Serial killer nurse Lucy Letby will spend the rest of her life behind bars after murdering seven premature infants and trying to kill six more.
The National Health Service (NHS) nurse was the fourth woman in the UK to be doomed to a life behind bars. Letby received 14 life sentences after she decided not to attend court to face the victims' families.
Letby's decision to not attend her court verdict was called a "final act of wickedness from a coward" by the mother of one of the victims. Calls to force criminals to face their victims in court have ensued as a result.
The families described how the actions of Letby led to their world being "shattered by evil disguised as a caring nurse" and told her, "You are nothing."
The judge, Mr. Justice Goss said that Letby had a "morbid fascination" with ill children and would inflict "acute pain" on them as they fought for their lives.
"You acted in a way that was completely contrary to the normal human instincts of nurturing and caring for babies and in gross breach of the trust that all citizens place in those who work in the medical and caring professions," Goss said, presenting the remarks as if she was there. "The babies you harmed were born prematurely and some were at risk of not surviving but in each case, you deliberately harmed them, intending to kill them."
Goss directed that the court deliver copies of his remarks as well as the families' directly to Letby.
One baby who Libby apparently attempted to murder weighed only 1lb after being conceived. The baby is now blind and fed through a tube. The baby's father said to the court, "Every day I would sit there and pray. I would pray for God to save her. He did. He saved her, but the devil found her."
Gross said that Letby apparently prided herself in presenting a faux professional image to patients, allowing her to perform actions with "malevolence bordering on sadism" on the premature infants. Letby would attack the babies when her coworkers were on breaks or when they weren't paying attention.
One of the premature babies she targeted had survived birth despite being born at 23 weeks in a hospital toilet. She overfed her and injected milk into the infant's stomach.
Letby has replaced Myra Hindley and Ian Brady as the most prolific child killer in modern British history.
4,000 cases of babies she was in contact with are now being reviewed by the police. Detectives have identified 30 other newborns they believe she had attacked.
