UK 'killer nurse' to be sentenced for murder of 7 babies

London, Aug 21

Nurse Lucy Letby, who has been found guilty of murdering seven babies making her the UK's most prolific child serial killer in modern times, will be sentenced on Monday following a 10-month long trial, deemed to be the longest in the country.

The 33-year-old 'killer nurse', who was also convicted of trying to kill six more babies at the Countess of Chester Hospital, will not appear in person during the sentencing at the Manchester Crown Court, the BBC reported.

Without giving a reason for her non-attendance at the court, her legal team said Letby also does not want to follow proceedings via a videolink from prison.

Letby -- who deliberately injected babies with air, force fed others milk and poisoned two of the infants with insulin between June 2015 and June 2016 -- had refused to appear in the dock as the latest verdicts were read out on August 18.

They had been delivered over several hearings, but could not be reported until all the verdicts were returned.

Originally from Hereford, she broke down in tears as the first guilty verdicts were read out by the jury's foreman on August 8 after 76 hours of deliberations.

She cried with her head bowed as the second set of guilty verdicts were returned on August 11.

Letby, however, was found not guilty of two attempted murder charges and the jury was undecided on further attempted murder charges relating to four babies, reports the BBC.

During the trial, which started in October 2022, the prosecution labelled Letby as a "calculating and devious" opportunist who "gaslighted" colleagues to cover her "murderous assaults".

She was convicted following a two-year investigation by Cheshire Police into the alarming and unexplained rise in deaths and near-fatal collapses of premature babies at the hospital.

The government has also ordered an independent prove into the circumstances behind the baby murders.