Summary
The serial killer nurse Lucy Letby will never be released from prison after a judge sentenced her to a rare whole-life term for the “sadistic” murder of seven babies. Letby, 33, is one of only three women alive to have been given such a jail term in the UK. She was sentenced at Manchester crown court on Monday.
Sentencing Letby, Mr Justice Goss described her crimes as a “cruel, calculated and cynical campaign of child murder involving the smallest and most vulnerable of children”.
The former neonatal nurse, the worst child serial killer in modern British history, was also convicted of attempting to murder six more babies at the Countess of Chester hospital.
The trial had heard how Letby often attacked the infants just moments after their parents or nurses had left their sides. She fatally injected seven babies with air, tried to kill two others by lacing their feeding bags with insulin and attempted to murder one by thrusting a nasogastric tube down his throat.
Letby refused to be present in court for the sentencing, in which parents of her victims described in powerful detail the impact of her crimes. Goss ordered her to be provided with a copy of the sentencing remarks and of the victim impact statements in her absence.
The Former Countess of Chester NHS hospital executive Alison Kelly has been suspended from her role within the NHS body Northern Care Alliance.
The families of the babies who were murdered by Letby spoke out within their victim statement. The mother of a baby murdered on his fourth day alive, Child C, said she felt it was like watching someone else’s life as her son died. Holding back tears in court, she said: “The trauma of us all will live with us all until we die. Learning that his killer was watching us [as we grieved] is like something out of a horror story.”
Letby refused to be present in court for the sentencing, in which parents of her victims described in powerful detail the impact of her crimes.
The Labour leader Keir Starmer called for the inquiry to be put on a statutory footing. Adding his voice to the growing number calling for the independent investigation the government has announced to be strengthened.
Following Letby’s sentencing, the lord chancellor and justice secretary, Alex Chalk KC, said:
“Nothing could begin to undo the damage that Lucy Letby has done. Justice has been served, but it was an insult to the families of her victims that Letby failed to appear in the dock to hear her sentence handed down. She took the coward’s approach, insulting her victims one last time by robbing their families of the chance to look her in the eye as the judge decided her fate.
“Cases like these make me even more determined to make sure the worst offenders attend court to face justice, when ordered by the judge.
“That’s why we are looking at options to change the law at the earliest opportunity to ensure that in the silence that follows the clang of the prison gate, society’s condemnation will be ringing in prisoners’ ears.”
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Following the sentencing, DCI Nicola Evans has said:
The sentence reflects the true scale and gravity of her horrific crimes and ensures that a calculated and dangerous individual is behind bars for a very long time.
Nothing will bring back the babies who died or take away the pain and suffering experienced by all of the families over the years but I hope that the significant sentence will bring some comfort at this dark time.
The victim impact statements read out in court today on behalf of the parents are a chilling reminder of the pain and suffering that each family has had to endure over the years. Hearing their own experiences in their own words has been truly heartbreaking.
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Starmer calls for inquiry to be put on statutory footing
Starmer also calls for the inquiry to be put on a statutory footing. Adding his voice to the growing number calling for the independent investigation the government has announced to be strengthened, he has said:
I think it should be a statutory inquiry and I’ll tell you why. One: because that’s what the victims’ family want and after what they’ve been through, I think that is a really important consideration.
Secondly: what a statutory inquiry gives you is the power to order documents, to order witnesses to come forward. So we get the fullest, proper, comprehensive analysis of what went wrong here.
So I think it has to be a statutory inquiry. I don’t think that needs to hold things up. We could get on with that very quickly.
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Justice secretary says government wants to change law to compel offenders to attend sentencing
The justice secretary, Alex Chalk, says the government wants to change the law to compel offenders to attend. Writing on Twitter, he has said:
Lucy Letby is not just a murderer but a coward, whose failure to face her victims’ families, refusing to hear their impact statements and society’s condemnation, is the final insult. We are looking to change the law so offenders can be compelled to attend sentencing hearings.
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Keir Starmer urges government to change law to compel criminals to attend sentencing hearings
Keir Starmer, the Labour party leader, says he shares the anger of the victims’ families about not seeing Letby in the dock for her sentencing hearing, as he urged the government to change the law to compel criminals to attend.
