increased. Numerous older diploma nurses went back to school to do degrees because their options for career advancement were limited otherwise (management positions were closed to “diploma nurses”). One told me about how she had to write a 6000 word essay on Florence Nightengale. Interesting, she said, but “how does this make me a better nurse?”.
The 4-year university nursing programs are graduating nurses who have taken courses on use of proper pronouns, “equity”, “cultural competency”, etc. But our new grads don’t seem to have confidence in basic skills of looking after sick patients. They arrive in our wards and ER departments and need months of remedial (unofficial) mentoring and training by experienced nurses to be minimally competent.
I can’t say that there are more or less serial killer nurses now than there were. But what I can say is that our programs are twice as long and provide half of the relevant training and experience that they once did.
My friend taught nursing at an Ontario College during the 80’s. Standards were dropped even then. She was forced (by the administration) to not only do remedial math training for some of the students, but to `ensure’ they passed. The student’s -who couldn’t figure out dosage- threatened her, and the admin, with cries of racism.
To be competent at any job one has to be good at theory and practice.
Sisters In Arms By Nicola Tyrer | Used | 9780297846581 | World of Books (wob.com)
Perhaps they should bring back the training required to enter the QARANC of WW2?
Queen Alexandra’s Royal Army Nursing Corps – Wikipedia
Depends on how we are defining ‘theory’. In teacher training in the UK, for example, the vast majority of this is ideological and speculative. This has a corrosive effect impact on practitioners – put simply, you have to go along with all kinds of tomfoolery in order to do your job. Subtle forms of dishonesty become the norm.
Doesn’t explain a psychopath, of course, but perhaps an element in the dogged refusal of managers to confront an unpalatable reality that challenged their prior assumptions. Frequently after a calamity like this the public defence will be: ‘We followed all the procedures.’ In which case, why does this keep happening?
All I had to do to get the go ahead for my doctorate was lie. That’s all. Same to be a school psych or teacher. So I refused. I imagine this is the same for nursing. So we are already slanted toward the psychotic. Fake it till you make it.
All I had to do to get the go ahead for my doctorate was lie. That’s all. Same to be a school psych or teacher. So I refused. I imagine this is the same for nursing. So we are already slanted toward the psychotic. Fake it till you make it.
Depends on how we are defining ‘theory’. In teacher training in the UK, for example, the vast majority of this is ideological and speculative. This has a corrosive effect impact on practitioners – put simply, you have to go along with all kinds of tomfoolery in order to do your job. Subtle forms of dishonesty become the norm.
Doesn’t explain a psychopath, of course, but perhaps an element in the dogged refusal of managers to confront an unpalatable reality that challenged their prior assumptions. Frequently after a calamity like this the public defence will be: ‘We followed all the procedures.’ In which case, why does this keep happening?
….and then they all go flying back to the Uni to do their ‘Master’s’ in some pointless and undercooked statistical exercise. Which will have little relevance to any clinical or medical practice.
My friend taught nursing at an Ontario College during the 80’s. Standards were dropped even then. She was forced (by the administration) to not only do remedial math training for some of the students, but to `ensure’ they passed. The student’s -who couldn’t figure out dosage- threatened her, and the admin, with cries of racism.
To be competent at any job one has to be good at theory and practice.
Sisters In Arms By Nicola Tyrer | Used | 9780297846581 | World of Books (wob.com)
Perhaps they should bring back the training required to enter the QARANC of WW2?
Queen Alexandra’s Royal Army Nursing Corps – Wikipedia
….and then they all go flying back to the Uni to do their ‘Master’s’ in some pointless and undercooked statistical exercise. Which will have little relevance to any clinical or medical practice.
This same shift in training has happened in Canada as well. RN programs used to be intensive, live-in-the-nursing-residence-attached-to-the-hospital, 2 year apprenticeships which provided a diploma in nursing. Then nursing leadership became haughty and (likely in part as a reason to demand higher salaries) changed it to a 4-year “degree” program. It was suddenly changed to try to make it equivalent to any other university degree in the eyes of the public.
The problem is that the amount of hands-on training decreased, and the amount of “fluff” increased. Numerous older diploma nurses went back to school to do degrees because their options for career advancement were limited otherwise (management positions were closed to “diploma nurses”). One told me about how she had to write a 6000 word essay on Florence Nightengale. Interesting, she said, but “how does this make me a better nurse?”.
The 4-year university nursing programs are graduating nurses who have taken courses on use of proper pronouns, “equity”, “cultural competency”, etc. But our new grads don’t seem to have confidence in basic skills of looking after sick patients. They arrive in our wards and ER departments and need months of remedial (unofficial) mentoring and training by experienced nurses to be minimally competent.
I can’t say that there are more or less serial killer nurses now than there were. But what I can say is that our programs are twice as long and provide half of the relevant training and experience that they once did.
