Inside the maximum security prison where killer nurse Lucy Letby will spend the rest of her life
21 August 2023, 18:07 | Updated: 21 August 2023, 23:57
Lucy Letby will die in prison after being given a whole life sentence for the murder of seven babies and attempted murder of six more on Monday.
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Letby will be taken to HMP Low Newton after her no-show at court for her sentencing - where she will stay for the rest of her days.
After her arrival, she will be isolated from the rest of the population for a number of days to try and stop her from being attacked by other prisoners for her heinous crimes.
The maximum-security lockup is next door to a male equivalent, HMP Frankland, which holds sick killers such as Ian Huntley, Wayne Couzens, and Levi Bellfield behind its bars.
Monsters such as Baby P's mother Jennifer Connolly and serial killer Rose West have passed through the prison during their sentences.
An inspection of the jail read: "Cells were not well equipped with only a bed, toilet and sink.
"The regime was limited with only an hour a day in the open air and half an hour to complete daily tasks, such as showering."
The prison is home to the Primrose Project, a treatment centre for women with dangerous or severe personality disorders.
It also features a Rags to Riches clothes shop where prisoners get access to well-known brand names.
Sentencing Letby to spend the rest of her life in prison on Monday, 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.
"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.
"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".
