Manchester Nurse Convicted of Murdering Newborns in Sickening Case: Details and Reactions from Court

“There was a deep malevolence bordering on sadism in your actions,” Goss said, addressing the absent defendant, who will be given a transcript of the proceedings. “During the course of this trial, you have coldly denied any responsibility for your wrongdoing. You have no remorse. There are no mitigating factors.”

A Manchester Crown Court jury that deliberated 22 days convicted Letby, 33, of murdering the seven babies over a yearlong period that saw her prey on the vulnerabilities of sick newborns and their anxious parents. Eight jurors showed up to watch the sentencing.

Letby sickened babies by injecting intravenous lines with air, poisoning some with insulin and force-feeding others milk. After killing them, she sometimes sobbed in grief, made keepsakes for parents and bathed the little bodies and dressed them for burial.

The victims, who were given anonymity and listed only by letters, such as Child A and Child B, died in the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital in northwest England between June 2015 and June 2016.

“I don’t think we will ever get over the fact that our daughter was tortured till she had no fight left in her and everything she went through over her short life was deliberately done by someone who was supposed to protect her and help her come home where she belonged,” the mother of a girl identified as Child I said in a statement read in court.

The judge said no one but Letby knows what drove her, though some parents ventured theories: she wanted to play god; she needed attention, drama and sympathy in her life; or she wanted to be remembered.

Prosecutor Nicholas Johnson said Letby deserved a “whole-life tariff” for “sadistic conduct” and premeditated crimes.

Defense lawyer Ben Myers said Letby maintained her innocence and that there was nothing he could add that would be able to reduce her sentence.

A mother who conceived her twin boys through in vitro fertilization said there were “no children in the world more wanted than them” and didn’t know if she would have others. Letby killed one, Child E, and left Child F with learning deficiencies his mother attributes to insulin poisoning.

She became emotional as she described the regret she has every day for letting Letby spend the final moments of Child E’s life bathing and clothing the boy in a woolen gown.

“He was buried in that gown, a gift from the unit chosen by Lucy,” she said.

Other families also suffered multiple tragedies since Letby targeted three sets of twins and a set of triplets.

Another mother of twins was left to grieve the loss of a son and blame herself when her family members — who had been vigilant to watch over the second infant after the first one’s death — let their guard down and Letby struck again, harming the boy’s sister, who survived.

“Little did we know you were waiting for us to leave so you could attack the one thing that gave us a reason to carry on in life,” the mother said.

The parents of triplets lost two of their babies, and the third survived after being transferred to another hospital. The couple said in a video played in court that Letby had ruined their lives.

“The anger and the hatred I have towards her will never go away,” the father said. “It has destroyed me as a man and as a father.”

One father called Letby “the devil” and said she had tried to kill his daughter twice. The nurse didn’t succeed but the girl was left blind, with brain damage and having to be fed through a tube.

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

Letby’s absence, which is allowed in British courts during sentencing, fueled anger from the families of the victims, who wanted her to listen to statements about the devastation caused by her crimes.