SCENE · COMMENTARY

Lovely White Woman

Lucy Letby.

Convicted of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder seven more.

Yet somehow, she keeps becoming the victim.

The lovely white woman.

The quiet nurse.

The smiling face that simply does not look like a murderer.

Question the evidence.

Examine the conviction.

That is legitimate.

But would Britain build this same sentimental mythology around a Black woman? A Muslim woman? An immigrant?

Would people search her photographs for innocence – or use them as confirmation of guilt?

I asked that question publicly.

One white man replied:

“What has being white got to do with it?”

Another said he had been waiting for someone like me to mention race:

“Chips are on shoulders.”

And there it was.

They did not answer the question.

They did not test the comparison.

They did not consider whether race might shape who appears innocent, respectable or dangerous.

They simply became offended that whiteness had been made visible.

Fourteen lives fading from view Fourteen small markers fade towards the outline of a face, representing how the babies are disappearing while one person remains central. FOURTEEN LIVES ONE FACE
The woman remains visible. The babies recede.

Lucy Letby remains at the centre of the story.

The babies are slowly disappearing from it.

Perhaps she doesn’t look like your idea of a murderer.

That isn’t evidence. It’s projection.