Terrified that ‘Angel of Death’ might be freed
‘KAYLEY LOOKS UNDER HER BED AND IN HER WARDROBE FOR ALLITT’
THIRTY years after being targeted by Beverley Allitt, Kayley Asher is still haunted by the “Angel of Death”.
Kayley, who was left brain damaged by the notorious child-killer, told the Mirror she fears her attacker could soon be freed and walk back into her family’s life.
Allitt, now receiving treatment at the high-security Rampton psychiatric hospital, was given 13 life sentences in 1993 for killing four babies and harming nine other children in her care.
But the 52-year-old’s minimum sentence tariff of 30 years expires in November and if she is deemed fit to transfer to a prison she will have the right to apply for parole.
Kayley’s dad Alan, 64, said his daughter, 31, often asks: “Will she come and get me?”.
He added: “Kayley looks under her bed and in her wardrobe for Allitt. This can go on for days and days and often we find her in the early hours of the morning searching.
“A few years back Kayley spent three weeks in hospital and we could see there was a nurse she really didn’t like.
“When she got home she told us she thought it was Allitt.
“I could see the resemblance. She had been terrified all that time.
“It’s scary to think Allitt could one day be free.
“A whole life tariff would have been appropriate. I can’t see the difference between her and Peter Sutcliffe. We have a genuine fear if she is freed she could walk into our lives one day.
“We are also worried about the possibility she would be given a new identity like Jamie Bulger’s killers.
“Despite the passage of time a lot of people are still very angry so there’s no telling what could happen to her.
“The only way to guarantee her safety would be a new identity and that would leave us looking over our shoulders.”
Kayley was just 15 months old when Allitt tried to kill her on Ward 4 at the Grantham and Kesteven Hospital in Lincolnshire. She injected a potentially fatal air bubble under the toddler’s arm.
Kayley survived against the odds after two heart attacks but suffered permanent brain damage. She was later diagnosed with the rare condition kabuki makeup syndrome, meaning she has problems with fine motor skills, mobility and hearing.
Police were called to the hospital in 1991 after a series of unexplained deaths on the children’s ward.
Patients who had been stable and expected to recover inexplicably died while others were left in comas.
Detectives found Allitt had been on duty when all the incidents occurred.
The nurse, who suffered from Munchausen’s by proxy, injected youngsters with air, insulin or other drugs over a 59-day period.
When jailed, aged 24, in 1993 the judge told her she was “a serious danger” to others and unlikely ever to be considered safe enough to be freed.
But in 2007 the Appeal Court ruled Allitt should serve a minimum of 30 years - less one year and 190 days spent in custody pre-sentence.
It is understood Allitt would have to be cleared by doctors to enter the prison system before any parole bid.
In 2007, the High Court heard a report by consultant forensic psychiatrist Professor Bob Peckitt – who had been instructed by Allitt’s solicitors.
He recommended that doctors should work with the prison service to help her “leave hospital if possible to return to an appropriate longterm lifer service”.
Prof Peckitt added: “I emphasise that this process may take a number of years to achieve given the psychopathology of the patient and the length of time that she has already spent in hospital.
“However I think it is inescapable that unless Ms Allitt is going to stagnate, spend her life and die in hospital, opportunities for her rehabilitation must be opened up.”
Kayley’s dad Alan, a former Mayor of Grantham, said locals had not forgiven Allitt, with many believing they sparked the demise of the hospital.
He added: “We had a nurses’ training school, maternity unit, fulltime A&E unit, and a 24-hour children’s ward. But most of that has gone and it seemed that she was the cause.
“Her crimes left an evil feeling on the town. There is a stigma by association which will never go.”
Allitt grew up in the village of Corby Glen. The killer, who had two sisters and a brother, volunteered for babysitting jobs as a teenager before enrolling at nursing college.