Child killings simultaneously appal us and fascinate us somehow

THE arrest of an open-faced 28-year-old nurse, Lucy Letby, on suspicion of the murder of eight babies and attempted murder of as many more simultaneously impels and repels, writes Terry Prone.

We are fascinated and appalled by the scenario, partly because women do not murder as frequently (or as randomly) as do men.

When academic Ann Jones embarked, 40 years ago, on her eponymous study of women who kill, it was largely stimulated by her realisation that “unlike men, who are apt to stab a total stranger in a drunken brawl or run amok with a high-powered rifle, we women usually kill our intimates: we kill our children, our husbands, our lovers.”