What I don’t think should be allowed to happen is for the government to say, because there are practical considerations – which of course there are – we’ll do nothing about it.
Just think of those victims’ families today not seeing the defendant in the dock facing justice as she properly should. They are angry, they’re frustrated. I share that.
I saw for myself just how important it is. So from our position, we’re thinking not about party politics. We’re thinking about the victims, making an absolutely open offer to the government: we’ll work with you, overcome the practical considerations, and let’s get this done, let’s get the law changed.
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Ayse Hussein, who has campaigned on the issue since the murder of her cousin Jan Mustafa in 2018 by a man who had already killed another woman, has said:
In our case, it was a double-murder and knowing that the perpetrator was allowed to sit comfortably in his cell while the judge read out the impact statements was a stab in the back.
The perpetrator should be in the dock facing the family and listening to what he has put us through and to see the pain and tears because he has caused this by killing our loved ones. But, because of the law, he doesn’t have to see or hear anything. This is wrong and has to change.
Perpetrators have so many rights and privileges over families, we suffer and have to listen in court, they don’t.
Jebina Islam, whose sister Sabina Nessa was murdered in 2021, has said:
It’s amazing that this is actually happening. The thought of these predators choosing to come to court was truly outrageous and unfair for the victim and their families – and now we have put a stop to this.
I am over the moon that this change is happening and thank everyone for their support and love.
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More anger has been expressed at Letby’s ability to avoid attending her sentencing, as well as the final days of her trial. London’s victims commissioner, Claire Waxman, has said:
It’s simply unacceptable that Lucy Letby has been able to avoid attending her sentencing today and not face up to her evil actions in front of grieving families who have been put through unimaginable pain, which has been compounded by this added trauma.
This case is another example of a loop in the criminal justice system which is enabling convicted criminals to regularly take advantage of. Perpetrators of crime must be made to face their sentencing in court and hear the impact of their crimes, or face consequences if they refuse.
For the last 18 months, I have been working with the families of Sabina Nessa, Zara Aleena and Jan Mustafa, who have had similar experiences and we have been pushing government to bring forward legislation that will prevent offenders continuing to hold power over families during sentencing.
I have had numerous meetings with many justice partners on this issue and have suggested a number of proposals to government. And, while we welcome the commitment to make the necessary changes, we need the government to follow through swiftly to ensure that victims and their loved ones can feel that justice has been delivered and start their journey towards some sense of closure.
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Goss thanks those who have been involved in the case – including the jury, police, and the media.
I want to thank all of them for their understanding, patience and cooperation. This case has demonstrated that responsible, accurate reporting – a fundamental plank of democracy – can be achieved.
To the families, he offers his “serious condolences” to those whose children were murdered. He looks emotional as he says the families of all victims will remain in his thoughts.
Ending his sentencing remarks, the judge says:
Lucy Letby, on each of the seven offences of murder and the seven offences of attempted murder, I sentence you to imprisonment for life.
Because the seriousness of your offences is exceptionally high, I direct that the early release provisions do not apply. The order of the court, therefore, is a whole-life order on each and every offence. And you will spend the rest of your life in prison.
This was a cruel, calculated and cynical campaign of child murder involving the smallest and most vulnerable of children, knowing that your actions were causing significant physical suffering – and would cause untold mental suffering.
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'You will spend the rest of your life in prison,' judge tells Letby
The judge says:
There was a deep malevolence bordering on sadism in your actions. During the course of this trial you have coldly denied any responsibility for your wrongdoing and sought to attribute some fault to others. You have no remorse. There are no mitigating factors.
Sentencing her to a whole-life order for each offence, he said:
You will spend the rest of your life in prison.
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Mr Justice Goss tells Letby:
The cruelty and calculation of your actions were truly horrific.
He goes on to say:
By their nature and number such murders and attempted murder by a neonatal nurse entrusted to care for them is a case of very exceptional circumstances … This was a cruel, calculated and cynical campaign of child murder.
You killed seven fragile babies and attempted to kill six others. Some of your victims were only a day or a few days old. All were extremely vulnerable.
