Lucy Letby ‘refuses to come into court’ as she faces whole-life order at sentencing hearing – live updates | Lucy Letby

‘Cheated, deceived, and utterly heartbroken,’ says mother of twins

Josh Halliday

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.

‘We wanted justice for [Child D] and that day has come’

Josh Halliday

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.

‘I think about what his voice would have sounded like. What he would have looked like now. Who he would have been’

Josh Halliday

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.

‘What should have been the happiest night of our lives became our worst,’ says grieving mother

Josh Halliday

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.

Josh Halliday

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.

Josh Halliday

The judge says: “Even if they were standing on their own, these offences, they would still be exceptionally serious.”

Josh Halliday

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.

Letby has ‘refused to come into court’, says prosecutor

Josh Halliday

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.

Josh Halliday

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.

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.