Normal people

The hallmarks of a serial killer may be there but you have to know what you're looking for.

- MARC WILSON

The 10-month trial of English nurse Lucy Letby has come to an end. Letby was convicted of killing seven infants, and attempting to kill six others in the care of the Countess of Chester Hospital over a one-year period starting mid-2015. The verdicts were announced just three days after the end of the trial here of Lauren Dickason, who was convicted of murdering her three young children.

In the aftermath of the Letby case, we've heard lots of examples of what I think of as two post-mass-murder tropes. People who knew Letby spoke of how mundane she seemed, how some of them couldn't believe that this slightly awkward woman could have done the horrific things she was accused of. "You'd never suspect that she could do something like this."

The other trope, best embodied by Australian Martin Bryant who murdered 35 people in Port Arthur in 1996, is of an outsider. "It was only a matter of time..." Sometimes we hear both stories at the same time. They sank into the background, you'd hardly notice them,  but there was always something a little bit "off" about them.