If you are going to catch rogues in the professions (law, medicine, the police, the church), I would say you need three things.
Meticulous record-keeping. We have this in the NHS, and we had it in Countess of Chester Hospital.Careful, logical analysis of the data. This happened too, where the consultants took to heart the advice of Sherlock Holmes: “When you have eliminated all which is impossible then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”Senior management to act, swiftly and decisively. This, emphatically, did not happen. For reasons we don’t yet understand, the managers preferred Letby’s say-so to the statistical case the consultants had so carefully constructed.
One thing more. The chairman of the board for Countess of Chester has suggested that the executives were not entirely straight in their briefings about the Letby affair. There’s a lot to be said for board members to wander round their hospitals, chatting to staff and patients. That’s the only reliable way to find out what is really going on.
Indeed. The Undercover Boss TV series shows the value of anonymous involvement in the sharp end of big businesses in educating Bosses about what really goes on in their businesses. Of course it is schmaltzy and geared for good TV but the message that finding out what works and what doesn’t from direct experience beats having second or third hand reports from management that want to paint a rosy picture and not admit to any problems on their watch.
Indeed. The Undercover Boss TV series shows the value of anonymous involvement in the sharp end of big businesses in educating Bosses about what really goes on in their businesses. Of course it is schmaltzy and geared for good TV but the message that finding out what works and what doesn’t from direct experience beats having second or third hand reports from management that want to paint a rosy picture and not admit to any problems on their watch.
If you are going to catch rogues in the professions (law, medicine, the police, the church), I would say you need three things.
Meticulous record-keeping. We have this in the NHS, and we had it in Countess of Chester Hospital.Careful, logical analysis of the data. This happened too, where the consultants took to heart the advice of Sherlock Holmes: “When you have eliminated all which is impossible then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”Senior management to act, swiftly and decisively. This, emphatically, did not happen. For reasons we don’t yet understand, the managers preferred Letby’s say-so to the statistical case the consultants had so carefully constructed.
One thing more. The chairman of the board for Countess of Chester has suggested that the executives were not entirely straight in their briefings about the Letby affair. There’s a lot to be said for board members to wander round their hospitals, chatting to staff and patients. That’s the only reliable way to find out what is really going on.
I came across this quote in the Telegraph:
“Dame Janet proposed a medical examiner system to scrutinise independently every death not investigated by a coroner – including baby deaths.
The necessary legislation was passed in the Coroners and Justice Act 2009. Most thought that the Shipman reforms had been implemented, but in fact implementation relied on the health secretary (Jeremy Hunt between 2012 and 2018) setting a start date. He never did.”
It would seem Jeremy Hunt should be investigated for corporate manslaughter if true as a proper linked investigation of the first three deaths might have triggered action that would have saved subsequent lives.
“Plans to bar managers guilty of serious misconduct from the NHS were abandoned after Matt Hancock failed to back them, The Telegraph can disclose.”
Perhaps we need plans to ban politicians guilty of political misconduct from being employed in government. On second thoughts it would simply be used as another means of using legal means to ban popular political opponents.
“Plans to bar managers guilty of serious misconduct from the NHS were abandoned after Matt Hancock failed to back them, The Telegraph can disclose.”
Perhaps we need plans to ban politicians guilty of political misconduct from being employed in government. On second thoughts it would simply be used as another means of using legal means to ban popular political opponents.
I came across this quote in the Telegraph:
“Dame Janet proposed a medical examiner system to scrutinise independently every death not investigated by a coroner – including baby deaths.
The necessary legislation was passed in the Coroners and Justice Act 2009. Most thought that the Shipman reforms had been implemented, but in fact implementation relied on the health secretary (Jeremy Hunt between 2012 and 2018) setting a start date. He never did.”
It would seem Jeremy Hunt should be investigated for corporate manslaughter if true as a proper linked investigation of the first three deaths might have triggered action that would have saved subsequent lives.
There is a saying ” One hand for oneself and one hand for the ship “. People do not accept the responsibility to be competent oneself and also accept he responsibility to discern the competence of those around them.
Discernment separates what’s important or true from what’s not, is sign of good judgement and discovers what is hidden. This ability has been undermined for decades.
There is a saying ” One hand for oneself and one hand for the ship “. People do not accept the responsibility to be competent oneself and also accept he responsibility to discern the competence of those around them.
Discernment separates what’s important or true from what’s not, is sign of good judgement and discovers what is hidden. This ability has been undermined for decades.
There are alot of nursing professionals who concur that something fundamental was lost when the old SEN role abolished under Project 2000. Whilst it was replaced with HCAs it’s never been quite the same.
However to conflate that policy change with the alleged spike in psychopathic nurses quite a ‘stretch’ and the contention lacks credibility.
Firstly we don’t know how many such psychopaths existed in the past and were never uncovered. Health services find more things now because they look more, and must continue to do so. It’s no doubt similar in many other areas. Let’s not assume the past was ‘rose tinted’.
