'A cruel, calculated and cynical campaign of child murder': Killer nurse Lucy Letby to die behind bars

21 August 2023, 13:05 | Updated: 21 August 2023, 13:34

Killer nurse Lucy Letby will die behind bars for murdering seven babies in her care and attempting to murder six others.

Sentencing Letby to spend the rest of her life in prison, Mr Justice Goss said her motive for killing the children will never be known.

He described the killings as "a cruel, calculated and cynical campaign of child murder."

"You have no remorse. There are no mitigating factors... You will spend the rest of your life in prison," said the judge.

Letby, who was described as a 'coward' for failing to attend her sentencing, was given a whole life term, with no chance of parole, for the murder of seven babies and the attempted murder of six more children in her care at the Countess of Chester hospital between 2015 and 2016.

Some of the children she tried to kill have been left permanently disabled. One parent described the murder of her son as ‘like something from a horror story.’

"The lives of newborn babies were ended almost as soon as they began and life-long harm has been done," the judge said.

"Loving parents have been robbed of their children, and others have to live with the consequences... siblings have to live without their brothers and sisters.

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"The reasons for your actions are known only to you."

He said she acted in a way that was "completely contrary" to normal human instincts of caring for babies.

He said Letby ended the lives of babies "as soon as they began" and robbed "loving parents of their cherished children."

He said Letby committed a "gross breach" of the trust that all citizens place in those who work in the medical and caring professions.

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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," he said.

Mr Justice Goss told Manchester Crown Court: "There was premeditation, calculation and cunning in your actions."

Letby is the most prolific child serial killer in modern British history.

Whole-life orders are the most severe punishment available in the country's criminal justice system and are reserved for those who commit the most heinous crimes.

Letby joins Myra Hindley, Rose West and knife killer Joanna Dennehy among the only female killers to be given whole life prison terms.

After sentencing, Senior Crown Prosecutor Pascale Jones, of CPS Mersey Cheshire said: “My thoughts remain with the families of the victims who have demonstrated enormous strength in the face of extraordinary suffering. I hope that the trial has brought answers which had long eluded them.”

“Today’s sentence means Letby will never again be able to inflict the suffering she did while working as a neonatal nurse. She has rightly been brought to justice by the courts.

Earlier, the families of Letby's victims addressed an empty dock as they told her "you are nothing" and "you are evil". 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 mother of Child E, a premature-born boy who died, and Child F, his twin brother who survived, told the court the nurse's refusal to appear was "just one final act of wickedness from a coward".