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Letby given whole-life order
The judge has told Lucy Letby she will spend the rest of her life in prison for the murders of seven babies and attempted murders of six others.
For legal reasons, the feed from court is being disrupted.
It is no part of my function to reach conclusions as to the underlying reason or reasons for your actions – nor could I , for they are known only to you. I must pass appropriate sentences according to law, addressing the seriousness of your offences.
You had a fascination with the babies and their families, which extended to making repeated searches on Facebook for their parents – sometimes, immediately following the events and, on occasions, much later.
A piece of paper with dense writing on both sides setting out your thoughts and feelings was found in the first search of your home in 2018. Amongst the phrases you wrote were: ‘The world is better off without me’ and ‘I am evil I did this’.
The impact of your crimes has been immense – as disclosed by the deeply personal statements that have been read to the court this morning. The lives of newborn or relatively newborn babies were ended almost as soon as they began. And lifelong harm has been caused – all in horrific circumstances.
Loving parents have been robbed of their cherished children and others have to live with the physical and mental consequences of your actions. Siblings have been deprived of brothers and sisters. You have caused deep psychological trauma, brought enduring grief and feelings of guilt, caused strains in relationships and disruption to the lives of all the families of all your victims.
As the number of unexpected and unexplained collapses and deaths escalated, senior doctors started to think the unthinkable and consider the possibility that someone was, in fact, deliberately harming the babies. And you were identified as the common factor.
You had a detached enthusiasm for the resuscitations and what followed. You endeavoured to impress colleagues and clinicians, and sought reassurance from them as to your competence and skills, and would message others to the effect that no one was at fault.
On occasions, you cruelly and callously made inappropriate remarks to some of the grieving parents at the time of, or in the immediate aftermath of, a death.
When the homes of both you and your parents were searched, confidential documents relating to babies – including handover and resuscitation sheets, and notes, and blood-gas readings were found.
And there were entries in a diary recalling relevant events. Handover sheets relating to all but the first four of the babies had been taken from the unit and kept by you. I am satisfied you started to keep these documents after those initial offences in June 2015 of morbid records of the dreadful events surrounding the collapses of your victims and what you had done to them.
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'There was premeditation, calculation and cunning in your actions,' judge tells Letby
The methods you employed to carry out your murderous intent were only revealed by the later detailed investigation into the events of, and surrounding, the collapses and deaths of the babies, which commenced in 2018.
There was premeditation, calculation and cunning in your actions. You specifically targeted twins and, latterly, triplets. Some babies were healthy. Others had medical issues of which you were aware.
The great majority of your victims suffered acute pain as as a result of what you did to them. They all fought for survival. Some, sadly, struggled in vain and died.
You used a number of different way to try to kill them – thereby misleading clinicians into believing the collapses had, or might have had, a natural cause, or were a consequence of a developing medical condition.
You took opportunities to harm babies when staff were on breaks, or away from babies.
On some occasions, you falsified records to indicate there were signs of a deterioration before a collapse occurred. You knew that the last thing anyone working in the unit would, or did, think was that someone working in the unit was deliberately harming them.
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There is no doubt that you are intelligent and – outwardly – were a very conscientious, hardworking, knowledgable, confident and professional nurse, which enabled you repeatedly to harm babies on the unit without arousing suspicion for some time.
You prided yourself in your competence. Your fellow neonatal nurses spoke very highly of you – and several of them became your close friends. Having started as a band 5 nurse at the Countess of Chester in 2012, you became a mentor to student nurses and, in the spring of 2015, gained the qualification that enabled you to care for the sickest babies on the unit – or those requiring the most intensive care. You relished being in the intensive care nursery.
Your messages to colleagues revealed an interest in babies that were on or were coming to the unit who had uncommon medical conditions.
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The babies you harmed were born prematurely and some were at risk of not surviving. But, in each case, you deliberately harmed them, intending to kill them.
In your evidence, you said that hurting a baby is completely against everything that being a nurse is. As, indeed, it should be. You also claimed you never did anything that was meant to hurt a baby and only ever did your best to care for them. That was but one of the many lies you were found to have told in this case.