Psychopathy is a known, diagnosable condition. Increasingly the science points to clear changes in brain structure and function – the more obvious in psychopathic criminals. One would guess that if it had been possible to fMRI scan Letby she’d flashed ‘Danger’. But such screening currently unviable. What we do in the future if it becomes more practical will be an interesting public policy issue for coming generations – what does society do when it identifies the risk in an individual even if no evidence they’ve ‘yet’ offended?.
There are other forms of psychopathy questionnaire tests but can we countenance using these as a screening tool in specific areas of employment? Perhaps we must, but then we need employment law to keep pace with such a development applied just to screen out what is believed to be >1% of the population.
Very sensible comment, thank you. What has happened is indeed horrific, but it is clear Nurse Letby became and remains mentally ill. The current shrieking in the media is not going to advance a sensible approach to the assessment and management of risk in the nursing profession.
I agree about the mental illness aspect; her countenance throughout the court proceedings also points in this direction. For this reason, i’m not sure that using the word “malice” to describe her as the article does is useful. The majority of people without psychiatric illness understand what “malice” means in everyday circumstances; it’s something we’re all capable of, but Letby’s actions go way beyond such simplistic description.
We have to face the fact that some people are just plain evil.
We have to face the fact that some people are just plain evil.
Mental illness is NOT the diagnosis. Her inner world is fixed, since childhood and untreatable.
I agree about the mental illness aspect; her countenance throughout the court proceedings also points in this direction. For this reason, i’m not sure that using the word “malice” to describe her as the article does is useful. The majority of people without psychiatric illness understand what “malice” means in everyday circumstances; it’s something we’re all capable of, but Letby’s actions go way beyond such simplistic description.
Mental illness is NOT the diagnosis. Her inner world is fixed, since childhood and untreatable.
.Empathy is connected to and involves specific parts of the brain which, if damaged or of reduced volume, can lead to actions that are morally unjust, aggressive, or simply denoting a lack of understanding and sensitivity. Neuroscience has suggested that the low level of empathy ,guilt,and moral reasoning displayed by violent and psychopathic offenders may be linked to their having smaller and less developed areas of empathy linked brain regions
Does this explain Lucy Lethby? She was just made that way ? She had no free will and therefore no redemption is possible for her?
Very sensible comment, thank you. What has happened is indeed horrific, but it is clear Nurse Letby became and remains mentally ill. The current shrieking in the media is not going to advance a sensible approach to the assessment and management of risk in the nursing profession.
.Empathy is connected to and involves specific parts of the brain which, if damaged or of reduced volume, can lead to actions that are morally unjust, aggressive, or simply denoting a lack of understanding and sensitivity. Neuroscience has suggested that the low level of empathy ,guilt,and moral reasoning displayed by violent and psychopathic offenders may be linked to their having smaller and less developed areas of empathy linked brain regions
Does this explain Lucy Lethby? She was just made that way ? She had no free will and therefore no redemption is possible for her?
There are alot of nursing professionals who concur that something fundamental was lost when the old SEN role abolished under Project 2000. Whilst it was replaced with HCAs it’s never been quite the same.
However to conflate that policy change with the alleged spike in psychopathic nurses quite a ‘stretch’ and the contention lacks credibility.
Firstly we don’t know how many such psychopaths existed in the past and were never uncovered. Health services find more things now because they look more, and must continue to do so. It’s no doubt similar in many other areas. Let’s not assume the past was ‘rose tinted’.
Psychopathy is a known, diagnosable condition. Increasingly the science points to clear changes in brain structure and function – the more obvious in psychopathic criminals. One would guess that if it had been possible to fMRI scan Letby she’d flashed ‘Danger’. But such screening currently unviable. What we do in the future if it becomes more practical will be an interesting public policy issue for coming generations – what does society do when it identifies the risk in an individual even if no evidence they’ve ‘yet’ offended?.
There are other forms of psychopathy questionnaire tests but can we countenance using these as a screening tool in specific areas of employment? Perhaps we must, but then we need employment law to keep pace with such a development applied just to screen out what is believed to be >1% of the population.
Given the backlash that the police have suffered over recent events can we expect the nursing profession to face the same vitriol?
Given the backlash that the police have suffered over recent events can we expect the nursing profession to face the same vitriol?
‘Because of this risk, it is of vital importance that professions such as these have systems in place to identify dangerous individuals as soon as possible….’
The NHS *does* have systems in place to identify dangerous individuals as soon as possible.
Case in point – on 20 June 2023, there was a tweet about Norman Fenton, who was due to give a talk.
Immediately, a meeting was convened. The members looked through the Twitter feed, decided on a course of action, agreed on and wrote and sent an email cancelling Fenton’s talk.
All within 35 minutes.
How can anybody reasonably expect them to act any faster?
