麻豆社

A couple of weeks ago, the Israeli newspaper Ha-aretz published an article about an unusual find on a student archaeological dig just outside of Haifa. What the students discovered was the remains of an ancient exorcism mirror, presumed to be from the Byzantine period. Their purpose, apparently, was to ward off evil spirits and they were often hung over babies cribs, the curator of the dig explained. Of course, most of us, myself included, find all the paraphernalia of exorcism and charms against evil spirits to be weird and unhelpful.

But, reflecting upon what happened yesterday in Manchester Crown Court, I began to wonder whether there was some underlying psychological truth that ancient people were seeking to get at here. Specifically, that evil hates mirrors. That is, evil cannot face itself.

Yesterday in Court, Lucy Letby was sentenced to life imprisonment for the cynical murder of babies she was supposed to be caring for. She didn鈥檛 turn up to hear the judgment pronounced.

The Prime Minister has confirmed that the government is looking at ways to oblige those convicted of such terrible crimes to attend their sentencing, to face what they have done, to hear the impact statements of those who weep for their children. Some have suggested that sentencing be beamed into a convict鈥檚 cell, so that they cannot escape from hearing it. We want evil to be forced to look at itself in the mirror. To recognise what it has done.

But the recognition of evil is not a simple matter. 鈥淚t can鈥檛 be Lucy鈥� said the head consultant of the hospital unit, 鈥渘ot nice Lucy鈥�. As Polly Toynbee put it in the Guardian, she just doesn鈥檛 look the part. We have a certain idea of what evil is supposed to look like, and she is not it. Perhaps even Letby doesn鈥檛 recognise it about herself, perhaps so filled with excuses or in some sort of denial. I have no idea.

But evil it was. Even a committed atheist like Toynbee reaches for that religious sounding word when describing the enormity of what Letby has done. Other words don鈥檛 seem quite so substantial enough, don鈥檛 seem to capture enough of our outrage or puzzlement, enough of the sheer cosmic awfulness of what she did.

And there will be no ultimate escape for Letby. She now has a whole lifetime of silence, day after day, in which to sit with the unspeakable wickedness of what she has done. Here, there will be nowhere to hide. We used to talk of the inescapable judgment of God. To render this is more secular terms, the final truth is that no one can escape from themselves.

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