Letby 'acted in way contrary to human instincts of nurturing and caring for babies', judge says
The judge tells the court he will address Letby as if she were present. He tells her:
You acted in a way that was completely contrary to the normal human instincts of nurturing and caring for babies – and in gross breach of the trust that all citizens place in those who work in the medical and caring professions.
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The judge says Letby is being sentenced in her absence because she has refused to be present in court. He has ordered that she is provided with a copy of the sentencing remarks and a copy of the victim impact statements.
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We are being called back in court for Letby’s sentencing. The killer is not in the dock. Instead, two prison officers – who flanked her throughout much of the 10-month trial – are sitting in her place.
The families of her victims are in the public gallery, alongside police detectives and journalists. The court is packed and there is a low hum as we wait to hear the judge’s sentence.
There really is only one sentence appropriate – a whole-life order – as even Letby’s barrister agreed earlier this morning.
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Former Countess of Chester NHS hospital executive suspended
As we wait for sentencing to begin, I’ve just had a statement from the Northern Care Alliance – the NHS body that employed the former Countess of Chester hospital executive Alison Kelly – to say that she has been suspended.
Kelly was the first executive to be told of Letby’s connection to the unexplained deaths in June 2015 – a year before she was eventually removed from the neonatal unit. Nicky Clarke, the chief people officer at Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust, says:
I can confirm Alison Kelly has been suspended. We are unable to comment any further at this moment in time.
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That concludes the family statements. The judge says he will now have a break and return to sentence Letby at 12.30pm.
'It was so distressing. I didn’t know what to say … I felt useless and blamed myself.'
The father of the two murdered triplets is now reading his statement, via a pre-recorded video.
He remembers being told how rare it was to have naturally conceived identical triplets. There were risks of complications but, each time they saw professionals, they were told that “everything was perfect”. He says: “Staff told us that their birth was a miracle.”
He remembers the caesarian section being “a terrifying event”, but that the boys were born well with no complications.
I spent a brief bit of time holding the boys. We were so excited at how well they were doing and we commented at how identical they were. It was almost impossible to tell them apart.
The father, choking back tears, describes the first visits of family members and introducing an older son to the boys. Things then started to go downhill. Child O’s deterioration was “horrific to see and an image I will never forget,” he continues. When his son was pronounced dead, he says: “I felt I had been stabbed in the heart.”
No one at the hospital was able to give the parents an explanation. They were told not to worry about their two other triplets. They were taken to a small family room, but no one knew what to say.
A nurse brought Child O into the room minutes after his death and they took photographs for a memory box. He was then taken to the mortuary.
It was so distressing. I didn’t know what to say … I felt useless and blamed myself.
The following morning, the parents were told Child O’s triplet brother Child P had declined.
I was terrified I was going to lose my little boy.
He says it was “very disturbing” to see the resuscitation attempts, and the boys’ mother blamed herself for their decline. Child P was pronounced dead hours later. After that, the parents begged a medical transport team to take the surviving triplet to another hospital.
The father is in tears, struggling now to speak, as he says on the video he was “petrified” something was going to happen to final triplet. He says they never had any support from the hospital or other healthcare professionals.
There was no contact from the Countess whatsoever … this has made us very upset and angry and we never intend to go there again.
The father says he has been signed off work sick by his GP as he had breakdowns and “started having terrible nightmares”.
Everyday life was difficult. Just getting through was a struggle.
On the first anniversary of the children’s deaths, he turned to alcohol. “I couldn’t stop… I became more dependant on the alcohol”. The father, now sobbing, says he once took the car keys and intended to end his life. He was “out of control”: “I was at rock bottom. I had lost my job, [my partner]”, he adds – referring to his separation from the children’s mother.
Life started improving but, in 2018, he was informed Letby had been arrested on suspicion of harming their sons. He says he felt the investigation could show medical negligence, but “it never occurred to me that they were murdered on purpose”.
The father says he tells people he has five children because he can’t forget about his two murdered triplets. He has tried to explained to their brother that a lady is in prison “because she has tried to hurt your brothers”.
The weight of this has been unbearable.
The boys’ father says the evidence in the trial “sent shivers down my spine”.
