Beverley Allitt
Beverley Gail Allitt is an English serial killer convicted of murdering four children, attempting to murder three others and causing grievous bodily harm to a further six. Her crimes were committed from February-April 1991 in the children's ward of Kesteven Hospital where she was employed as a nurse. Allitt was born in Grantham with two sisters and a brother. As a teenager, she would often volunteer for babysitting jobs and left school at the age of 16 to take a course in nursing. On 22nd February 1991, seven-week-old Liam Taylor was admitted to the ward with a chest infection and was murdered shortly after, 11-year-old Timothy Hardwich was then murdered on 5th March. On 8th March a 1-year-old girl was admitted with a chest infection, Allitt attempted to murder her but she was resuscitated and transferred to another hospital where she recovered. On 20th March Allitt attempted to murder a 5-year-old boy with an insulin overdose on three occasions, the boy was transferred to another hospital where he recovered, the pattern of children almost dying and then being transferred and recovering happened twice more. 2-month-old Becky Phillips was admitted to the ward and administered an insulin overdose which she later died from at home. 15-month-old Claire Peck was admitted to the hospital on 22nd April and went into cardiac arrest, she was resuscitated but died from a second cardiac arrest after a period of being left alone with Allitt. Allitt had attacked thirteen children, four fatally, before she was charged. It was only following the death of Becky that medical staff became suspicious of the unusually high number of cardiac arrests on the children's ward and police were called. It was found Allitt had access to drugs and was the only nurse on duty for all of the attacks. Allitt was found guilty and sentenced to thirteen concurrent life sentences. She remains in prison now. Allitt's motives have never been fully explained.
