The New Yorker will shortly publish a damning report on this case.

A second one? The first was what started this - I posted about it (with a link as it was not available in the UK) some months ago. Incredible journalism.

According to Private Eye, the apparent confessions written on post-it notes (which reportedly were "I AM EVIL I DID THIS" and "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.") are being said by The Guardian to have been written in response to therapy, with the criminologist David Wilson saying they're worthless as evidence. Yet the defence apparently didn't explain in court that they'd been written in response to therapy. Why ever not? And even if they were written as a therapeutic exercise, does that mean she didn't mean what she wrote? This is the part I just can't understand. Why, if she didn't kill them on purpose, she would write that she did.

Jo wrote:


And even if they were written as a therapeutic exercise, does that mean she didn't mean what she wrote? This is the part I just can't understand. Why, if she didn't kill them on purpose, she would write that she did.

Try this:

She is working in a very badly run and staffed unit that we know had significantly higher rates of infant mortality than comparable units.

She was by all accounts working more shifts than most and was a diligent committed nurse; albeit totally burnt out, and struggling to maintain her professional boundaries regarding the babies who died and their families.

Consultants at the hospital, too, were internally raising concerns about her. Even seeming to suggest she may be in some way responsible.

The pressure is unbearable; she starts to doubt herself.

Seeking help through therapy she wrote out her darkest thoughts - those voices or doubts that can trouble us all at 3am but we know most of the time are not real and we don't think that way at all.

These thoughts were later used in Court to persuade a jury of her guilt.

( * I have no idea of her guilt or innocence but the above seems psychologically plausible to me * )

What kind of therapist would encourage anyone to write such potentially incriminating notes?

If all the basic facts were the same but this woman was instead a Filipino nurse I wonder if there would have been the same level of interest in her conviction being worthy of more investigation.

Very good points Jo but it's difficult to judge people going through therapy who are liable to feel a host of emotions including lack of self worth and irrational guilt.

There seems to be much wrong with this case and I hope the inquiry is genuine and not a stitch up

Stella wrote:
What kind of therapist would encourage anyone to write such potentially incriminating notes?

If all the basic facts were the same but this woman was instead a Filipino nurse I wonder if there would have been the same level of interest in her conviction being worthy of more investigation.

It is a well used and effective therapy for a specific mental illness.

That does sound plausible, Wyot. How did the defence address these notes, though? Anyone know?