How ‘Argentina's Lucy Letby' murdered 5 newborns & tried to kill 8 more in chillingly similar case to UK's baby killer
The case bears chilling similarities to that of Brit baby murderer Lucy Letby, the nurse who is serving 15 whole-life sentences for killing seven
babies
and attempting to murder seven more.
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Nurse Brenda Aguero has been jailed for the murder of five babies in her care at the Maternal Neonatal Hospital
Credit: Alamy
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Nurse Brenda Cecilia Aguero (C) reacts during her sentencing trial at a courtroom in Cordoba, Argentina
Credit: AFP
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Letby carried out the rampage while working at the Countess of Chester Hospital
Brenda Cecilia Aguero, 29, stole deadly doses of potassium and insulin before injecting them into newborn babies between March and June of 2022, prosecutors said.
Similarly, Letby was accused of injecting air and insulin into the babies, as well as overfeeding them milk - but has always maintained her innocence.
Many have cast doubt over Letby's convictions and others suggest
she was targeted in a 'witch hunt'.
In the chilling Argentine case, newborns tragically died initially under unexplained circumstances in a maternity hospital in Cordoba province, north-west of Buenos Aires.
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Baby killer Aguero tried to murder eight other babies between March and June of 2022, but they managed to receive rapid, live-saving medical intervention, local media reports.
The 29-year-old will serve at least 35 years in
prison
before being eligible for parole, under Argentine
law
.
Aguero's mum, Cristina Nobile, mainains her daughter's innocence and told reporters she would continue to press to have her conviction overturned.
She added: "My daughter is innocent, and I will continue fighting."
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Prosecutors alleged during the trial that Aguero's motivation behind the wicked killings was to further her career.
They say that she attacked the newborns in order to be the first to notice their symptoms and consequently impress her bosses.
How Dutch Lucy Letby who was CLEARED over murder of seven patients, including babies, is 'key to freeing jailed nurse'
But with five newborns dying within such a short space of time, the country's
Health
Ministry launched a probe.
An alarming pattern was noticed, with babies having unexplained puncture marks in areas where injections weren't typically administered.
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Toxicology reports revealed that several of the babies had potassium or insulin levels that they couldn't have produced naturally.
And prosecutors argued that Aguero was the only person present during all the harrowing incidents and has "exclusive proximity" to the mums and their babies.
Aguero denied the charges and told the
court
"they have no evidence".
She also accused the media of portraying her as a "serial killer".
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Ten other defendants, including the former health minister in Cordoba as well as the former hospital director, were accused of attempting to cover up the incidents and destroy evidence.
Five were found guilty but received shorter sentences, and the five others were acquitted - including the former provincial officials, local media reported.
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Letby is serving 15 whole-life orders
Credit: PA
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Nurse Brenda Cecilia Aguero reacts during her sentencing hearing at a courtroom in Cordoba, Argentina
Credit: AFP
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Killer nurse Lucy Letby was convicted of ruthlessly murdering seven babies in her care
The case bears chilling similarities to that of Brit Letby,
now 34, who was last year given a
in prison for the murders of seven babies and the attempted murders of seven more at Countess of
Chester
Hospital.
During her ten-month trial, which ended last August when she received a whole life sentence, it was revealed she injected her victims with air or insulin, overfed them and physically abused them with medical tools.
An application to appeal against her sentence was rejected in February of this year.
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She was convicted across two trials at
Manchester
Crown Court of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder seven others.
The 35-year-old from Hereford is serving 15 whole-life orders.
She lost
Court of Appeal
last year.
Separately, Dutch nurse
was found guilty of killing seven and attempting to kill three of her young patients in 2003 and 2004.
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Just like Letby's case, prosecutors claimed the smoking gun evidence came from a string of 'sinister' diary entries — and hospital shift patterns which revealed she had been present at all of the deaths.
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Dutch nurse Lucia de Berk was wrongly convicted of killing seven patients, including babies
Credit: Wikipedia
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De Berk leaving court after her acquittal in 2010
Credit: AFP
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A note found in the house of Lucy Letby, including comments "I DID THIS" and "I killed them", which was shown at her trial at Manchester Crown Court
Credit: Cheshire Constabulary
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De Berk spent five years behind bars at Scheveningen prison before the case went to the appeal court and was acquitted in 2010.
