Lucy Letby is reportedly set to keep her £12,000-a-year NHS pension despite being in sentenced to life in prison.
The former neonatal nurse, 35, is currently serving 15 whole-life sentences for murdering seven babies and attempting to kill seven others.
Judges have refused to grant her an appeal against her conviction, meaning she will die in prison – but the nurse is still eligible to receive her taxpayer-funded pension from the age of 65 to her death.
The Health Secretary has the power to suspend NHS Pension Scheme benefits if a staff member is convicted of a crime.
According to NHS Business Service Authority guidance, pensions can be forfeited when an offence is ‘gravely injurious to the state’ or leads to a loss in confidence in the NHS.
It can also be removed for acts of treason or convictions of more than 10 years under the Official Secrets Act.
Since the 1970s, 33 people have lost their NHS pensions – including serial killers Harold Shipman and Beverly Allitt.
Lucy Letby, 35, is currently serving 15 whole-life sentences having been convicted of murdering seven infants
Child killer Beverley Allitt, known as the ‘Angel of Death’ also lost her pension after she was convicted of killing four children at Grantham and Kesteven Hospital in Lincolnshire in 1991.
Serial killer Harold Shipman’s pension was also forfeited for his crimes, meaning his wife did not receive it on his behalf.
Colin Norris, the nurse who murdered four women in 2002, also saw his pension removed.
Letby worked in the NHS for nine years and based on her final salary of £30,000, could be entitled to £12,340 a year, the Telegraph reported.
Dr Neil Shastri-Hurst MP, a member of the Justice Select Committee, told the publication: ‘Whilst I cannot comment on the specifics of this particular case, as a matter of principle, where a professional, particularly in fields like medicine or nursing, commits a crime that fundamentally breaches the trust placed in them, their pension should be forfeited.
Letby worked in the NHS for nine years and based on her final salary of £30,000, could be entitled to £12,340 a year
‘It would seem perverse to expect the public to fund retirement benefits for individuals whose actions have so gravely damaged confidence in the very institutions they served.’
It is understood that former health secretary Steve Barclay looked into removing Letby’s pension at the time of her conviction, but it was never finalised.
Letby has always maintained her innocence and, following her convictions, at two trials in August 2023 and July 2024, questions have been raised about the validity of the medical evidence presented at Manchester Crown Court.
Following two failed attempts at an appeal, her defence team have now lodged a series of new expert medical reports with the Criminal Cases Review Commission, the body which assesses potential miscarriages of justice, in a bid to set her free.
The NHS and Department of Health and Social Care have been contacted for comment.
