Lucy Letby news – latest: Law to be changed ‘at earliest opportunity’ as serial killer nurse skips sentencing

A former neonatal nurse convicted of murdering seven babies in her care and trying to kill six others at a hospital in northern England was sentenced on Monday to life in prison with no chance of release by a judge who said she was cruel, cunning and callous, and acted with “malevolence bordering sadism.”

Lucy Letby, who refused to appear in court for sentencing or to face an outpouring of anger and anguish from grieving parents, was given the most severe punishment possible under British law.

Justice James Goss said the number of killings and attempts and the nature of the murders by a nurse entrusted with caring for the most fragile infants provided the “exceptional circumstances” required to impose a rare “whole-life order.”

Only three other women have received such a harsh sentence before in the UK.

“There was a deep malevolence bordering on sadism in your actions,” Justice Goss said, addressing the absent defendant, who will be given a transcript of the proceedings. “During the course of this trial, you have coldly denied any responsibility for your wrongdoing. You have no remorse. There are no mitigating factors.”

Paediatrician Dr Stephen Brearey, who blew the whistle on killer nurse Lucy Letby in 2015, said that NHS managers need to be held accountable when things go wrong.

He also added that his experience of concerns being ignored by hospital bosses was not “uncommon” within the NHS.

Asked if he would like to see regulation of hospital administrators, like the regulation of clinical staff, so they can be held accountable for “certain forms of behaviours”, he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “Absolutely. Because doctors and nurses all have their regulatory bodies that we have to answer to.

“And quite often, we’ll see senior managers who have no apparent accountability for what they do in our trusts, and they move to other trusts, and you worry about their future actions.

“There doesn’t seem to be any system to make them accountable and for them to justify their actions in a systematic way.”

Hospital managers should be regulated in a similar way to doctors and nurses, a senior doctor who first raised concerns about Lucy Letby has told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

Dr Stephen Brearey said there was “no apparent accountability” for what NHS managers do, and claimed that senior staff at the Countess of Chester Hospital were worried about reputational damage to the trust.

He had been the lead consultant on the neonatal unit where serial killer Letby worked, and had tried to raise the alarm to hospital bosses in October 2015.

He claimed that his warnings were not acted upon, and that he and his colleagues came to feel under attack for voicing their concerns.

The consultant added: “Quite often we’ll see senior managers who have no apparent accountability for what they do in our trusts and then move to other trusts and you worry about their future actions.”

A senior manager accused of “ignoring” concerns and “protecting” Lucy Letby has been suspended from the NHS hospital she works in, it has emerged.

Alison Kelly, who was the chief nurse at the time Letby killed and attacked babies at the Countess of Chester Hospital, has been suspended from Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust in Salford.

The mother of shooting victim Olivia Pratt-Korbel has said her heart goes out to the families of Lucy Letby’s victims after the killer nurse did not appear in court for her sentencing.

Cheryl Korbel has been campaigning for a change in the law to force criminals to appear in court after Thomas Cashman, who shot Olivia, nine, after chasing a fellow drug dealer into her home in Dovecot, Liverpool, refused to come up to the dock when he was sentenced to a minimum of 42 years.

On the first anniversary of Olivia’s death, Ms Korbel said her “heart would go out to the families” of the babies attacked by Letby at the Countess of Chester Hospital.

The refusal of serial child killer Lucy Letby to attend her sentencing and hear the testimony of her victims’ families produced widespread support for a change in the law in Tuesday’s newspapers.

Letby’s refusal to leave her cell follows the similar actions of Thomas Cashman earlier this year when he was sentenced for the murder of nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel in Liverpool in August 2022.

The Times said a “growing number of MPs and ministers” believe those convicted of murders and other horrific crimes should hear the sentences imposed on them in person.

While admitting forcing criminals to attend their sentencing may prove difficult, the newspaper’s leader column said: “Like a number of other murderers in recent years, Letby refused to attend court on the final days of her 10-month trial. To the surprise of many, there is no law to compel her to do so.

“Rishi Sunak called her a coward. It goes far beyond that.

“It matters that the public sees these penalties imposed and hears the judge’s reasoning explained in person to those convicted.”

More on the coverage here:

Our social affairs correspondent Holly Bancroft reports from Manchester Crown Court:

One by one, the parents stood and described the unimaginable pain that Lucy Letby had inflicted on them. First, they shared the pure joy and outpouring of love they had felt at the birth of their children. Then they spelled out the sheer terror they felt when their babies started to collapse and die – seemingly without explanation.

But Letby, now one of only three women alive to be given a sentence of life in prison without parole, was not there to hear their heartbreaking testimonies, having refused to come to her sentencing at Manchester Crown Court on Monday; a final act of cowardice from the UK’s most prolific child serial killer.

Letby’s parents, who had supported her throughout the ten-month trial, were also absent from court room 7, but more than a dozen relatives of Letby’s victims sat in the packed public gallery. Eight of the jurors, who had sat through ten months of harrowing evidence, also returned, this time looking at an empty dock where the defendant had sat during the trial.

The court heard victim impact statements from the parents of a number of the children Letby killed. Some jurors became visibly upset as they listened. Journalists who had covered the trial week in week out also struggled to hold in their emotions.

Lucy Letby will be sent copies of victim impact statements read out during her sentencing after refusing to appear in court.

The 33-year-old did not appear in the dock at Manchester Crown Court on Monday as she was given a whole-life order after being convicted of the murders of seven babies and the attempted murders of six more.

The judge, Mr Justice Goss, ordered that she be sent a transcript of his sentencing remarks and copies of the statements read out by the families of her victims.

What did he say in his order? Read here:

The reasons why Letby, a neonatal nurse, committed the murders may never be fully understood, although prosecutors and other experts told jurors during her trial of several possible motivations.

Here, The Independent takes a look at some of the main theories discussed in court.

The trial lasted 10 months. Letby gave evidence herself for several weeks. That, having been convicted, she has the power to choose not to listen to what her victims’ families have to say does not feel like natural justice.

Read The Independent’s view in this editorial: