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woman: architect. bee keeper. mentor. a raymond james financial advisor tailors advice to help you live your life. life well planned. narrator: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation; pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. announcer: and now, "bbc news". ♪ >> consuming must most kinda and you are watching "the context" on bbc. >> today is a heartbreaking experience that no parent shld have to go through. to have a baby harmed in these particular circumstances is unimaginable. >> in her house, innocuous substances like milk or medication like insulin would

become lethal. she weaponized her crafted to inflict harm, grief, and death. >> the important thing is that something like this must never happen again, and the nhs must learn lessons. that is why the government is launching an inquiry to make sure all the lessons that can be learned will be learned. >> good evening and welcome to our show for the a british nurse who worked with premature and vulnerable babies has been found guilty of murdering seven of them and trying to kill six others. also coming up, u.s. president biden hosts the leaders of japan and south korea for what they have called an historic summit as they deepen cooperation. but china isn't happy. we will speak to our correspondent at the summit. canadian others are stepping up

emergency evacuation flights from yellowknife as wildfires rage ever closer. the entire population has been told to leave. and fifa's president is in hot water by telling woman footballers to pick the right battles. we start with the trial verdict that is shocked the u.k. lucy that b has been found guilty of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder a further six and the neonatal unit could that makes for the most prolific child killer in modern british history. the babies protect between june 2015 and june 2016 close of the jury were undecided on six attempted murder charges. the government has announced it is launching an independent inquiry in what happened to help the victims families "get the answers they need" and to identify where safety standards failed. judith morris reports. judith: she thought she would

get away with it. but this was the moment the game was up. judith: behind the door of this ordinary suburban house, britain's most prolific baby killer was finally arrested three years after her murder spree began. >> i just had knee surgery. >> all right, ok. judith: she worked here at the neonatal unit in jasper hospital. her role was to care for the most vulnerable infants, but that could not have been further from her mind. >> i've never heard anything like it since. it was screaming. i was like, what's the matter with them? judith: legally we cannot identify the families in the case. the families are distressing.

these are the parents of twin boys born prematurely in 2015. her mum was taking out to them when she heard one of her sons crying loudly. >> lucy was there. not really doing anything. lucy said, "don't worry," until and told me to go back to the ward. judith: the baby's mum left him in the intensive care area and called her husband. they thought their son was in safe hands, but were told he was dangerously ill and rushed back trying to find -- rushed back fighting doctors trying to save him. >> we came in, and we were told to talk to him, and held his hand. and then the conversation with

the consultant -- you know what, we are going to stop, it's not helping. judith: on the unit, there were typically up to three deaths a year. in 2015 they had that number in the month of june alone, and the pattern continued with babies dying or coming close to death. the common factor, lucy letby. this staffing sheet shows she was the only employee present time there was a suspicious event. aoctor led the team of seven consultants on the unit who shared joint concerns about letby. he is now speaking publicly about their experience for the first time. >> it is something nobody wants to consider, that a member of staff might be harming the babies under your care.

judith: things came to a head where two out of three healthy triplets died within 24 hours of each other in june 2015. afterwards a meeting was held with staff also >> lucy letby was there. she was sitting next to me. i spoke to her and said how tired and upset she must be after two days of this, and hoped that she was going to have a restful weekend, and she turned to me and said, ", i'm back on shift tomorrow. the other staff were very traumatized by all this. they were crumbling before your eyes, almost. and she was quite happy and confident to come into work. judith: lucy letby was moved to a clerical bowl. the doctors kept trying to investigate the suspicious deaths and her connection to them. we can now reveal that even though consultants here

repeatedly made a warnings to senior management, they say they were ignored and ultimately told that if they didn't stop raising questions about the nurse, there would be consequences. the doctors sake even after lucy letby came off duty in the neonatal unit, executives tried to draw a line under the case. was only a year after she stopped working as a nurse that the police became involved. after her arrest, officers found also it's of items in her bedroom -- babies' medical records, a diary, notes covered in letby's scroll including phrases like "i'm people, i did this -- i am evil, i did this." you spent time interviewing her. what do you make of her? >> i think she is emotionless. she does not respond to a typical human response i would've expected. >> did you have any concerns?