During
police
raids on Brit Letby's home after her arrest, officers took a specific interest in her diary, as well as other notes found in her bedroom.
One such scrawling, which went on to form a key part of the case against her, said:
It was emblazoned on a bright Post-It, alongside another saying: 'I killed them on purpose because I'm not good enough.'
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Her diary, meanwhile, found in a bedside drawer, was thought to have contained a sadistic trail of breadcrumbs.
These included coloured asterisks, as well as initials and words added to days that occasionally coincided with the
or attacks she was later found guilty of.
Timeline of horror - how Letby targeted babies
LUCY Letby carried out her horrific crimes over a 12-month period at Countess of Chester Hospital.
She used insulin and air to inject newborns while working on the neo-natal ward.
The collapses and deaths of the children were not 'naturally-occurring tragedies' and instead the
Her rampage was finally uncovered after staff grew suspicious of the "significant rise" in the number of babies dying or
Letby was found to be the "common denominator" among the horrifying incidents.
Officers then searched her three-bedroom home in Chester and discovered a
The nurse had scribbled
The note added: "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 person."
A probe into whether Letby harmed any other babies at the Countess of Chester Hospital and Liverpool Women's Hospital is ongoing.
A corporate manslaughter investigation is also ongoing, as is now a gross negligence manslaughter one.
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The Irish Sun
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Tunes blasted all night, with hits including Ed Sheeran's Castle on the Hill, Chappell Roan's Pink Pony Club and American Pie by Don McLean on the playlist. 13 Eve started dating Olympic gold medallist Harry in 2022 Credit: Instagram 13 Eve has been sharing snaps of her pre-wedding celebrations ahead of the big day Credit: Instagram 13 Eve leaving the pub on Wednesday Credit: Chris Eades Eve and Harry are set to wed in a rumoured £50million extravaganza on Saturday - with stars and those from high society including Microsoft mogul Bill Gates's daughters, Phoebe and Jennifer, on the guest list. Sir The happy couple have hired out the £3,600-a-year private members' club Estelle Manor in nearby Witney - with the site on lockdown since Wednesday. The stunning venue has 108 bedrooms, a spa, swimming pool and four restaurants on site. Read more on the Irish Sun Bosses contacted members in May to inform them that the club would be closed for a "private event" from Wednesday to Sunday - with the regulars offered £200 vouchers in return for the inconvenience. Eve and Harry will tie the knot at St Michael's and All Angels Church in Great Tew before heading back to Estelle Manor to celebrate. 13 Eve and Harry will have their wedding ceremony at St Michael's and All Angels Church in Great Tew Credit: Splash
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The Irish Sun
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The Norwegian was the ringleader of a website on which 22,000 online subscribers tuned in to watch live-streamed videos of the Read More Features He headed a subculture obsessed with severing genitals, trading body parts, and even eating them - and pocketing hundreds of thousands of pounds in the process. Gustavson - who was sent to jail in May 2024 - cut off his own penis, removed his nipple, and had his leg frozen so that it had been amputated. Yet despite his vile crimes, to many, now-jailed Marius Gustavson was a hero - or even a god. 'That website made it feel normal. I still thought I was in control,' said one victim, Michael. Most read in The Sun 'He then went to his wardrobe and brought out the clamps. 'That was the moment I knew I'd screwed up.' Sickening crimes of the 'Eunuch Maker' who offered desperate men £25k to lop off their genitals with kitchen knives Despite being sentenced to life in prison, Marius is unrepentant for his crimes, as revealed in a documentary investigation by Marcel Theroux earlier this year. Isolated misfit Born in 1977, Marius grew up in a rural village on the outskirts of Drammen, a city near the capital Oslo. News of his gruesome crimes sent shockwaves throughout the small community. Remembering him as a tender-hearted boy who struggled to fit in, nothing had hinted towards who he would turn into. 'He was definitely not one of the cool kids, and probably lacked some social skills,' remembers Camilla, one of his former classmates. Growing up as an only child in this isolated village, Marius would stay closeted until his late teams. 