As a psychologist, I get why Lucy Letby’s friends are standing by her

A fundraiser to appeal the killer nurse’s guilty verdict? Friends saying they don’t believe she did it? Naive, stupid, biased, blinkered? Not necessarily, says Dr Jessica Taylor. Standing by loved ones who have done horrific things is more common than you think…

Lucy Letby is serving a whole life order for the murder of seven babies and attempted murder of six others (Cheshire Constabulary/PA) (PA Media)

Lucy Letby’s friend is standing by her, and has said that she will stand by her until she hears a confession from her own mouth. Meanwhile, a fundraiser has been started to appeal the nurse’s guilty verdict for murdering seven babies and attempting to kill six others, claiming her conviction “may represent the greatest miscarriage of justice the UK has ever witnessed”. Onlookers might call Letby’s supporters naive, stupid, biased or blinkered – but standing by people who have committed horrific abuses and violence is not only common, it’s the norm.

In fact, it is much rarer for an abusive person to lose their entire support network when they commit a serious crime. Whether it’s a person who has committed murder, rape, child abuse, or domestic abuse, the perpetrator will often have people who fiercely defend them and stand by them no matter the cost – and no matter the evidence.

So why do we do it? As a psychologist, I see this combination of biases and social narratives play out all the time. One of the most powerful is the false portrayal of criminals as “monsters”, “weirdos”, “social rejects”, grotesque “thugs”, “antisocial loners” and “violent psychopaths”. But this is not always the case – far from it.