‘Because of this risk, it is of vital importance that professions such as these have systems in place to identify dangerous individuals as soon as possible….’
The NHS *does* have systems in place to identify dangerous individuals as soon as possible.
Case in point – on 20 June 2023, there was a tweet about Norman Fenton, who was due to give a talk.
Immediately, a meeting was convened. The members looked through the Twitter feed, decided on a course of action, agreed on and wrote and sent an email cancelling Fenton’s talk.
All within 35 minutes.
How can anybody reasonably expect them to act any faster?
I have no idea if there are “so many” murderers amongst the nursing profession. I don’t know how you could qualify this in a meaningful way.
As this event (really can’t think of an appropriate word here) has unfolded I have been horrifies by the complicity of senior management at the hospital. So many blinkered individuals. This is an equal tragedy to the murders in my view.
There will be an enquiry, lessons will be learned, and somethings will change but I have little hope that these will reduce the likelihood of something similar happening in the future.
Think of Shipman, changes to ongoing monitoring of GP’s, a tick box exercise that would not have stopped Shipman behaving as he did. And the ongoing reviews don’t work. A GP approaching retirement was clearly (to colleagues) becoming unsafe to practice. There was no way that he could be shuffled into retirement and after a real close call all his partners could do was make sure that all prescriptions he wrote were checked and that all referrals and other test checked, a huge increase in workload that went on for over a year.
After the Soham murders huge changes to vetting for child protection but non of the vetting procedures would have stopped the murderer and preventing those two girls being killed.
How can any bureaucratic oversight catch psychopaths? I don’t believe it can but having these tick box “safeguards” in place does protect those in charge. This is, in my view, where changes are needed.
I have no idea if there are “so many” murderers amongst the nursing profession. I don’t know how you could qualify this in a meaningful way.
As this event (really can’t think of an appropriate word here) has unfolded I have been horrifies by the complicity of senior management at the hospital. So many blinkered individuals. This is an equal tragedy to the murders in my view.
There will be an enquiry, lessons will be learned, and somethings will change but I have little hope that these will reduce the likelihood of something similar happening in the future.
Think of Shipman, changes to ongoing monitoring of GP’s, a tick box exercise that would not have stopped Shipman behaving as he did. And the ongoing reviews don’t work. A GP approaching retirement was clearly (to colleagues) becoming unsafe to practice. There was no way that he could be shuffled into retirement and after a real close call all his partners could do was make sure that all prescriptions he wrote were checked and that all referrals and other test checked, a huge increase in workload that went on for over a year.
After the Soham murders huge changes to vetting for child protection but non of the vetting procedures would have stopped the murderer and preventing those two girls being killed.
How can any bureaucratic oversight catch psychopaths? I don’t believe it can but having these tick box “safeguards” in place does protect those in charge. This is, in my view, where changes are needed.
Opportunity makes thieves, and power is evidently seductive.
Opportunities for cyber-Mengeles to commit gruesome acts without any risk of prosecution are multiplying via the proliferation of smart, i.e. hackable medical systems and devices.
The scarcity of news about successful cyber-criminal prosecutions does not mean scarcity of cyber-crimes’ succeeding.
Below listed are some of what I have been forced to learn about how 21st century technology increased the risk-free criminality of Australia’s organised crime participants.
Beyond perpetrators of cyber-crimes wanting their victims to know about crimes committed, as in the case of ransomware attacks and revenge porn, there are only a limited number of easily identifiable cyber-crime types that are obviously crimes, e.g. identity/financial theft, child-sexual-abuse.
For the vast majority of cyber-crimes it is impossible to prove that an incident is a crime, let alone proving the guilt of the perpetrator beyond reasonable doubt. This makes devastating cyber-crimes a risk-free triviality. Since Australia never managed to control information, rogue cops or technology, risk-free cyber-crime capabilities in Australia have included remote-weapons-grade capabilities from at least 2019.
Some of the reasons why reported cyber-crimes are less than the tip of the proverbial iceberg include:
> Attacks are mistaken for tech glitches/features, blocked calls/messages never known;
> Corrupt law-enforcement e.g. Victoria Police block identified cyber-crime reporting (Melbourne, Australia 2009-current in my case);
> Admitting to successful attacks likely damages victims’ reputation, attackers gain further business ops;
> Cyber-criminals’ individual guilt beyond reasonable doubt unprovable even in the tiny % of incidents that are obviously crimes e.g. ransomware/theft/child-abuse;
> Acts not classified = acts not counted = nothing learned;
> For an act to be classified as a cyber-crime type, it must:
>> Show consistent/easy to see patterns;
>> Have rational motives/start/end/processes: opportunistic crimes may seem irrational;
>> Have severe enough immediate impact to breach alert-fatigue;
>> Affect those, whose voice is heard in a country like #Australia, where justice is only for the privileged;
>> Be reproducible/likely to reoccur;
>> Be preventable/defence feasible;
>> Have a clear cause e.g. phishing fail; and
>> Involve tech understood by civilian experts – using agency/weapons grade tech is risk-free for Australian organised crime gangs, because these capabilities don’t exist officially.