15 While living in Norway, Gustavson went to prison for eight months after embezzling £30,000 Credit: Facebook 15 The knife used to castrate Gustavson Credit: PA By high school he had started to come out of his shell, and afterwards went on to become a leading figure in the Drammen LGBT activist scene. Soon after, however, he would have his first brush with the law - embezzling £5,000 worth of goods via the housing association he was leader of. A couple years later, he did it again - this time embezzling £30,000, for which he served eight months in prison. But despite what friends and family saw, Marius had long been set on the path that was to plunge him into the subculture of mutilation and castration. What got me through the day was the next bit of fun I'd have - BDSM, bondage, sadomasochism Michael In the documentary, Theroux paid him an off-camera visit in Wandsworth Prison shortly after he pleaded guilty. Marius reveals that aged 14 he became fascinated with a picture in a book of an Indian eunuch with their genitalia entirely removed. 'That's who I am,' he told Theroux. Sick website In 2012, Marius left Norway for London after the breakdown of his marriage, immersing himself in a subculture of people obsessed with becoming a 'nullo' - short for genital nullification. Soon he created his website - The Eunuch - an online forum on which users were able to create profiles that detailed what they wanted done to them, share pictures and videos, and buy the amputated organs. Marius himself went by the username of Theo - the Greek word for god. With a growing online reputation, he finally had his own penis removed in 2017. Audio recordings played during his sentencing captured moments castrations had gone wrong, forcing him to Images of Marius posing with a severed penis and putting it in his mouth were also shown. Other acts of butchery were carried out with kitchen knives, with amputated genitalia kept in the fridge to be sold on. 15 Images of Gustavson putting a severed penis in his mouth were shown to the Old Bailey 15 Hopper allegedly encouraged Gustavson to carry out more mutilations Credit: Instagram Michael, who has kept his surname anonymous, was introduced to Marius via a friend in the London kink scene in 2018. 'I was in a really bad place - I had a spiralling drug addiction, was depressed and suicidal,' he said. 'What got me through the day was the next bit of fun I'd have - BDSM, bondage, sadomasochism.' Meeting him for the first time, he was shocked to see that Marius had intentionally removed his own leg by submerging it in a bucket of dry ice for eight hours. 'He said he'd thought it would be cool not to have one,' Michael told the documentary. 'I just thought f*** - this guy's actually serious about what he's doing.' Making it clear he didn't want to receive any permanent damage, Michael and Marius enjoyed a night of bondage and torture. Marius then revealed his website to Michael, encouraging him to join. Farmyard clamps Though originally against the idea of castration, his mind was slowly being warped by world Marius had opened the door to. 'That website made it feel normal,' he continued. 'You were told all the benefits, how you could control your hormones, your sex drive. You'd feel empowered, you'll feel better - no one said anything negative about it. 'He sent me a tariff of what videos would earn me in revenue: £5-7,000 for a testicle removal, £15-25,000 for losing your c**k.' Temptation had won out, and Michael removed his limit of no permanent damage. 'I still thought I was in control. I was absolutely convinced. 15 A pair of clamps similar to the ones used by Gustavson to perform his castrations Credit: wikipedia 'Then the next week, he said, 'Hey, we'll castrate you then'. And so we started planning.' Michael went up to London and met Marius in his flat. He got himself strapped down and took some drugs, at which point Marius fetched his instrument of choice - a pair of clamps normally used to castrate farm animals - all while the camera was pointed towards him. 'Never in my darkest dreams had I thought about those,' Michael continued. 'The pain was something else. But instead of calling for a stop to it, I just asked for more drugs. After an hour with the blood supply cut off, both his testicles were dead. Now back home, they had swelled up to the size of a melon. What is gender dysphoria? GENDER dysphoria is a psychological condition characterised by distress or discomfort that arises when there is a difference between a person's gender identity and their sex assigned from birth. This condition can cause severe emotional and psychological distress, impacting an individual's well-being and quality of life. Sometimes, these feelings can cause individuals to feel a sense of shame or self-hatred towards certain parts of their body - often the genitalia, as this is the part of the body most strongly associated with one's sex. Gender dysphoria is also not always as simple as someone feeling as if they ought to have been born the opposite gender. Sometimes it manifests itself as more general feeling of sexual and gender confusion, without any clear "solution." Therapy and other psychological interventions are often used to help individuals for whom their gender dysphoria is impacting their quality of life. Find out more at 'I remember lying in bed, in absolute agony, as the video was posted. Then the messages started coming: 'So cool', 'So hot'. 