Unmasking Lucy Letby by Jonathan Coffey & Judith Moritz

I picked up Unmasking Lucy Letby by Jonathan Coffey & Judith Moritz in Tesco a couple of months ago. I’d gone there looking for The House We Grew Up In by Lisa Jewell and discovered the books were even cheaper if I bought two of them, so I decided to buy this one.

Back in my late teens and early 20s, I pretty much only read true crime books. I come from Gloucestershire and was at university studying journalism when the Fred and Rose West case broke, which really sparked my interest in true crime. But then I had children and for a long time I couldn’t cope with reading about people harming others. But I still come back to true crime from time to time. Although, strangely for someone who is interested in true crime, I actually didn’t know much about the Lucy Letby case other than the absolute bare bones – that she was a nurse and she was convicted of murdering babies.

Unmasking Lucy Letby is a very in-depth analysis of the case by Jonathan Coffey and Judith Moritz, who worked on Panorama documentaries about the case. Judith was in court every day for Letby’s 10-month trial.

I read the paperback version of the book, which was published in 2025 and has been completely updated from the hardback version – including looking at evidence compiled in 2024 and 2025 by Letby’s new defence lawyer and the Thirlwall Inquiry into what happened at the Countess of Chester Hospital.

The book starts by looking at ‘an ordinary girl’. By all accounts, Letby was a very ordinary girl, who grew up in Hereford. A beloved only child. A hard worker at school, but not the brightest, with a nice group of friends who weren’t in any way cool or rebellious. Although the court case didn’t really consider motive, there were no red flags in her past – no abuse and no worrying behaviour. Just an ordinary, rather bland girl, who had always wanted to be a nurse.

Letby studied nursing and went on to work at the neonatal ward at the Countess of Chester Hospital. Most of her colleagues felt she was an exceptional nurse. At the hospital too, she had good friends.

Then in June 2015, babies started dying and collapsing. This went on for 13 months. Even after the third incident, there was only one nurse who had been there every time – Lucy Letby.

After a few months, consultants began to get suspicious of Letby, who was always at the centre of the drama when a baby became dangerously ill or died. They tried to tell hospital management, but it fell on deaf ears. In fact, management forced them to apologise to Letby.

It wasn’t until 2018 that Letby was arrested and 2023 until she went on trial.

The book details each of the deaths and collapses at the hospital, with information from Letby’s text messages and observations from colleagues. It then follows the court case and Letby’s conviction.

But around half of the book is dedicated to uncertainty around the conviction. While Jonathan Coffey believes she is guilty, Judith Moritz is less certain. There was no forensic or CCTV evidence for any of the deaths or collapses. Could the babies have died of natural causes? Or could someone else have killed them? Letby has always maintained her innocence.

Then the book goes into a lot of depth on the science, which is quite hard to follow. It’s not something you can read quickly.

Obviously, reading about dying babies and traumatised families isn’t easy. If you’re looking for a page turner, Unmasking Lucy Letby, isn’t it. But if you want a balanced and detailed view of the case, then it is well worth a read.

Having read the book, I still think she’s guilty.