Lucy Letby given whole-life jail term after murdering seven babies

but today should really have been a chance for those families to look Lucy let me in the eye and tell her what she's done to their family instead we had two security guards sitting in the dock we know Lucy letby was in the building but she refused to leave the cells she also refused a video link to take any kind of part in these proceedings we did get those statements from the families though and it was really a catalog of heartbreak and Devastation that has been inflicted upon them they talked about their joy and their excitement knowing that they were expecting and then just the absolute gut-wrenching Heartbreakers events unfolded one mother talked about how she'd taken comfort from Footprints and handprints that have been taken from her baby she later on discovered what had happened and it was Lucy letby who had taken those prints she had the prince as a necklace and no longer felt that she could wear them it felt tainted to her I'll bring you more in a few moments on developments in terms of the questions being asked of the Countess of Chester Hospital but first my report on today's very emotional court hearing this is as near as it came to seeing Lucy letby on the day she was told she'll spend the rest of her life in prison the nurse who murdered babies refused to be in the courtroom but she couldn't stop the inevitable sentence being passed it was a cruel calculated and cynical campaign of child murder involving the smallest and most vulnerable of children two seconds with a smile that soon fell as she realized police were there to arrest her detectives have described Lucy letby as beige and unremarkable the same cannot be said for her crimes the guilty verdicts make her the most prolific serial killer of children in recent British history today the families of her victims described the impact in statements read out the mother of a baby girl she murdered told the court I don't think we'll ever get over the fact our daughter was tortured till she had no fight left in her we should be watching her grow playing with her friends and siblings that was all taken away from her in the cruelest way in a video the father of two triplets who were murdered said I struggle when asked how many children do you have Lucy let me has destroyed our lives the anger and the hatred I have towards her will never go away and the mother of twins one was murdered one survived said our world shattered when we encountered evil disguised as a caring nurse we've attended court day in and day out yet she decides she's had enough and stays in her cell just one final Act of wickedness from a coward several parents detailed the impact on their own health some said they considered taking their own lives some parents also told the court at the time they did ask questions at the hospital and felt things weren't right it is always really important to ask the question why has a baby died and to try and get those answers Rowena paling supports grieving parents as part of her role with the charity Sans she's not involved with this case so talk to me about wider concerns saying despite promises and reviews too often parents aren't to listen to we encourage parents to advocate for themselves we encourage them to to speak out and say you know if you have any concerns you should you should say that that you are concerned but what we hear from parents sadly um is that for significant numbers they feel that their voices are not heard and parents shouldn't have to fight to have their voices heard today Lucy letby joins the small number of those jailed whose crimes are so awful they will never be released other questions will continue though about what the hospital did and didn't do on accountability for those in charge on what kind of inquiry is needed but on the right to refuse to be in court to face Justice there was agreement from across politics but also from a mother whose nine-year-old daughter Olivia was shot dead by a man who also refused to come to court when jailed my personal experience right in the impact statement was really hard and it's important for the offenders to listen to the pain that they've caused the pain that is ongoing going to prison is supposed to be a rehabilitation that first part of call of Rehabilitation should be in that courtroom and standing there listening to the judge and listening to the family's impact statements the law will change we're told but for the families of the babies Lucy let me murdered and tried to murder that change has not come soon enough for today the judge told us that Lucy let me will spend the rest of her life in prison but that hearing didn't couldn't answer the many other questions that have been asked in recent days about what happened and what didn't happen at the Countess of Chester Hospital while Lucy letby was murdering babies there about the warnings from several senior doctors and why it appears very little was done to act on those warnings we have had confirmation today though that one of the senior execs was working at the Countess of Chester at the time he's currently in a different role within the NHS has now been suspended from her current role her name is Alison Kelly she was in charge of nursing at the Countess at the time now with the northern Care Alliance which confirms her suspension also suggestion that the government is still open to ideas in terms of the terms of reference the powers for the inquiry that we know will happen after some criticism that it will not be powerful enough Claire thank you very much thanks for all your reporting on this and earlier I spoke to Antoinette sandbach the former MP for edisbury who in 2009 well before Lucy ledby worked there herself suffered the loss of a baby at the Countess of Chester Hospital while at Westminster she was the co-chair of the all-party Parliamentary group on baby loss and I began by asking her about why she thought letby wasn't stopped earlier absolutely and I think there are some very serious questions that the trust has to answer the three initial murders and the one near Miss which were reported by the Pediatric team in June 2015 were not classified as serious incidents by the trust and that is the first matter that needs to be looked into but there were repeated failures by the trust executive managers and the CEO the director of medicine and the director of nursing to properly look at what was causing these deaths so how do you explain this failure it's clear that there wasn't effective risk in governance procedures and we had the ridiculous situation of the grievance process where the doctors had to apologize to