Killer nurse Allitt in sentence review bid

Beverley Allitt, the nurse convicted of murdering and attacking children in her care, has applied for her sentence to be reviewed.

Allitt, 37, was found guilty of murdering four children and injuring nine others while working at Grantham and Kesteven Hospital.

The nurse, who was subsequently dubbed the 'Angel of Death', received 13 life sentences in May 1993.

She is currently being held at the top-security Rampton Secure Hospital in Nottinghamshire.

According to 'The Sun' newspaper, probation officers from Lincolnshire wrote to the families of Allitt's victims to request their views on the length of the sentence.

The report said that a judge was due to set a minimum 40-year tariff for Allitt, but said that it could be reduced. However, the families of some of Allitt's victims have expressed anger at her bid to have her sentence reviewed.

Peter Philips, whose seven-week-old daughter Becky was murdered by Allitt, told 'The Sun' that he "froze with anger" when he received the Probation Service letter, while Sue Peck, whose 15-month-old daughter Claire was another of Allitt's victims, told the newspaper that Allitt should never be released.

Allitt was described as suffering from a personality disorder known as Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy when she carried out the attacks.

The condition, which was identified by English paediatrician Sir Roy Meadow in 1977, is described as a form of child abuse in which parents or carers deliberately induce or falsely report illnesses in children in order to gain attention.

(KMcA)