Jess Battison
Lucy Letby had just one single word for the parents of the seven babies who she murdered.
The child serial killer was sentenced today (21 August) for their murders and the attempted murder of six others at the Countess of Chester Hospital.
Letby will now spend her life in prison, making her the fourth woman in UK history to be told she will never be released from prison.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) described her as ‘devious’ and ‘cold-blooded’.
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Now the most prolific child serial killer in modern British history, the 33-year-old did not attend her sentencing at Manchester Crown Court today.
Nicholas Johnson KC, prosecuting, began his remarks by confirming Letby had ‘refused to come into court’.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak later told reporters it was ‘cowardly that people who commit such horrendous crimes do not face their victims’.
And one of those victims, the mother of Child D - a full-term baby who was murdered in June 2015 - revealed the single word Letby had for them.
In a statement read to court, she said: “Lucy Letby had a chance to say something to us all, parents of the victims, and she had only one word - 'unimaginable'.
“Her wicked sense of entitlement and abuse of her role as a trusted nurse is a scandal. Lucy Letby. You failed God and the plans he had for (Child D). You even called it fate. You were clearly disconnected with God.”
The mum who lost her daughter at the hands of Letby said this in reference to an exchange between the killer nurse and her barrister during the trial.
When asked for her thoughts on ‘what the parents have gone through’, she replied: “It’s unimaginable.”
Between 2015 and 2016, there was a significant rise in the number of babies who suffered serious and unexpected collapses in the hospital’s neonatal unit.
Letby had been the only member of the nursing and clinical staff on duty each time the collapses happened, which the Crown argued were not natural events.
Letby used various ways to harm the infants including injecting air into the bloodstream, injecting air into the stomach, overfeeding with milk, physical assaults and poisoning with insulin.
Sentencing Letby, Mr Justice Goss said: “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.
“There was a deep malevolence bordering on sadism in your actions.”
He added: "There is no doubt that you are intelligent and outwardly were a very conscientious, hardworking, knowledgable nurse – which enabled you to harm babies for some time."