Lucy letby to many people that is extraordinary that the Consultants who complained about her and it takes quite a lot for you know that many consultants to come up with a complaint then had to apologize for that well what was clear is that Ian Harvey the director of medicine and in fact the Chief Executive Tony Chambers ignored three external recommendations to have forensic examinations into the deaths and uh that is to my mind inexcusable and for that reason I support the crown prosecution Services experts call for Chester police to conduct an investigation into gross negligence or potentially corporate manslaughter investigation in relation to the trust and the management team at the trust so you want to go much further than you know a statutory inquiry you want to get the police involved at this stage if there was grossly gross negligence at that level it should criminal charges should follow for the people who were gracely negligent I mean I know it's very early days and we haven't had the inquiry but what do you think might have been the motivation of the management not to pursue this further it's clear that Dr Susan gilby who took over as chief executive of the trust after after Tony Chambers left she has publicly stated that it was a con concern about reputation management so they were concerned about how it reflected on the trust rather than seeking proper answers for the parents which should have been their priority I know that when I I lost my son I I wanted to make sure that lessons were learned so it never happened again and that is that is where the board clearly failed and and the management structures in the trust failed they were not looking for answers they were trying to run away from difficult questions rather than asking them and finally are you saying that if managers are found culpable on whatever charge if they're found culpable they should also serve time in jail yes and to understand that I'm going to leave it there thank you very much indeed thank you well the county suggested trust has said that there have been changes to hospital Services since Lucy ledby worked there the three Hospital Personnel referred to in this interview have also made statements denouncing Lucy Libby's crimes and offering cooperation with any inquiry Aisha well with me here in Leeds is the solicitors Hamlin Bolton who's been representing parents of several of letby's victims thank you so much for coming in just wanted to start this is meant to be a day for the family but lots of comments have been on Lucy let me not appearing in court her refusal to appear how did the families that you represent take that well one one of the families that I represent the father said that it was not so much a slap in the face but a spin in the face to the British justice system and that her not appearing was a scandal in itself the families have been through nine months 10 months of evidence harrowing awful evidence about their children and today despite her being found guilty and despite her knowing there's definitely going to be a sentence not having the guts to turn up and face those families is disgraceful they are very very angry just on these families themselves they've had to read those impact statements it's been such an emotional day for them hasn't it what kind of went into those statements and how did that come about well the family's prepared them themselves and in our role we are just giving them the space and the courtesy to go through and process everything that has happened and every decision that's come to light um you know for some the Judgment was Vindication for some it's just a reinforcement of what they suspected already and it's going to have devastating consequences on all their families on the broader family as well for a lot of the families this is an over of course there are next steps that they want to take what are the families that you represented said they want to do next two of the families we represent the jury were unable to reach a decision on so for them nothing is closed they've had no closure yet and our hope is that the CPS will look at those cases again but there are bigger questions that the verdicts haven't answered and that is about the role of the NHS at Chester what they knew when they knew it and if there were any failings that would have prevented deaths of some of these children for some of the families that you're representing is there going to be a civil case going forward then with that irrespect completely will be and and the the lawyers for the trust we've been in contact with previously and that you know they're very open and transparent about wanting to deal with with these cases um the only remedy we can offer in from a civil perspective is a financial settlement in terms of the inquiry that's been announced I just wonder what families think about that particularly inquiry because there's also been questions around that as well if it's going to be robust enough to answer some of the deeply troubling questions that they have still well I think their concern is that there's nothing to compel people to attend when there's nothing to compel disclosure of documents we see so many times even in civil cases where you have the ability to use the court to compel disclosure of evidence that the NHS trust will will defend that and they will they are reluctant to hand over documents and so no way saying that I think that Chester will not be transparent and will not comp you know assist with an inquiry but you have to have the protection in place there we are the NHS is a public body we all contribute to it through taxpayers money and we have a mechanism in place that can get us answers to these questions do you think that there could then possibly be corporate manslaughter charges bought or more criminal charges is coming what we've seen recently in January this year that the CQC brought criminal prosecution against Nottingham as the first NHS trust and it's not certainly not for me to say I'm not a criminal solicitor but um I think if there are there are aspects of the evidence that come to like the warrant that then it it should be it should be pushed forward Simon Bolton thank you very much for joining us and giving us that update

Channel: Channel 4 News

Views: 208,733

Keywords: lucy letby, lucy, letby, lucy letby nurse, who is lucy letby, lucy letby background, lucy letby parents, lucy letby who is she, the trial of lucy letby, lucy letby trial, chester, guilty, nurse sentencing, lucy letby sentencing, lucy letby life, life sentence, jail

Id: SUK8JszUvTQ

Length: 15min 0sec (900 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 21 2023