Lucy Letby sentencing: Families speak as nurse refuses to appear

She was also found guilty seven charges of attempted murder against six babies, with the jury undecided on the attempted murder of four more babies.

She will be sentenced at Manchester Crown Court on Monday, and refused to appear for the hearing.

Parents of the babies she killed and attempt to kill spoke in front of Justice Goss ahead of the sentencing.

The mother of Child C choked back tears as she told Letby in her absence: “At least now there is no debate that, in your own words, you killed them on purpose. You are evil. You did this.”

She said: “Lucy Letby, to think that you could get any kind of gratification from inflicting pain… and from watching our suffering in the aftermath goes against everything I believe it is to be human.

“I am horrified that someone so evil exists. To you, our son’s life was collateral damage in your persistent desire for drama, attention, praise and sympathy.”

Read More: Nurse Lucy Letby found guilty of seven baby murders

The woman told the court: “I blame myself entirely for his death. I still live with the guilt that I couldn’t protect him during pregnancy or in his short life.”

She said: “Knowing now that his murderer was watching us throughout these traumatic hours is like something out of a horror story.

The woman called him “my tiny, feisty boy – my first born, my son” and my “defenceless baby boy”.

The mother of Child D told the court: “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.”

She said after her baby’s death she asked for her medical notes and met with doctors and management from the Countess of Chester Hospital.

She said: “We got a solicitor and I wanted the police involved. At that stage I was told this was not a criminal matter so the police was out of the question.”

A week before the baby’s inquest was due to take place she was told they were due to arrest someone, she said.

She added: “Thank God the police started their investigation.

“We still have (Child D’s) death to declare officially and this could not be done until the cause of death had been agreed.

“This is going to be another difficult thing to do, going to the registrar and declaring our daughter’s death eight years after her birth.

“We wanted justice for (Child D) and that day has come.”

The mother of Child E, who died, and Child F, who survived, told Manchester Crown Court: “The trial felt like a platform for Lucy to relive her crimes and it feels cruel that we had to endure a 10-month trial when she knew all along that she intentionally killed and harmed my babies.

“She has repeatedly disrespected my boy’s memory.”

She told the court: “Even in these final days of the trial she has tried to control things, the disrespect she has shown the families and the court show what type of person she is.

Read More: Who is serial killer Lucy Letby who murdered 7 babies?

“We have attended court day in and day out, yet she decides she has had enough, and stays in her cell, just one final act of wickedness from a coward.”

The woman said: “I would like to thank Lucy for taking the stand and showing the court what she is really like once the ‘nice Lucy’ mask slips.

“It was honestly the best thing she could have done to ensure our boys got the justice they deserve.”

She said: “We have been living a nightmare but, for me, it ends today. I refuse to wake up with my first thought be about my boys being harmed.

“Lucy no longer has control over our lives.

“She holds no power or relevance in anybody’s life. She is nothing.”

The woman said her son who survived has been diagnosed with severe learning difficulties “which we believe is a result of being poisoned with a large quantity of insulin”.

She said: “I never allow him to be alone with medical professionals.”

In a statement, the father of Child G, who Letby was found guilty of attempting to murder twice, said the baby had been born prematurely and the start of her life was a “bumpy road”.

He said: “Every day I would sit there and pray. I would pray for God to save her. He did. He saved her, but the devil found her.”

He said their child now had brain damage, was registered blind, and was fed through a tube.

Speaking about receiving the call to say someone was arrested, he said: “I just didn’t expect that.

“I just want it to be over now.”

In a pre-recorded statement played to the court, the mother of Child O and Child P described being in a “state of shock” after two of her triplets were murdered by Letby.

She said she continued to be haunted by “vivid images” from the time and lived in “constant fear” of anything happening to her children.

Speaking about the trial, she said: “Being within the courtroom environment was extremely harrowing. That was the first time I had seen Lucy Letby since 2016.”

She said she sat behind a monitor so she was not in a direct line of sight and found the evidence difficult to listen to.

She added: “Having to come to terms with the police investigation has made the past few years unbearable.”

She told the court Letby had been the last person to hold Child P and she had dressed him after he died.

She added: “She has destroyed our lives.”

The father of Child O and Child P said in pre-recorded video statement played to Manchester Crown Court: “Lucy Letby has destroyed our lives.

“The anger and the hatred I have towards her will never go away.

“It has destroyed me as a man and as a father.”

The man wiped away tears and was visibly upset in the recording as he said: “The continual pressure of having the trial hanging over us has been immense and difficult to describe.

“Even after the trial has ended, it will continue to haunt us and will always have an impact on our lives.”

Mr Justice Goss adjourned the case to 12.30pm when he said he would proceed to sentencing remarks.

Earlier in the hearing, Ben Myers KC, defending, said there was nothing he was able to add in mitigation that was capable of reducing the sentence.

He said: “Miss Letby has maintained her innocence throughout these proceedings. She has now been convicted by the jury and the court therefore must and will proceed in accordance with the verdicts of guilty returned by the jury.”