Former neonatal nurse Lucy Letby has been given a whole life sentence for the murder of seven babies and attempted murder of six others.

Letby was working at the Countess of Chester Hospital where she ended the lives of babies between the years 2015 – 2016 by injecting the infants with air or insulin, overfeeding them and in some cases, physically assaulting them.

The Hereford-born serial killer also stole over 250 confidential documents relating to the infants’ care, believed to have been a way for her to keep mementoes of her crimes.

Additionally, Letby falsified patient records to avert suspicious of her crimes.

On 21 August 2023, Lucy Letby was sentenced to life imprisonment with a whole life order, a rare life sentence which ensures she will never be eligible for release.

Letby, an only child, is now modern Britain’s most prolific serial killer, with police suspecting that she may have more unknown victims. Further investigations will be conducted to determine whether she may have claimed more lives during her time in other hospitals, including Liverpool Women’s hospital, where two babies died while she was training there.

Management at the Countess of Chester Hospital have been heavily scrutinised for dismissing warnings about Letby by other hospital staff, that may have prevented some of the children’s untimely death.

The British government has since announced that an independent statutory inquiry will be held into the circumstances surrounding the murders.

Following the conclusion of the nine-month trial where the jury heard details surrounding the deaths of several children, the jury reached a guilty verdict. However, Letby opted not to attend the sentencing hearing and therefore neither heard the victim impact statements made by the families of the victims or her sentence being passed.

This caused outrage amongst the public and in response, Secretary of State for Justice, Alex Chalk, wrote that the government would "look at options to change the law at the earliest opportunity" to insist that defendants attend their sentencing.

Similarly, Letby’s parents did not attend her sentence hearing, despite having been present throughout her whole trial.

On 30 August 2023, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced the introduction of legislation to Parliament that would compel convicted criminals to attend their sentencing hearings, by force if necessary, or face the possibility of more time in prison.

The Court of Appeal Criminal Division has confirmed that Lucy Letby has a submitted an appeal against all her convictions.

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