Adding bizarre elements to crimes discredits witnesses to and victims of crimes, making crimes of any type risk-free. Adding absurd scale to bizarre crimes makes this strategy fail-proof, e.g. lining up dozens of bikies on a freezing winter Sunday early morning, as the woman to be intimidated into silent oblivion is driving home from her dance classes on the corner of Tooronga Road and Princes Highway in Melbourne, Australia in 2018.
I have no criminal background.
I became an instant and concurrent adversary to Australia’s authorities and to Australia’s organised crime by naively trying to report crimes punishable by 10 years in jail as a public servant witness to these crimes in 2009.
I didn’t know until 2019 that our sole law-enforcement entity Victoria Police are not only incompetent, indifferent and morally bankrupt (Nicola Gobbo), they are also corrupt: they actively participate in crimes themselves, having never had a duty of care or accountability, while always having a monopoly on what is a crime.
Victoria Police did not just block repeatedly my public servant witness reporting attempts of crimes punishable by 10 years in jail, they forced me to fight at court as an accused criminal in an admitted silencing attempt in 2019, tried to cajole me into pleading guilty to crimes I did not commit, tried to entrap me at least twice and openly participated in the very crimes in broad daylight that they blocked me from reporting – while they forced me to fight at court.
When I was told that charges against me were going to be dropped if I promise not to speak out any more about how Victoria Police are failing the Australian public, I let my lawyer go and declared self-representation.
From that point onward I have suffered a wide range of incidents affecting my physiology without any logical reasons.
These incidents always occurred in my own home until 9 July 2022, usually at night waking me up from sleep and often just before court hearings. They caused brain-fog in addition to the shock and confusion of experiencing often drastic symptoms I never experienced before.
Did Victoria Police try to dim my intelligence/ability to concentrate as they could not break my willingness to fight corrupt police participating in Australia’s organised crime gangs? I don’t know.
My story is the norm in Australia, not an exception.
No one will ever know how many people died/are dying, often gruesome deaths at the hands of those who spotted opportunities to satisfy their sadistic urges risk-free, and the callous indifference of those who are paid to stop such acts, e.g. police officers.
Contract killings can be done via interfering with smart, i.e. hackable medical systems and devices also, in addition to random acts of sadistic boredom relief etc.
By sharing what I am forced to learn I am shifting my role from a victim of devastating crimes I cannot stop or avoid to an observer, following in the footsteps of Viktor E. Frankl.
My writing is affected by being brutalised and traumatised by ongoing crimes since 2009 by an ex-coworker stalker whom I never even dated, never called a friend of any kind. Last bikie visit to my home overnight, last cyber-crime about 3 hours ago – writing this at 15:04 on 22 August 2023.
Australia’s lawlessness poses a global threat, because the Internet is everywhere, and Australia faked its way into Five Eyes, AUKUS, etc.
Below are some examples of Australia’s police’s incompetence/callousness leading to gruesome deaths, violent crime so rampant, it makes no difference where we live, what life choices we have made: I haven’t been safe anywhere since 2009, in spite of being a highly educated workaholic woman with a great job in my 50s living in my own home in a million $ home suburb in inner-Melbourne, when a stalker’s crimes against me started.
(1) Joanne Lees’ book about the murder of her boyfriend and her own attempted abduction, the ordeal she had to go through after she escaped from the clutches of a hill-billy murderer:
https://www.ebooks.com/en-au/book/95693419/no-turning-back/joanne-lees/
(2) Paul Onions managed to escape Ivan MILAT, Australia’s worst known serial killer, in 1990. Ivan MILAT’s known killing-spree literally hunting hitch-hikers spanned 1989-1992.
Police ignored Paul Onions’ witness statement, and thus allowed Ivan MILAT to keep killing people for 2 more years. No one knows how many people Ivan MILAT killed. Ivan MILAT died of natural causes in old age evidently having a blast at what he got away with.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-48346543
(3) Lorraine Wilson and Wendy Evans, two young nurses were abducted, gang-raped in public, tortured over several days before being bludgeoned to death. Police did nothing until the nurses’ skeletal remains were found 19 months after deaths in spite of crime witnesses’ statements to police while the crimes were in progress. No one was ever punished for the nurses’ murders.
https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/the-murder-victims-seen-by-many-but-helped-by-none/news-story/deea91936b2c70ff9570544c27f32f5c
The scarcity of news about successful cyber-criminal prosecutions does not mean scarcity of cyber-crimes’ succeeding.
Below listed are some of what I have been forced to learn about how 21st century technology increased the risk-free criminality of Australia’s organised crime participants.
