Beverley Allitt

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Beverley Allitt (born 4 October 1968) and dubbed the "Angel of Death", was an English nurse who was convicted of killing four children and injuring eleven others on the ward she worked at Grantham Hospital, Lincolnshire.

She received 13 life sentences in May 1993. She is presently at the top-security Rampton Secure Hospital in Nottinghamshire. Her trial judge recommended a minimum term of 40 years, which would keep her in prison until at least 2032 and the age of 64, and even then she could only be released if she was no longer considered to be a danger to the public. In August 2006, Allitt launched an appeal on the length of her sentence. [1]

Allitt's motives have never been fully explained. According to one theory, she suffers from Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy, a controversial personality disorder which supposedly prompts its sufferers to falsify illnesses in others, in order to attract attention.

Allitt is mentioned in the 1994 song Archives of Pain, by Manic Street Preachers. In 2006 the BBC made a dramatisation of the story, titled 'Angel of Death: The Beverly Allitt Story' and stars Charlie Brooks.

In August 2006 Allitt requested early release, much to the dismay of her victims families. The appeal court judge has written to them asking for their views.