>> yes. >> there was no empathy or sympathy with what is gng on at all. judith: there are people who look at her that there is no way sugar vendors, it is -- no way she could have done this, it is circumstantial evidence. >> it is a lesson to not judge a book by itsover. we have to accept and understand the evidence in this case has been significant, it has taken us to understand that lucy letby is a killer. judith: as the trial ended, letby refused to come into the courtroom. prosecutors reflecting on the scale of her deceit. >> in her house, innocuous substances like air, nomilk, or medication like insulin would become lethal. she provided her learning and weaponized were craft to inflict harm, grief, and death.

judith: the nurse even wrote this sympathy card to the parents of one baby and searche for many of the other families on facebook. >> not a single thing i've ever seen or witnessed of lucy would let me for a moment believe she was capable of the things she was being accused of. judith: dawn is one of lucy's childhood friends and is watch event unfold with disbelief. >> she is the kd of person i've ever known. she would only ever want to help people. judith: you seem unshakable on this, but isn't it possible she fooled you all? >> unless lucy turned around and said, "i'm guilty," i would never believe she is guilty. judith: the mily of letby's victims have to live with unanswered questions, including what her motive was. >> i want her to be locked up.

because what she has done is change the course of our life forever. judith: lucy letby had many faces -- party girl, graduate, bright youngers. but each face was a mask for evil hiding in plain sight. and at last her cover has slipped for the seat letby -- lucy letby will be known as one of britain's most notorious criminals. sumi: let's speak about the investigation and the trial with a former chief crown prosecutor for the northwest of england. it was his team that convicted nurse convicted of poisoning patients in 2015. first of all, what do you make of the verdict? >> the right verdict on the evidence was presented. a very complex investigation, with real complexities. as we found in the case i dealt with 10 years ago, unlike most

where you have a body and you can show it has been murdered then you look for the murderer, here you had to identify the murder victims in the first place. you did not know whether they died from natural causes. these were vulnerable newborns. what lucy letby had done s weaponize air and insulin and milk, which would be important for the life of the child. she used them as weapons to cause their death. it was immensely complex from an expert perspective, and ultimately trying to bring the puzzle together because there was no direct evince. it was all circumstantial evidence, which was finding her continually person in the room with the baby at the time the baby died. sat on every occasion was sufficient to convince the jury,

who were diligent in their assessment of the evidence. it was 145 days of evidence, more than 20 days of deliberation on their part. i pay real tribute to them for sifting through all of that to come to the verdict they did. sumi: questions have been asked about how lucy letby could have murdered and attempted to murder so many babies over this period of time without it having been stopped. why do you think that is? >> well, we are learning now that people have been making complaints about her behavior. people were concerned. they had not seen her admit the terrible act, but they were concerned about her behavior and they may complain switch which appear not to have been listened to -- made complaints to appear not to. you look at lucy letby and there are people on social media saying, how could she come she is a white middle-class nurse, of all people. the reality is that we'll never

know why she did what she did, we know it was her, we know what she did, when she did it. the evidence is overwhelming, as the jury has found. as i said, there were opportunities that could have prevented further harm. that is what the government inquiry will look into. sumi: very good to get your perspective on the story today. thank you so much. thousands more people have been told to evacuate their homes in canada to flee approaching wildfires. residents have been rushing to leave yellowknife and canada's northwest. a deadline of midday local time has passed. authorities have warned that the flames could block the only exit if residents state any longer. many walked to the airport to catch a flight out. let's hear from one of the evacuees. >> it is still really stressful. there is a lot of people left.