Lucy Letby has destroyed our lives. The anger and hatred I have for her will never go away. It has destroyed me as a man, as a father. Even after the trial has ended it will continue to haunt us and continue to have an impact on our lives.
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'I genuinely thought I had all the time in the world with all of them'
The court is being shown a video statement by the parents of two triplet boys, Children O and P, who were murdered by Letby in June 2016. They wanted to read the statement in person, but did not feel able to do this in court, the prosecutor Astbury says.
Their mother says she remembers blaming herself, thinking she had passed on an illness or infection that caused her boys to struggle in their first day of life. In fact, they had been targeted by Letby.
She remembers the images of doctors resuscitating her two boys, saying they “continue to haunt me to this day”. She has only one photograph of her holding all of her triplet boys before two of them died.
The mother, struggling to contain tears, says their funeral was incredibly difficult and has left her with lasting trust issues towards any healthcare professional: “I categorically refuse to go to the Countess of Chester hospital ever again.”
She remembers calling 111 when the surviving triplet, who Letby was not accused of attacking, had an issue. The NHS operator asked about the health of his two brothers. The mother says she found it “incredibly difficult” to find the words to explain what had happened to them.
The boys’ mother says their surviving triplet, now seven, asks “heartbreaking questions” about what happened to his two murdered brothers.
I genuinely thought I had all the time in the world with all of them.
She describes the trial as “extremely harrowing” and says she sat in a position in court behind one of the monitors so she was not in view of Letby. It was the first time she had seen the nurse since her triplets were born in June 2016.
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'We often hear about people dying of a broken heart. This is how we feel after this day'
A statement by the mother of Child N, a baby boy born with haemophilia, is now being read to the court. Letby tried to murder the newborn by injecting him with air and thrusting a nasogastric tube down his throat. It was an “utterly catastrophic” scene as doctors tried to save their little boy, she says, and has left a “lasting imprint” on their lives.
We often hear about people dying of a broken heart. This is how we feel after this day … not a day goes by without us thinking of that day.
The mother says she “knew” her child had been deliberately harmed – she doesn’t know if it was common sense or a mother’s instinct. “But I just knew.”
This caused us massive trust issues which has remained with us to this day and I don’t think will ever leave us.
The mother says she believes Child N, now aged seven, suffered lasting damage from Letby’s attack and is undergoing investigations to establish this. He gags whenever brushing his teeth, she says, which may be due to the throat trauma he suffered at the hands of Letby, when he was only a day old.
The little boy is home-schooled “because our trust in other people has been completely broken”, his mother says.
We couldn’t keep him safe in hospital. As a parent it’s your duty … this was taken away from us in a place where he was at his safest … It’s our duty now and if that means wrapping him in cotton wool, then that is what we will do.
Child N’s mother says she was “happy and relieved” when they were told that they were part of the police investigation. Finally they would receive some answers and be listened to, she adds.
They have discussed having another baby since Child N but the fear of going back into a hospital, and especially a neonatal unit, “has stopped us from doing so”.
The mother ends her statement by saying they thought long and hard about whether to talk about the impact of Letby’s crimes:
We don’t want her to know the damage she’s left … we didn’t want her to get any further satisfaction from the hurt that she’s caused.
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'Even to this day, I have trouble sleeping as I get flashbacks'
Astbury now reads a statement from the mother of two twin boys, Children L and M, who Letby attempted to murder; one by poisoning him with insulin. They both survived.
She says there has been an “enormous amount of anxiety” placed on the family – “the boys had to witness their dad suffer a seizure for the first time in his life which was traumatic for them”.
The twins’ father, in a separate statement, says the image of one of the boys’ collapses will be “forever in my mind”.
Even to this day, I have trouble sleeping as I get flashbacks.
He says the attacks have changed him. It has affected his relationship with his boys, he says, and he loses patience with them more easily than he would if Letby had never attacked them.
He finishes the statement by saying that, one afternoon, he thought Letby was looking at him, as he sat in the public gallery:
That made me feel quite uncomfortable and uneasy and I had to move in the afternoon so I was out of her view.
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Eight of the jurors who sat through the trial are in court to hear the sentencing. Letby’s parents, who attended almost every day, are not present. They last appeared in court about a week ago – on the same day the judge was told Letby would take no further part in the proceedings.
The statements are being read to complete silence. Many relatives of the young victims are in the public gallery, dabbing their eyes with tissues and leaning on each other for support.
'Our daughter was tortured until she had no fight left in her'
A statement from the mother of Child I, a baby girl murdered by Letby, is now being read to the court. The parents thought Child I’s first collapse was due to infection, so they stopped family from visiting her at the Countess of Chester hospital.
They took this decision “because watching our baby fight for her life and watching what she had been through, nothing was worth the risk of this happening again”, the mother says, in a statement being read by Astbury. Child I’s mother describes her daughter’s final collapse.
I remember standing by the incubator with my hand on her foot because there was only room for us at the bottom. I was shaking, I couldn’t look at the monitors because I knew she was a lot worse than all the other times, I felt absolutely broken.
She says the first year after her daughter’s death was “a blur”. She had to take anti-depressants, sleeping tablets and beta blockers to get through. Her partner “wished he was dead … he wished it was him that died” and they separated for a time.
Their son “couldn’t be in a classroom” and became really withdrawn. Their other daughter “also gave up on everything they loved”.
Child I’s mother says she became pregnant again but she “put a wall up and blocked it out. We were so scared of the same thing happening again even the scans, they weren’t happy moments, they were just filled with fear”.
At this point, they did not know their daughter had been murdered, so they decided not to breastfeed their newborn in case that’s what killed Child I. Her partner struggled to connect to their new little girl because “she was the double of our [Child I] when she was born”.
Child I’s mother says she remembers her whole body shaking when she was told that someone had been arrested on suspicion of her murder.
We dug for years, tried to get answers for what happened. And, over the years, [we] were in some very dark places. I don’t think I will ever get over the fact that our daughter was tortured until she had no fight left in her and everything she went through over her short life was deliberately done by someone who was supposed to protect her and help her come home where she belonged.
'What happened has damaged my faith'
Philip Astbury, the prosecutor, is now reading a statement on behalf of the father of Child G, a baby girl who was born through IVF and was “on the margins of viability” because she was so premature. Letby was found guilty of trying to murder the little girl on the 100th day of her life.
For me, what happened has damaged my faith because every day I would sit there and pray … He did save her, but the Devil found her.
The father says his daughter only weighed 5lb when they were finally able to take her home. She was incredibly vulnerable and it became more obvious that something was wrong with her, he says.
When she was two years old, she had an MRI scan that showed the extent of her brain damage.
One Christmas, she stopped breathing and turned blue, he says. The parents tried to resuscitate her and an air ambulance was called to save her. She survived, but this wouldn’t be the last time she stopped breathing.
He says Child G’s mother “finds it very difficult to trust people in hospitals because of what happened”. The child, now aged eight, doesn’t sleep very well so her mother sleeps on a day bed next to her, the father says. The mother survives on about two hours sleep a night.
“Our worry is: what if [Child G] outlives us and has no one to care for her,” he says. She is taking so much medication the parents worry about the long-term impact on her body.
Child G’s father is explaining the daily battles they face due to their daughter’s condition, even from the grocery shopping to holidays. She “won’t get to experience the things that other children will. She will never have a sleepover, a first boyfriend, a first kiss, or get married. She will always be in her chair and depend on others”.
Child G is now registered as blind, with quadriplegic cerebral palsy. She is nil-by-mouth and has progressive scoliosis. She is in the process of being put forward for major spinal surgery.
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'My boys were just a pawn in her sick, twisted game'
Child F has been diagnosed with learning disabilities his mother believes are due to the insulin poisoning. She is holding back tears, her voice trembling with emotion and anger, as she says:
No child deserves what happened in this case, but I still struggle to understand why it happened to us. Lucy presented herself as kind, caring, and soft-spoken. Now I know it was all an act, a sadistic abuse of power that has left me unable to trust anyone.
She says Child F is “non-verbal” and doesn’t have the same opportunities in life because of Letby’s crimes:
It breaks my heart to know that things could have been so different for him. He is without his best friend, his other half. We have essentially grieved for both of our boys and the future we had planned.