'A little eunuch badge appeared on my profile because I'd had a verified castration. 'The absolute celebration of it all - it was wonderful. It gave my profile clout. 'It was like fine, I'm committed now, so I agreed to have everything off.' Perverted accomplices Though the mastermind behind the website, Marius didn't always work alone. One, Damien Byrnes, had threatened to go to the police after never receiving money he had been promised for removing his penis - but was blackmailed into backing down with a video that showed him mutilating Marius. Another was a man called David Carruthers. Having worked for the NHS, he convinced Michael that he would be able to safely remove his dead testicles - despite not actually holding any medical qualifications. 15 David Carruthers convinced Michael that he would be able to safely remove his testicles Credit: Metropolitan Police 15 Jacob Crimi-Appleby, 23, was sentenced to three years and eight months in prison Credit: PA 15 Nathan Arnold, 48, was given a two year suspended sentence for partially removing Gustavson's right nipple Credit: PA Michael, Marius and David then rented an AirBnB in which they were to perform the operation. But it was to lead to the Eunuch Maker's downfall. Lying on a bed with forceps hanging off him, Michael finally realised the terrible mistake he had made. 'At that point I'd realised how much damage Gustavson had done to me,' Michael recalled. 'I'd realised he had been talking bulls*** so much up until that point. I started to see that he was just a butcher. 'I remember lying on the bed... thinking I don't care if I live or die, I just want to hurt him. 'Sure enough, he was out of there before I could stand up - all his camera equipment packed up and he had p**sed off.' I remember him saying, 'If we don't do this, you'll be really disappointed. You were born to do this' Anonymous victim Despite his ordeal, Michael never received any of the money he had been promised. His counsellor gave him an ultimatum - either Michael had to go to the police, or they would - so eventually he told them everything. The subsequent police raid in 2021 uncovered hours of gruesome footage dating back seven years. No choice But while Marius did put pressure on his victims to undergo castration, many hold zero regrets about what they went through. Unable to go through the NHS, Marius was the only way they could overcome their feelings of self-hatred. One anonymous man who spoke to Theroux told of how for a long time he had struggled with his sexuality, harbouring a deep desire to rid himself of his testicals. After joining the website and having a few meetings with Marius, he agreed to have a testicle removed. 15 Retired chemist Peter Wates removed a man's testicle in a hotel room, while Gustavson filmed Credit: Metropolitan Police 15 Damien Byrnes, 36, from Tottenham, was sentenced to five years in prison Credit: PA 15 HMP Wandsworth, where Gustavson was held after pleading guilty Credit: Getty 'He never did anything against my will, but he did put pressure on me,' he said. 'I remember him saying, 'If we don't do this, you'll be really disappointed. You were born to do this.'' He later met with Marius and an accomplice called Peter Wates to finish the job. 'I was delighted,' he continued. 'I have an enduring sense of gratitude to Marius for helping me reach a position that medically in the UK isn't possible.' Edward, who was castrated in 2017, had originally been sympathetic towards Marius. But this sympathy evaporated after he attended the sentencing. 'I shall always worry that Marius used a video of my procedure to persuade someone else to do something they didn't really want to do,' he said. Marius himself had earned over £300,000 from his website. He was charged with multiple counts of grievous bodily harm, possession of extreme pornography, and for making an indecent image of a child. The court sentenced him to life in prison, to serve a minimum of 22 years. The botched operations nearly led to the deaths of three men, with the judge describing his actions as little short of human butchery. A further nine accomplices were also charged and sentenced. If you are affected by any of the issues raised in this article, please call the Samaritans for free on 116123.
