At the time she was convicted as Britain’s most prolific baby killer, Lucy Letby refused point blank to go into the dock to hear Mr Justice Goss pass sentence on her.
She remained, defiant, alone and still in denial, in a holding cell at Manchester Crown Court, while in Court Seven the sentencing process – carried out in full view of TV cameras – went on in her absence.
The judge delivered the sentence as if the killer was standing before him in the glass-panelled dock, and he directed that she should be given transcripts of both his own remarks and the personal statements read out on behalf of the babies’ parents.
He imposed 14 whole life orders on her for the murders of seven babies at the Countess of Chester Hospital and the attempted murders of six others.
In June, at the start of her re-trial for the attempted murder of a child known as Baby K, Letby, 34, finally got to hear most of the words she had studiously avoided hearing nearly 10 months earlier.
Lucy Letby refused to hear the judge’s sentencing remarks when she was convicted of the murders of seven babies. But she had to listen to them in person in June (when she’s seen in court)
On this occasion it was not the judge who delivered them.
Instead, he looked on as Nick Johnson KC, prosecuting, read them out as part of a presentation he was making during legal argument. The jury was not present.
They included references to her ‘murderous intent’, the pre-meditation of her crimes, and the ‘calculation’, ‘cunning’, ‘cruelty’ and ‘callousness’ she used in carrying them out.
Mr Johnson also read out some of the phrases Letby had scrawled on a piece of paper found in her home. ‘The world is better off without me,’ she wrote. And ‘I am evil I did this’.
Looking out onto a packed courtroom, Letby betrayed no sign of emotion as it dawned on her that she finally had to face up to the damning words she had previously avoided.
Mr Justice Goss’ statement was as follows:
‘You acted in a way that was completely contrary to the normal human instincts of nurturing and caring for babies and in 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.
‘In your evidence you said that ‘hurting a baby is completely against everything that being a nurse is’, as, indeed, it should be. You also claimed you never did anything that was meant to hurt a baby and only ever did your best to care for them.
‘That was but one of the many lies you were found to have told in this case.
‘There is no doubt that you are intelligent and, outwardly, were a very conscientious, hard working, knowledgeable, confident and professional nurse, which enabled you repeatedly to harm babies on the unit without arousing suspicion for some time. You prided yourself in your competence.
Mr Justice Goss said Letby ‘acted in a way that was completely contrary to the normal human instincts of nurturing and caring for babies’
‘Your fellow neonatal nurses spoke very highly of you, and several of them became your close friends. Having started as a Band 5 nurse at the Countess of Chester in 2012, you became a mentor to student nurses and, in the spring of 2015, gained the qualification that enabled you to care for the sickest babies on the unit or those requiring the most intensive care.
‘You relished being in the intensive care nursery. Your messages to colleagues revealed an interest in babies that were on or were coming to the unit who had uncommon medical conditions.
‘The methods you employed to carry out your murderous intent were only revealed by the later detailed investigation into the events of and surrounding the collapses and deaths of the babies which commenced in 2018.
‘There was pre-meditation, calculation and cunning in your actions. You specifically targeted twins and, latterly, triplets. Some babies were healthy, others had medical issues of which you were aware. The great majority of your victims suffered acute pain as a result of what you did to them. They all fought for survival; some, sadly, struggled in vain and died.
‘You used a number of different ways to try to kill them, thereby misleading clinicians into believing the collapses had, or might have had a natural cause or were a consequence of a developing medical condition. You took opportunities to harm babies when staff were on breaks or away from babies.
‘On some occasions you falsified records to indicate there were signs of a deterioration before a collapse occurred. You knew that the last thing anyone working in the unit would or did think was that someone caring for the babies was deliberately harming them.
‘As the number of unexpected and unexplained collapses and deaths escalated senior doctors started to ‘think the unthinkable’ and consider the possibility that someone was, in fact, deliberately harming the babies and you were identified as the common factor.
The killer nurse is currently in prison serving 14 whole life orders
‘You had a detached enthusiasm for the resuscitations and what followed. You endeavoured to impress colleagues and clinicians and sought reassurance from them as to your competence and skills, and would message others to the effect that no one was at fault.
‘On occasions, your cruelty and callousness was revealed by making inappropriate remarks to some of the grieving parents at the time of or in the immediate aftermath of a death.
‘When the homes of both you and your parents were searched, confidential documents relating to babies, including handover and resuscitation sheets and notes and blood gas readings were found, and there were entries in a diary recording relevant events.
‘Handover sheets relating to all but the first four of the babies had been taken from the unit and kept by you. I am satisfied you started to keep these documents after those initial offences in June 2015 as morbid records of the dreadful events surrounding the collapses of your victims and what you had done to them.
‘You had a fascination with the babies and their families, which extended to making repeated searches on Facebook for their parents, sometimes immediately following the events and, on occasions, much later.
‘A piece of paper with dense writing on both sides, setting out your thoughts and feelings, was found in the first search of your home in 2018. Amongst the phrases you wrote were ‘the world is better off without me’ and ‘I am evil I did this’.
‘The impact of your crimes has been immense, as disclosed by the deeply moving personal statements that have been read to the court this morning. The lives of new-born or relatively new-born babies were ended almost as soon as they began and lifelong harm has been caused, all in horrific circumstances.
‘Loving parents have been robbed of their cherished children and others have to live with the physical and mental consequences of your actions. Siblings have been deprived of brothers and sisters.
‘You have caused deep psychological trauma, brought enduring grief and feelings of guilt, caused strains in relationships and disruption to the lives of all the families of all your victims’.