Letby repeatedly said in court that she had a “good relationship” with the mother. But there was no relationship, the mother says in court:
I was a vulnerable grieving parent trying to get through each day … The lies she has told fill me with anger.
What Letby has done is “cowardly and sickening,” she says, adding that “my boys were just a pawn in her sick, twisted game”.
The boys’ mother attacks Letby for refusing to appear in court for some of the verdicts or her sentencing. She says:
Even in these final days of the trial she has tried to control things, the disrespect she has shown the families and the court show what type of person she is. We have attended court day in and day out, yet she decides she has had enough, and stays in her cell, just one final act of wickedness from a coward.
'Cheated, deceived, and utterly heartbroken,' says mother of twins
The mother of twin boys, Children E and F, now reads her statement. Child E was murdered and Child F survived an insulin poisoning the following day. She says:
Our world shattered when we encountered evil disguised as a caring nurse. The heartbreak and shock left me feeling confused and numb. How could [Child E] collapse so suddenly after spending the day cuddling with us?
She says the psychological impact of his death was “unimaginable and devastating”. They spent the night of Child E’s death watching over his surviving twin brother.
It was a living nightmare. Little did I know that the nightmare of pain and hurt would continue, emotionally battering me throughout my children’s lives.
In July 2018, the family was told a nurse had been arrested on suspicion of murdering Child E and attempting to kill his twin brother.
We felt cheated, deceived, and utterly heartbroken once more.
The boys’ mother says Letby bathed Child E after his death – “an action I deeply regret, and dressed him in a woollen gown”. She adds:
He was buried in that gown, a gift from the unit chosen by Lucy. I feel sickened by the choice we made. Not a single day passes without distress over this decision.
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'We wanted justice for [Child D] and that day has come'
The mother of Child D, a two-day-old girl who was murdered by Letby, is giving evidence now. She says she hopes after today to be “freed from this constant limbo state” she has lived in since her daughter died.
“All hell broke loose for us,” when Letby was arrested. “I cannot forgive you. There is no forgiving. Not now, not ever.”
Child D’s mother says that, after her daughter died, they were asked if the little girl wanted to be an organ donor. The parents said yes, but this was a very difficult decision. They were then told that, due to complications with her organs, she could not be a donor. This had a traumatic effect on the family, the mother says.
We had to organise her funeral. The service took place the day before her due date. Her ashes were buried in a tiny box on her actual due date. Those weeks were particularly difficult… my arms, my heart, my life felt so painfully empty.
I needed to be her mum in every way … I questioned if I missed something. Did I do something wrong? I missed my daughter.
Child D’s mother says:
I love being a mum but, at the same time, live with grief and depression … I never feel good enough. I feel I have let myself go. My marriage is also scarred by all the hurdles we went through ... I feel not only that I lost [Child D] but I lost all those years of my life too.
She has had multiple therapies, panic attacks and “dark thoughts,” she says.
I had a car crash after a nervous breakdown. I considered ending it all. I couldn’t continue and I didn’t want to. I was hoping that if I went to the other side I would see and be with my daughter.
The trial was a “long time coming,” she adds. “It was clearly overwhelming,” she adds,” but it helped them to get answers. Her statement ends with the line:
We wanted justice for [Child D] and that day has come.
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'I think about what his voice would have sounded like. What he would have looked like now. Who he would have been'
The mother of Child C, who was murdered, now reads her statement in person to the court. She says she will always remember the “overwhelming weight of emotion” she felt when she first held her newborn son.
It was like nothing I’d experienced before … the way he smelled … my tiny firstborn son.
Child C’s mother says she felt it was like watching someone else’s life as her son died just days after he was born.
The trauma will live with us all until we die. Learning that his killer was watching us [as we grieved] is like something out of a horror story.
She says she will “live forever with the guilt of his life” because she wasn’t able to protect him.
I think about what his voice would have sounded like. What he would have looked like now. Who he would have been.
She says the precious memories of her son were tainted on 3 July 2018, when Letby was first arrested. Starting to cry as she delivers her statement, she says:
I feel able to wear his hand and footprints for the first time in five years. I know now they represent the love that I have for my son. I will not allow evil to take that. They represent justice and the truth.
