I don't think that's necessarily true - some female serial killers will poison/murder husbands without abuse and do it for greed or freedom. Abuse is a very good defence, whether present or not. The poisoning thing is interesting.- and I think you've touched on why they often kill children. It is power. Most women cannot overpower an equivalent sized male, but poisoning somewhat levels the playing field.

I'm not sure what the trigger for Letby was - for Shipman it was the death of his mother with associated pain relief, and the immediate dopamine release of exercise straight after.

I think with Oppenheimer and with Obama, the idea of psychopathy doesn't quite work. We can all, to some extent, remain emotionally distanced when removed from the direct actions of killing. Much of modern warfare is based around this very premise. I think the ageing over the 8 year term of most Presidents would suggest that the stress of these choices weigh heavily in a way that they would not if they were done by psychopaths.

Mothers turning a blind eye to their children's sexual abuse is a weird one. That's complicated and I think it'll be down to a situation by situation understanding of the complexity. One of those things (and I've worked with those mothers) that cannot be fathomed on first go - but becomes more apparent the longer you get to know the family. I think much of that is complicated interpersonal dynamics.

I don't think we have a deep enough understanding of how female psychopathy or indeed female paedophilia/hebophilia presents - I don't think Letby dissociated and that's too easy a defence for her team to fall back on - and it seems unlikely she would only disassociate when on a shift on her own, this looked planned. , I think there's probably some complicated family psychology going on that is being unpicked - but I do believe she is a psychopath and I believe that we're going to find a lot more of them now we have better surveillance and better systems.

That's what this article is about.... the fact I don't think we knew they were out there.