Lucy Letby sentence: Child serial killer handed whole-life prison order as victims' families say ‘you are nothing’

The families of Lucy Letby’s victims had told her “you are nothing” and “you are evil” as the serial child murderer refused to appear in court for sentencing.

Killer nurse Lucy Letby – the most prolific child serial killer in modern British history – has been sentenced to life behind bars.

The 33-year-old was handed a whole life order by Mr Justice Goss as he handed down her sentence at Manchester Crown Court on Monday.

Sentencing Letby, Mr Justice Goss said: “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.

“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.”

More than a dozen relatives of Letby’s victims sat in the public gallery for the hearing on Monday and eight jurors returned to see the sentencing.

The families of Letby’s victims had earlier told her “you are nothing” and “you are evil” as the serial child murderer refused to appear in court for sentencing.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said it was “cowardly that people who commit such horrendous crimes do not face their victims”.

The nurse murdered seven babies and tried to kill six more while working at the Countess of Chester Hospital neonatal unit between 2015 and 2016.

Mr Justice Goss told Manchester Crown Court: “The impact of your crimes has been immense.” He said “life-long harm” had been caused after Letby targeted babies whose lives were cut short “almost as soon as they began”.

The judge said: “All in horrific circumstances.” He added: “Loving parents have been robbed of their cherished children. You have caused deep psychological trauma.”

Mr Justice Goss said Letby took opportunities to harm babies while staff were on breaks.

He said: “You knew the last thing anyone working in the unit would or did think was that someone caring for the babies was deliberately harming them.”

He said handover sheets relating to all, but the first four babies were found when police searched Letby’s home.

“I’m satisfied you started to keep these documents after the initial attacks in June 2015 as morbid records of the dreadful events surrounding the collapses of your victims and what you had done to them,” he said.

In a statement read to the court, the mother of Child A, who was murdered by Letby, and Child B, who she attempted to kill, said: “You thought it was your right to play God with our children’s lives.”

She said after the death of Child A, a boy, they feared for his twin sister and made sure a member of the family was always with her, but “made a mistake” and started to believe what happened to the first child was a “tragic event that couldn’t be stopped”.

She added: “Little did we know you were waiting for us to leave so you could attack the one thing that gave us a reason to carry on in life.”

In the statement, made on behalf of her and her partner, she said: “Maybe you thought by doing this you would be remembered forever but I want you to know my family will never think of you again.

“From this day you are nothing.”