Directing her words towards Letby, she says her son’s life was “collateral damage in your persistent desire for drama and attention”.
There is no sentence that will ever compare to the excruciating agony that we have experienced since the death of our son … You killed them on purpose. You are evil. You did this.
This is incredibly emotional for those of us in court. Police officers are in tears. The relatives of victims are in tears. Journalists are in tears.
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'What should have been the happiest night of our lives became our worst,' says grieving mother
We are now hearing victim impact statements on behalf of the families. They are being read out by Philip Astbury KC, one of the prosecutors. The mother of Child A, who was murdered, and her twin sister, Child B, who Letby tried to kill, says 2015 was “going to be the best year of our lives … everything was perfect”. She adds:
Never could we have imagined that the most precious things in our lives would be placed in such harm in the care of a nurse.
Our minds are so traumatised that it won’t let us remember the night you killed our child. What should have been the happiest night of our lives became our worst.
The statement is addressed to Letby directly, despite the killer refusing to appear in court.
After losing Child A, we made sure that there was always a member of their family at the side of his twin sister Child B. However, we made a mistake.
Child B, who survived, is a “shining light in our lives”, she tells the court.
You thought it was your right to play God with our lives. Our lives are tough. We struggle with depression, anxiety and PTSD. We sometimes want to give up but we never will … we have a duty to give [Child B] the best life possible and we will spend our lives doing that.
We hope you live a very long life and spend every day suffering forever … We will never think of you again from this day. You are nothing.
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Letby’s barrister Benjamin Myers KC is now addressing the court. He says:
The thoughts of everyone lie with victims and their families. These are deeply distressing events and we recognise that, as we have throughout the trial.
Myers says his client professes her innocence, as she has throughout the trial. But that she has been found guilty by a jury.
There is nothing that we are able to add in mitigation that is capable of reducing the sentence that will be passed or the minimum term the court will impose. For those reasons I am unable to add upon, and will not, those matters that have been put before the court already.
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The judge says: “Even if they were standing on their own, these offences, they would still be exceptionally serious.”
Johnson turns to the sentencing guidelines. He tells the court this is a “very clear cut case”, and the offences Letby committed are “exceptionally serious”.
The appropriate starting point is a whole-life order, he says, meaning she would never be released from prison. The sentencing guidelines advise that a whole-life order may be appropriate for murders involving “sadistic conduct”.
All these offences qualify for that description. For those reasons, my Lord, we submit this is a very very clear case which calls for a whole-life order.
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Letby has 'refused to come into court', says prosecutor
The judge, Justice James Goss KC, has come into court.
He makes clear at the outset that there are reporting restrictions in place banning the identification of the victims or their families – and that these apply to members of the public, as well as the press.
The prosecutor Nick Johnson KC says Letby has “refused to come into court”.
Johnson will now read a summary of the counts on which Letby has been convicted – seven of murder and seven of attempted murder, relating to six other babies, spanning from June 2015 to June 2016. He names the babies she murdered and those she tried to kill.
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Everyone is taking their place in court. The families of the victims are in the public gallery, the barristers have taken their seats. As expected, Lucy Letby is not in the court dock.
Neonatal nurse faces life behind bars for baby murders
Lucy Letby, the worst child serial killer in modern British history, faces spending the rest of her days in prison when she is sentenced later today for murdering seven babies and making seven more attempts to murder children at the Countess of Chester hospital.
The former neonatal nurse would become only the third woman to be given a whole-life order should the judge pass such a sentence, as has been suggested, at the hearing at Manchester crown court.
But, before that, the court expects to hear heartrending impact statements from the many victims of Letby’s crimes. The now convicted murderer has previously indicated she does not intend to return to court to hear her them – nor to hear sentence passed.
This has led to many calls to begin compelling convicts to face their sentencing hearings in person.
The judge, Mr Justice Goss, has said the court has no power to force Letby to attend. But the former justice secretary Robert Buckland called for proceedings to be broadcast into Letby’s cell, regardless of her wishes. And he has called on the government to change the law if necessary.
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