Baby serial killer nurse Lucy Letby given whole-life sentence - BBC News

Lucy letby on each of the seven offenses of murder and the Seven offenses of attempted murder I sentence you to imprisonment for life because the seriousness of your offenses is exceptionally High I direct that the early release Provisions do not apply the order of the Court therefore is a whole life order on each and every offense and you will spend the rest of your life in prison and that is the scene inside court number seven here at Manchester Crown Court you are watching there the judge Mr Justice Goss delivering his sentencing remarks passing sentence on Lucy letby the nurse who murdered seven babies in her care and attempted to murder six more and as you heard there the judge has handed down the the most serious and comprehensive statement available to him he was saying that of course the the crime of murder carries a mandatory life sentence in law but he has decided on each of those convictions that Lucy letby will serve a whole life sentence that means that as he was saying they're the early release Provisions will not apply it means in simple terms that Lucy letby 33 years of age will spend the rest of her life in prison now what you couldn't see of course there the camera trained very firmly on the judge Mr Justice Goss but as he delivered those remarks there was silence in court many of the families who were gathered in the public Gallery watching those sentencing remarks being delivered were crying as they heard Mr Justice Goss speak this for them is the culmination of a process a trial process which has lasted almost 10 months but of course a process and ordeal which began in 2015 and 2016 for some of them the birth of their premature babies the death of those babies and then discovering that one of the nurses who was supposed to be caring for them when they were at their most vulnerable most fragile as the judge described Lucy letby was ultimately responsible for their murder in the cases of attempted murder we've heard from some of the parents in court this morning and their Victim Impact statements that those children that Lucy letby tried to kill but was not successful in doing so the way that their lives have been affected and impacted in those subsequent years we heard about children for who their quality of life now is is next to nothing thing we heard the mother of one of the children who has life-limiting injuries as a result of Lucy letby's murder attempt the mother only now gets two hours sleep a night we heard of parents of those children now who when those children are in hospital for their continuing medical requirements that parents feel that they cannot leave them alone in the care of medical staff because this is something that the parents have been living with for so many years so whole life orders in the case of Lucy let be for all of the the crimes that she has been convicted of let's speak to Steve Bryan MP who is the chair of the Health and Social care select committee listening to that sentence first of all before we we move on to some of the The Wider issues that have been raised by this case what's your your reaction to that sentencing of Lucy letby who will spend we now know the rest of her life in prison I just watched it on BBC News with with my children and uh you know it's just heartbreaking and I think the reaction of most people in the country will be seven life sentences spend the rest of your life in prison will be will be it's not enough um and that'll be that'll be the human reaction to this this whole this whole thing is a tragedy first and foremost it's a tragedy for the for the families whose children are either severely damaged or will not grow to be the children that mine are today that but it's a tragedy for for everybody concerned it's just a waste of life all round and um I said yesterday on the BBC and I and I'm repeated today I think the ramifications of this for society and for the the health system will be very very long-reaching and just my other final initial reaction is I think many people in the country will share is I think it's an absolute disgrace which wasn't there to face to what she's done and um we will I hope change the law to make sure that defendants here exactly what's said to them whether that be through the use of technology or whether that be in the dock in person and we have to find a way that they don't exert control over the sentencing process and make it all about them but they should face what they've done and it is a disgrace that Lucy Lefty did today

Channel: BBC News

Views: 328,895

Keywords: bbc, bbc news, news, world news, breaking news, us news, world

Id: pK9wC2ghyLo

Length: 5min 5sec (305 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 21 2023