Beyond perpetrators of cyber-crimes wanting their victims to know about crimes committed, as in the case of ransomware attacks and revenge porn, there are only a limited number of easily identifiable cyber-crime types that are obviously crimes, e.g. identity/financial theft, child-sexual-abuse.
For the vast majority of cyber-crimes it is impossible to prove that an incident is a crime, let alone proving the guilt of the perpetrator beyond reasonable doubt. This makes devastating cyber-crimes a risk-free triviality. Since Australia never managed to control information, rogue cops or technology, risk-free cyber-crime capabilities in Australia have included remote-weapons-grade capabilities from at least 2019.
Some of the reasons why reported cyber-crimes are less than the tip of the proverbial iceberg include:
> Attacks are mistaken for tech glitches/features, blocked calls/messages never known;
> Corrupt law-enforcement e.g. Victoria Police block identified cyber-crime reporting (Melbourne, Australia 2009-current in my case);
> Admitting to successful attacks likely damages victims’ reputation, attackers gain further business ops;
> Cyber-criminals’ individual guilt beyond reasonable doubt unprovable even in the tiny % of incidents that are obviously crimes e.g. ransomware/theft/child-abuse;
> Acts not classified = acts not counted = nothing learned;
> For an act to be classified as a cyber-crime type, it must:
>> Show consistent/easy to see patterns;
>> Have rational motives/start/end/processes: opportunistic crimes may seem irrational;
>> Have severe enough immediate impact to breach alert-fatigue;
>> Affect those, whose voice is heard in a country like #Australia, where justice is only for the privileged;
>> Be reproducible/likely to reoccur;
>> Be preventable/defence feasible;
>> Have a clear cause e.g. phishing fail; and
>> Involve tech understood by civilian experts – using agency/weapons grade tech is risk-free for Australian organised crime gangs, because these capabilities don’t exist officially.
Adding bizarre elements to crimes discredits witnesses to and victims of crimes, making crimes of any type risk-free. Adding absurd scale to bizarre crimes makes this strategy fail-proof, e.g. lining up dozens of bikies on a freezing winter Sunday early morning, as the woman to be intimidated into silent oblivion is driving home from her dance classes on the corner of Tooronga Road and Princes Highway in Melbourne, Australia in 2018.
I have no criminal background.
I became an instant and concurrent adversary to Australia’s authorities and to Australia’s organised crime by naively trying to report crimes punishable by 10 years in jail as a public servant witness to these crimes in 2009.
I didn’t know until 2019 that our sole law-enforcement entity Victoria Police are not only incompetent, indifferent and morally bankrupt (Nicola Gobbo), they are also corrupt: they actively participate in crimes themselves, having never had a duty of care or accountability, while always having a monopoly on what is a crime.
Victoria Police did not just block repeatedly my public servant witness reporting attempts of crimes punishable by 10 years in jail, they forced me to fight at court as an accused criminal in an admitted silencing attempt in 2019, tried to cajole me into pleading guilty to crimes I did not commit, tried to entrap me at least twice and openly participated in the very crimes in broad daylight that they blocked me from reporting – while they forced me to fight at court.
When I was told that charges against me were going to be dropped if I promise not to speak out any more about how Victoria Police are failing the Australian public, I let my lawyer go and declared self-representation.
From that point onward I have suffered a wide range of incidents affecting my physiology without any logical reasons.
These incidents always occurred in my own home until 9 July 2022, usually at night waking me up from sleep and often just before court hearings. They caused brain-fog in addition to the shock and confusion of experiencing often drastic symptoms I never experienced before.
Did Victoria Police try to dim my intelligence/ability to concentrate as they could not break my willingness to fight corrupt police participating in Australia’s organised crime gangs? I don’t know.
My story is the norm in Australia, not an exception.
No one will ever know how many people died/are dying, often gruesome deaths at the hands of those who spotted opportunities to satisfy their sadistic urges risk-free, and the callous indifference of those who are paid to stop such acts, e.g. police officers.
Contract killings can be done via interfering with smart, i.e. hackable medical systems and devices also, in addition to random acts of sadistic boredom relief etc.
By sharing what I am forced to learn I am shifting my role from a victim of devastating crimes I cannot stop or avoid to an observer, following in the footsteps of Viktor E. Frankl.
My writing is affected by being brutalised and traumatised by ongoing crimes since 2009 by an ex-coworker stalker whom I never even dated, never called a friend of any kind. Last bikie visit to my home overnight, last cyber-crime about 3 hours ago – writing this at 15:04 on 22 August 2023.
Australia’s lawlessness poses a global threat, because the Internet is everywhere, and Australia faked its way into Five Eyes, AUKUS, etc.