sumi: canada's federal minister for environment and climate change has told the bbc that the current wildfire season is the worst on record. a fire in british columbia is one of about 1000 running across canada. reports say it has grown 100 fold in 24 hours. a state of emergency has been declared in the area. let's hear from the director of wildlife operations. >> we are exciting significant growth and our resources to be challenge from north to south the next 48 hours. sumi: let's speak to an information officer from the government of canada's northwest territories. we know it is extremely busy at the moment. thank you for making time to speak with us. the deadline to evacuate yellowknife has passed. have you been able to evacuate everyone? >> the deadline that hasn't passed yet is actually for tomorrow, but we are in the

middle of processing evacuees through our registration center, and there are several flights booked today and will be running 24-7 operations to ensure all residents are able to evacuate in a safe manner. sumi: this is a city that is home to around 20,000 people. how difficult is it to undertake such an operation to evacuate so many people? >> it definitely has its complexities to do that, but we have a variety of options for residents to take. we have one highway system into the south. that is an option for residents to be able to take. sorry, quite a few residents have been able to take that so far today. as we know, the numbers for the road or about 12,000 residents that have been able to go via highway south.

we also know that the airplanes that we have been sending out so far, we have about just over 1500 residents that have been able to take the airlines for them to travel south. sumi: ok, jennifer, we will have to leave it there, but thank you for joining us on bbc news. i want to go live to the u.s., where u.s. president biden is hosting a summit with the leaders of japan and south korea and speaking. let's listen into his comments at camp david. pres. biden: now to the purpose of why we are here. america's commitment to both countries is ironclad, and my personal commitment to bringing these three nations together was real from the very beginning. since last summer, we've met on the margins of the nato summit in spain, the asean summit in cambodia, and the g7 summit in japan. today, we've made history, with the first ever standalone summi between the leaders of our three

countries. as well is our commitment to meet together on the leader level annually and to have all our relative cabinet member people meet on a regular basis from this point on, not just this year, not next year, forever. that's the intention. i want to recognize the important work that both of you have done, and the political courage -- and i mean this sincerely -- the political courage you have both demonstrated to resolve difficult issues that have stood in the way for a long time of a close relationship between japan and korea and with the united states. your leadership with the full support of the united states has brought us here, because each of you understand that our world stands at an inflection point. a point where we are called to lead a new way, to work together, to stand together, and today i am proud to say our nations are answering that call.

first, we are elevating our trilateral defense collaboration to deliver and end pacific region that includes launching -- an indo-pacific region that includes launching multi-domain exercises, bringing out trilateral defense cooperation to unprecedented levels. we are doubling down on information sharing, including on the dprk's missile launchers and cyber activities, strengthening our ballistic missile defense cooperation, and critically, critically, we've all committed to swiftly consult with each other in response to threats to any one of our countries from wherever source it occurs. that means we will have a hotline to share information and coordinate our responses whenever there is a crisis in the region or affecting and one -- any one our countries. we have reaffirmed our shared commitment to maintain peace and stability in the taiwan straits

and addressing economic coercion. we are going to continue to counter threats from the dprk, including cryptocurrency money laundering, billions of dollars, potential arms transfer in support of russia's brutal war against ukraine, and together, together we are going to stand up for international law, freedom of navigation, and a peaceful resolution of disputes in the south china sea. second, we are extending our economic cooperation to build an indo pacific that is peaceful and prosperous. today we have committed to launch what we call a supply chain early warning system, supply chain early one accident pilot, which will alert our nations to disruptions of materials like critical minerals or batteries so we can get ahead of the issues as they appear. with what we have experienced

during the pandemic. excuse me, this is falling off. you go -- there you go. and building on the g7-led partnership for global infrastructure and investment, we are deepening cooperation between our development of finance institutions to mobilize more financing for quality infrastructure and secure communications tecology to help low income and middle income countries throughout the region take on the challenges that matter most to their people. and finally, our partnership is about building a better future for our people. that is why we are deepening our cooperation on global health and launching a trilateral expert exchange in support of the u.s. cancer moonshot initiative. that is going to change cancer as we know it. in the uted states we are revolutionizing the way we do cancer research, and together,

