When will Lucy Letby be sentenced? Date and time of nurse’s sentencing, and how long she could face in prison

Lucy Letby has been found guilty of the murder of seven babies and attempted murder of six others while working as a nurse at the Countess of Chester hospital.

In total the jury, made up of seven men and four women, deliberated for 110 hours and 26 minutes, with the guilty verdicts delivered 10 days apart – between Tuesday 8 August and Friday 18 August.

Her crimes mean that Letby – whose trial at Manchester Crown Court began last October – is the most prolific child serial-killer in modern British history.

When will Lucy Letby be sentenced?

The sentencing of Lucy Letby will start at 10am on Monday 21 August at Manchester Crown Court.

The nurse, 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.

Mr Justice Goss has said the sentencing hearing will take place whether she is present or not, adding that he had “no power to force her to attend … therefore there is nothing I can do about it.”

Letby stopped coming into the courtroom as the case drew to a close and refused to appear when the final round of verdicts were delivered on Friday.

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

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”.

How long could Lucy Letby face in prison?

Letby 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 seven murder 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.

The others were 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.