Below are some examples of Australia’s police’s incompetence/callousness leading to gruesome deaths, violent crime so rampant, it makes no difference where we live, what life choices we have made: I haven’t been safe anywhere since 2009, in spite of being a highly educated workaholic woman with a great job in my 50s living in my own home in a million $ home suburb in inner-Melbourne, when a stalker’s crimes against me started.
(1) Joanne Lees’ book about the murder of her boyfriend and her own attempted abduction, the ordeal she had to go through after she escaped from the clutches of a hill-billy murderer:
https://www.ebooks.com/en-au/book/95693419/no-turning-back/joanne-lees/
(2) Paul Onions managed to escape Ivan MILAT, Australia’s worst known serial killer, in 1990. Ivan MILAT’s known killing-spree literally hunting hitch-hikers spanned 1989-1992.
Police ignored Paul Onions’ witness statement, and thus allowed Ivan MILAT to keep killing people for 2 more years. No one knows how many people Ivan MILAT killed. Ivan MILAT died of natural causes in old age evidently having a blast at what he got away with.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-48346543
(3) Lorraine Wilson and Wendy Evans, two young nurses were abducted, gang-raped in public, tortured over several days before being bludgeoned to death. Police did nothing until the nurses’ skeletal remains were found 19 months after deaths in spite of crime witnesses’ statements to police while the crimes were in progress. No one was ever punished for the nurses’ murders.
https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/the-murder-victims-seen-by-many-but-helped-by-none/news-story/deea91936b2c70ff9570544c27f32f5c
Opportunity makes thieves, and power is evidently seductive.
Opportunities for cyber-Mengeles to commit gruesome acts without any risk of prosecution are multiplying via the proliferation of smart, i.e. hackable medical systems and devices.
Typo:
“student nurses were paid employers of the healthcare institutions in which they were embedded.”
Isn’t everyone ’embedded’ in a hospital?
There is a permanent shortage of beds in the nhs so becoming embedded is quite a task
There is a permanent shortage of beds in the nhs so becoming embedded is quite a task
I presume the typo was “employer” in place of “employee”. Embedded is unnecessary.
Isn’t everyone ’embedded’ in a hospital?
I presume the typo was “employer” in place of “employee”. Embedded is unnecessary.
Typo:
“student nurses were paid employers of the healthcare institutions in which they were embedded.”
Could one ever imagine’Hattie Jacques’ behaving like Ms Letby?
She’d have just sat on them.
She’d have just sat on them.
Could one ever imagine’Hattie Jacques’ behaving like Ms Letby?
Ah yes, more bureaucracy and accreditation will solve this issue! It is so completely c**k-eyed when all the evidece so far has pointed to failures at all levels but especially with the very bureaucracy that was a key factor in helping her get away with the crimes. Surely the insularity of being in one institution for ones whole career is exactly the problem – moving around would make it more likely someone would notice and speak up. The worrying thing is there are definitely more out there, we just haven’t found them.
Ah yes, more bureaucracy and accreditation will solve this issue! It is so completely c**k-eyed when all the evidece so far has pointed to failures at all levels but especially with the very bureaucracy that was a key factor in helping her get away with the crimes. Surely the insularity of being in one institution for ones whole career is exactly the problem – moving around would make it more likely someone would notice and speak up. The worrying thing is there are definitely more out there, we just haven’t found them.
With the masses of overseas nurses educated in environments employers, regulators, inspectors etc know little about, doubt it’s possible to assure anything much.
When one nurse was exposed years ago, the first thing they did was dispatch a senior manager to their home country in an arse-covering exercise. It was all about what they could plausibly deny having known.
Shortly after, I got offered a consultancy in the trust, on the basis that it emerged socially that I knew the suspect’s name, which had been told me by a nurse I was sleeping with. I didn’t stay long despite the high daily rate. Post-menopausal Stalinism not being my favorite work environment.
With the masses of overseas nurses educated in environments employers, regulators, inspectors etc know little about, doubt it’s possible to assure anything much.
When one nurse was exposed years ago, the first thing they did was dispatch a senior manager to their home country in an arse-covering exercise. It was all about what they could plausibly deny having known.
Shortly after, I got offered a consultancy in the trust, on the basis that it emerged socially that I knew the suspect’s name, which had been told me by a nurse I was sleeping with. I didn’t stay long despite the high daily rate. Post-menopausal Stalinism not being my favorite work environment.
You have to give the consultants credit for playing a blinder. 13 unexplained deaths in the neonatal unit under their management, a nurse convicted of 7 of those deaths and nobody interested in the other 6. They acted as whistleblowers to management, who are now demonised for ignoring their “concerns” even though one of those managers has denied their version of events. Professionally produced videos recorded with BBC, Sky, ITV and C4 News ready for the verdicts. Nobody bothered about the staffing issues, lack of training or failure to investigate the deaths in more detail immediately afterwards.
Just remind me again who ran the unit?
