Lucy Letby news – latest: Killer nurse to be stripped of NHS pension after baby murders

The families of serial killer Lucy Letby’s victims branded the nurse “evil” as they gave emotional victim impact statements during her sentencing.

The 33-year-old did not appear in the dock at Manchester Crown Court on Monday as she was given a whole-life order after being convicted of the murders of seven babies and the attempted murders of six more.

But the judge, Mr Justice Goss, ordered that she be sent a transcript of his sentencing remarks and copies of the statements read out by the families of her victims.

Here is what each family said in full:

Cconvicted of murdering seven infants and attempting to kill six others, Lucy Letby has become the most prolific child serial killer in modern British history.

But despite being sentenced to a whole life order, questions linger about what led the 33 year-old to commit such appalling crimes.

While her reasons may never be fully understood, prosecutors and other experts told jurors during her trial of several possible motivations.

Criminal psychologists have now given their own verdicts, describing the case as “extremely rare and unusual” and arguing that Letby “broke all the rules” normally applied to serial killers.

Tara Cobham reports:

Parents of babies attacked Lucy Letby received a “total fob off” from a hospital medical director after raising concerns, a lawyer representing them has said.

Ian Harvey was medical director at the Countess of Chester Hospital at the time the 33-year-old nurse carried out her crimes, murdering seven babies and attempting to kill six others, but he retired in August 2018, a month after she was first arrested.

Richard Scorer, from law firm Slater and Gordon which is representing two of the families, accused Mr Harvey of a “shameful” failure to address parental concerns.

Mr Scorer said: “Our clients received a series of anodyne letters from Harvey containing no proper explanation or clarification.

“The letters invited them to contact Harvey for more explanation and they tried to contact him repeatedly, but despite many attempts to get through to him they never received a return call.

“Our clients have described his response as a ‘total fob off’.

“It seems that Harvey had little interest in passing any meaningful information to the parents, responding properly to any of their concerns, or complying with any duty of candour to them.

“In our view this failure to address parental concerns was shameful and another matter which needs to be investigated by a statutory inquiry with the power to compel witnesses and the production of documents.”

The crimes of child serial killer Lucy Letby will be examined in a public inquiry.

The Government ordered a probe after the nurse was last week found guilty of murdering seven babies and trying to murder six more.

It will investigate the events on the Countess of Chester Hospital’s neonatal unit between 2015 and 2016 to ensure “vital lessons are learned”, ministers said.

But concerns have been raised over the decision not to put the probe on a statutory footing, with pressure growing on the Government to strengthen it.

A mother has spoken of the moment she found killer nurse Lucy Letby standing over her newborn’s cot just seconds before “all hell broke loose”.

Vicky Whitfield and husband Mike, believe their daughter Felicity, could be one of Letby’s first victims after she spent time in the neonatal ward at the Countess of Chester Hospital in 2013.

Vicky said: “As I was walking towards the cot, Lucy was standing over it. She just looked up at me and walked away. I sat down and within seconds beepers started going off and all hell broke loose.”

Felicity suffered a collapsed lung but thankfully survived.

Former home secretary Jack Straw has said some witnesses in the Lucy Letby inquiry “won’t be bothered about being shamed” for not attending unless the probe is put on a statutory footing.

He told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: “You can shame a lot of (witnesses) but you can’t shame them all, and there may be witnesses in the Letby case who really ought to be on the stand, who are the most vulnerable in terms of the positions they have taken, and who won’t be bothered about being shamed - they would rather be shamed for their absence than actually appear on the stand.

“Being able to compel a witness is really very, very important.

“There isn’t really any direct connection between whether an inquiry is judicially led with full powers and whether it is speedy.”

Serial killer nurse Lucy Letby was still being paid her NHS salary years after her murderous rampage ended, The Independent can reveal.

Britain’s most prolific child killer, who is serving a whole-life sentence for murdering seven babies and attempting to murder six more between 2015 and 2016, continued to be paid until she was charged with the horrific crimes in 2020.

That meant she was still receiving her salary from the Countess of Chester Hospital four years after she killed the last child and two years after she was first arrested.

As a “band 5” nurse Letby, 33, would have been earning between £28,406 to £34,581.

Detectives investigating serial killer nurse Lucy Letby say they were “surprised” by the amount of material they found at her home and that a “coded system” in her diaries helped officers uncover key evidence.

Letby, one of the most prolific child killers in modern British history, has been jailed for life for murdering seven newborn babies and trying to kill six more between June 2015 and June 2016 in the neonatal ward at the Count of Chester Hospital where she worked.

The 33-year-old, only the fourth woman in UK history told she will never be released from prison, deliberately injected infants with air, force-fed them with milk or poisoned them with insulin during a “cruel, calculated and cynical campaign of child murder”.

Former victims’ commissioner Dame Vera Baird has joined growing calls for the inquiry into serial killer nurse Lucy Letby to be given powers to compel witnesses to attend and give evidence.

The government announced a probe on Friday after Letby was convicted of murdering seven babies and the attempted murder of six others.

But it was not put on a statutory footing, meaning witnesses will not be required by law to attend, raising concerns that hospital managers could avoid being held accountable for putting reputation before child safety.

The grieving families of Letby’s victims have demanded the government orders a full independent public inquiry into how the nurse was able to go on a prolonged killing spree at the neonatal ward.

Baird, who served as the victims’ commissioner for England and Wales from June 2019 to September 2022, told the Independent that the inquiry “must” be given statutory. She also called for a “radical change of attitude” towards the victims.

Ministers initially said the decision to hold a non-statutory inquiry into the case was the right one because it would be more flexible and allow the victims’ families to get justice more quickly.

But No 10 has since indicated that the probe could be upgraded after the government came under pressure to give it more powers to compel witnesses.