the three of us, i'm confident we can harness our shared spirit of innovation and end cancer as we know it. we are launching a new collaboration between our national laboratories and advance our science knowledge and technological capabilities together. as we do, you will work in lockstep to set the standards for safe, secure, and trustworthy emerging technology, including artificial intelligence. which a lot of work has to be done on. let me close with this -- mr. president, mr. prime minister, this is the first summit i posted at camp david as president -- sumi: you have been looking at pictures of u.s. president biden. he is speaking at camp david just outside of washington, d.c., and he has been hosting with the white house is calling and historic summit with the prime minister of japan, fumio kishida, and south korea's president yoon suk-yeol. we heard the president say the

three leaders have reached an inflection point and are deepening their economic and security cooperation. our diplomatic correspondent fiber pleasure has been covering the summit for us. i want to ask you -- our diplomatic correspondent barbara plett-usher s been covered the summit. i want to ask you what you make of what has been announced. barbara: the announcemts have been well previewed, the idea that they would strengthen the security cooperation, and you were the president mentioned what that means in practice, things like annual military exercises, doubling down on north korean missile launches, strengthening missile defense cooperation, and putting up a hotline that means leaders can consulting any sort of crisis. they have had various bits and pieces of security cooperation before, and the united states has defense treaties with each of these countries separately, but because of these historic tensions between japan and south korea, the americans have not been able to have a serious security cooperation at the level they appointed it.

-- they have wanted it. so in that sense what the president has announced and the fact that they are standing there together for the first trilateral summit and at a venue with such diplomatic clout is camp david is quite a significant think, and analysts do say it marks a strategic shift in the region that these three countries are going to be standing together more closely in facing the challenges there, especially those they see coming from north korea and china. sumi: barbara, why do you think we are seeing the strategic shift, as you call it, at this point? barbara: two reasons. when is the circumstances that have been mentioned by the leaders and certainly by u.s. officials, and that is a growing commitment, organization between japan and south korea that they face mutual security threats. in particular you see an increased tempo of ballistic missile tests by north korea with no sign it is going to give

up its nuclear weapons program. you are seeing an increase in military exercises by china in the taiwan strait. there is a concern about the security situation in the region , and japan and south korea are feeling that they have mutual interest here that they need to work together on, together with the united states. of course you have had the united states pushing for this relentlessly. you heard the president talked about how many times they've been on the sides of other summits rather than this one. so you've got that as well. i would say secondly quite clearly that there has been a rapprochement between japan and south korea in the last few months, led by the new leader of the south korea, who really made an effort to try to overcome some of those historic tensions, and the japanese leader reciprocated. as mr. biden was saying, this is something that has been started, triggered by the leaders themselves, and the united states is working with it. sumi: barbara, one more question, we know that china has

criticized the summit, saying it is a mini-nato. what is washington's response to that? barbara: washington's response is to say no, this is not a mini nato, it is about bringing together various security operation ties that have existed and putting them together in a more secure and institutionalized setting. but i think it is pretty clear that ts summit, the optics of them standing there, what they are going to do is meant tsend a political message to china, because analysts said that the chinese have relied on historic tensions between south korea and japan to keep their bibles divided and also to -- keep their rivals divided and also to see that u.s. efforts with regional allies in the indo pacific don't strengthen. this is a mesge to the chinese that we three stand together, we are not divided, and

that worries china. it has been quite vocal about how it sees this summit. sumi: our diplomatic correspondent barbara plett-usher, as always, great is be to you. we were watching images of the press conference with u.s. president biden and leaders of japan and south korea. they are hailing this to be an historic summit. we will talk a bit more about what conclusions they have reached and pick up that story again in a few minutes. thank you for watching "the context" on bbc news. ♪ narrator: funding for this presentation of this program is provided by... narrator: financial services firm, raymond james. narrator: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation; pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. ♪ ♪

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