Nurse who killed seven babies set to become only fourth woman to receive whole-life order

Lucy Letby is expected to join the ranks of notorious killers Rose West, Myra Hindley and Joanna Dennehy by becoming only the fourth woman in British history to receive a whole-life order.

The former nurse, found guilty on Friday of the murder of seven babies and attempting to murder six others while working at the neonatal unit of the Countess of Chester Hospital in Cheshire between June 2015 and June 2016, is due to be sentenced at Manchester Crown Court at 10am on Monday.

She is set to receive a lengthy prison sentence, potentially a whole life order given the magnitude of her crimes as one of Britain’s most prolific child serial killers in recent history.

Her convictions place her among the most infamous killers in modern times, including former GP Harold Shipman, who killed an estimated 250 patients, and Moors murderer Myra Hindley.

Both were given a whole-life tariff, now known as a whole-life order, which means they could never be released from prison.

A whole-life order can be given when the seriousness of the offence is considered “exceptionally high” and the defendant was aged 21 or over when the offence was committed.

Cases which can fall into this category include: the murder of two or more people, the murder of a child involving abduction or sexual or sadistic motivation and the murder of a police officer.

If Letby is given a whole life order on Monday, she will be only the fourth woman in Britain to receive this rare sentence, alongside the now deceased Hindley, Rosemary West who was convicted in 1995 of the murder of 10 women and girls at her home in Gloucester and Joanna Dennehy convicted in 2014 of murdering three men and dumping their bodies in ditches near Peterborough.

As of 31 December 2022, there were 66 whole-life prisoners including Levi Bellfield and former Metropolitan Police officer Wayne Couzens.

Letby, who has maintained her innocence from the start, will be sentenced by Mr Justice Goss but is not expected to be in court for the hearing or appear by video link.

Her legal team are reported to have told the judge the 33-year-old will not return to court for the remainder of the proceedings after she stopped coming into the courtroom as the case drew to a close and refused to appear when the final round of verdicts were delivered.

Mr Justice Goss has said the sentencing hearing will take place whether she is present or not.

He added that he had “no power to force her to attend … therefore there is nothing I can do about it.”

Her planned no-show follows the cases of Liverpool schoolgirl Olivia Pratt-Korbel and aspiring lawyer Zara Aleena, in which their killers refused to appear in court for sentencing sparking outrage among the relatives of the victims.

Former justice secretary Robert Buckland said the sentencing should be played into Letby’s cell regardless of her wishes.

He told GB News: “My suggestion would be to make sure that there was a live link beamed into the cell to ensure that Letby has nowhere to hide and in fact has to listen to what the judge is saying about the case. Most importantly, she needs to hear the victim’s personal statements as impact statements that will really bring home I think, to the wider world, the appalling devastating impact of the loss of these innocent children, these innocent babies, have had upon dozens of families.”

In April, then-justice secretary Dominic Raab said he planned to change the law to force criminals to attend sentencing hearings, but no plans have so far been brought forward.

The Ministry of Justice revealed on Sunday there are plans to introduce legislation on the non-attendance of sentencing hearing “as soon as parliamentary time allows”.

A Ministry of Justice (MoJ) spokesperson told i: “The Lord Chancellor has been clear he wants victims to see justice delivered and for all those found guilty to hear society’s condemnation at their sentencing hearing.

“Defendants can already be ordered by a judge to attend court with those who fail facing up to two years in prison.”

Judges already have the power to order a defendant whose verdict has not yet been received to attend court.

If they fail to obey this order they could be found in contempt of court which has a maximum penalty of two years in custody.