You have to give the consultants credit for playing a blinder. 13 unexplained deaths in the neonatal unit under their management, a nurse convicted of 7 of those deaths and nobody interested in the other 6. They acted as whistleblowers to management, who are now demonised for ignoring their “concerns” even though one of those managers has denied their version of events. Professionally produced videos recorded with BBC, Sky, ITV and C4 News ready for the verdicts. Nobody bothered about the staffing issues, lack of training or failure to investigate the deaths in more detail immediately afterwards.
Just remind me again who ran the unit?
I saw an interview with an investigator who specializes in these types of crimes against the vulnerable and he said that statistics always tell the tale. I think every hospital and nursing home should be required to log serious incidents with who was on staff during the incident. I understand that this was the case here as well – even if management were reluctant to acknowledge it.
I saw an interview with an investigator who specializes in these types of crimes against the vulnerable and he said that statistics always tell the tale. I think every hospital and nursing home should be required to log serious incidents with who was on staff during the incident. I understand that this was the case here as well – even if management were reluctant to acknowledge it.
Now how do we explain doctors and surgeons who have a pretty bad track record too? Dr Harold Shipman and Dr Janardan Dhasmana at Bristol Royal Infirmary for instance.
Now how do we explain doctors and surgeons who have a pretty bad track record too? Dr Harold Shipman and Dr Janardan Dhasmana at Bristol Royal Infirmary for instance.
Why is there no Serial Killer Nurse Barbie?
Great question. Surely it is time we learned to understand and accept the Serial Killer Nurse. Perhaps a statue?
Great question. Surely it is time we learned to understand and accept the Serial Killer Nurse. Perhaps a statue?
Why is there no Serial Killer Nurse Barbie?
There are 731,000 registered nurses in the UK today. Five people commited murders over a period of 30 years. That is considerably less than the !% of the population expected to be psychopaths. Obviously it is horrific that these murders have happened, but the headline: “Why are there so many etc?” could be more accurate if it was ; “Why are there so few?” etc.
Is there a death penalty in the UK these days? If not, they should bring it back for this monster.
Is there a death penalty in the UK these days? If not, they should bring it back for this monster.
It can appear that there is more emphasis on the inquiry without the corresponding emphasis on the enforcement of the findings.
More generally, vacancy rates and the relatively low pay of middle managers in the NHS must serve to compound issues and hamper even the best efforts to effectively manage people? Paying people well doesn’t guarantee competence, but poor pay, overwork and high turnover certainly creates sub optimal outcomes for all.
This case is truly awful and highlights the devastating and catastrophic consequences that a failure to act swiftly can have.
I’m certain pay does not motivate a pychopath. People won’t suddenly become insane and want to kill because the pay is low! As Peter Hurst points out, a safe venue is needed and purposfully sellected for such deeds.
The same is noted with paedophilia, safe venues, schools, churches orphanages are all places where a paedophile would aim to go to practice his sickening agenda. The only exception to this ‘safe venue’ wisdom is the Pakistani Muslim paedophile phenomenom, that was and still is conducted in plain sight across the UK and so is unique. The blindness to this is rooted in mass fear of a racial uprising.
If you want to kill, what better place to do this either in the army, this will have institutional restrictions, so why not the medical profession where access is easy? Gawd knows I’ve witnessed, as a patient, sadism in maternity and gynaeny departments enough to make me not entirely suprised that doctors and nurses are not all angels. As a woman and so exposed I believe to more oportunism for the medical profession to abuse, sadly, I’m horrified and sickened, but I’m not suprised.
I’m certain pay does not motivate a pychopath. People won’t suddenly become insane and want to kill because the pay is low! As Peter Hurst points out, a safe venue is needed and purposfully sellected for such deeds.
The same is noted with paedophilia, safe venues, schools, churches orphanages are all places where a paedophile would aim to go to practice his sickening agenda. The only exception to this ‘safe venue’ wisdom is the Pakistani Muslim paedophile phenomenom, that was and still is conducted in plain sight across the UK and so is unique. The blindness to this is rooted in mass fear of a racial uprising.
If you want to kill, what better place to do this either in the army, this will have institutional restrictions, so why not the medical profession where access is easy? Gawd knows I’ve witnessed, as a patient, sadism in maternity and gynaeny departments enough to make me not entirely suprised that doctors and nurses are not all angels. As a woman and so exposed I believe to more oportunism for the medical profession to abuse, sadly, I’m horrified and sickened, but I’m not suprised.
It can appear that there is more emphasis on the inquiry without the corresponding emphasis on the enforcement of the findings.
More generally, vacancy rates and the relatively low pay of middle managers in the NHS must serve to compound issues and hamper even the best efforts to effectively manage people? Paying people well doesn’t guarantee competence, but poor pay, overwork and high turnover certainly creates sub optimal outcomes for all.
This case is truly awful and highlights the devastating and catastrophic consequences that a failure to act swiftly can have.