Lucy Letby absence from sentencing 'one final act of wickedness from a coward'

The mother of two of Lucy Letby's victims said her refusal to appear for sentencing was "just one final act of wickedness from a coward".

In statements read to the court, the victims' families said they felt disrespected by her absence.

Calls are growing for the government to change the law to compel convicts to attend sentencing.

Rishi Sunak said it was "cowardly that people who commit such horrendous crimes do not face their victims".

Labour leader Keir Starmer said his party would close the "shamefully exploited loophole" if elected to government.

Letby murdered seven babies and tried to kill six more while working at the Countess of Chester Hospital neonatal unit between 2015 and 2016.

The 33-year-old's case is the latest in a series of high-profile trials where convicted murderers have refused to turn up for their sentencing, including the killers of Zara Aleena in London and nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel in Liverpool.

The mother of Child E, who died, and Child F, who survived, told the court that Letby has "repeatedly disrespected my boy's memory".

Hitting out at Letby's refusal to attend the sentencing hearing, the woman said: "Even in these final days of the trial she tried to control things, the disrespect she has shown the families and the court show what type of person she is.

"We have attended court day in and day out, yet she decides she has had enough, and stays in her cell, just one final act of wickedness from a coward.

"I would like to thank Lucy for taking the stand and showing the court what she is really like once the 'nice Lucy' mask slips.

"It was honestly the best thing she could have done to ensure our boys got the justice they deserve."

Addressing Letby's absence from court as he sentenced her to spend the rest of her life behind bars, Mr Justice Goss said he would "deliver the remarks as if she is present to hear them" and that the 33-year-old would be sent a copy of his remarks and the victim impact statements from the families.

Asked about Letby's absence from the court room, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said it was "cowardly" when convicts "do not face their victims and hear first-hand the impact that their crimes have had on them and their families and loved ones".

He added that his government is looking to change the law to compel people to attend their sentencing which was something that "we'll bring forward in due course".

Farah Naz, Ms Aleena's aunt, said convicted criminals should be forced to face their victims and listen to testimony about the impact of their offences.

Ms Aleena, 35, died after being attacked and badly beaten as she walked home in Ilford, east London in June 2022. Jordan McSweeney, 29, later confessed to the killing but refused to attend his sentencing.

Speaking to BBC Breakfast ahead of Letby's sentencing, Ms Naz said reading out victim impact statements in the presence of the convict is the "only time in which the victims have a part in the justice system. And we need to have a part in the justice system in order to feel heard, in order to feel some sense of retribution".

She said she and her family "needed to look at him [McSweeney] and make him uncomfortable. He needed to see us, he needed to see what he did. There's never going to be a moment in his life now where he gets to hear what he did."

The mother of Olivia Pratt-Korbel, who was shot and killed by Thomas Cashman as he chased another man into her home in 2022, is backing a campaign to force criminals to attend their sentencing. Cashman was jailed for life in April but also refused to attend his sentencing.

Cheryl Korbel said writing her victim impact statement had been "really hard" and that "it's important for the offenders to listen to the pain that they've caused, the pain that is ongoing".

"Going to prison is supposed to be a rehabilitation. That first port of call of rehabilitation should be in that courtroom and standing there listening to the judge and listening to the families' impact statements," she said.

Justice Secretary Alex Chalk said Letby "took the coward's approach" by not appearing in court.

It was one last insult to her victims by "robbing their families of the chance to look her in the eye as the judge decided her fate", he added.

"Cases like these make me even more determined to make sure the worst offenders attend court to face justice, when ordered by the judge," he said.

The family of Sabina Nessa, who was killed in a random attack in Kidbrooke, south-east London, in 2021, were also unable to face her murderer who refused to appear at his sentencing.

Koci Selamaj, 36, was jailed for life with a minimum term of 36 years in April last year.

Speaking after the hearing, Sabina's sister, Jebina Islam, said it was "outrageous" that Selamaj "was able to decide whether or not to come to court" and had "refused to listen to our family impact via link".

She has been campaigning to make convicts appear in court.

Under existing laws, a judge can order a defendant to attend court but cannot compel them to do so.

If they refuse, prison authorities can use reasonable force to bring them to court, but the Law Society, which represents solicitors in England and Wales, says there can be a reluctance on the part of prison governors to use such force.

Kirsty Brimelow KC, chair of the Criminal Bar Association, said forcing an offender to go to court could also "massively increase risk to everybody around that prisoner".

"I think it's unlikely to work. You should never underestimate the capability and capacity of somebody to disrupt court proceedings," she told BBC Breakfast.

Lord Thomas, who was lord chief justice of England and Wales between 2013 and 2017, told the BBC's PM that time could be added to an offender's sentence if they fail to attend court or, if they are already being given a whole-life term, the judge's remarks could be broadcast into their cell.

"Having once seen someone in the United States bound and gagged in court, I don't think that that is an appropriate solution," he added.

Speaking to the BBC's World At One, Lord Falconer, who served as justice secretary between 2003 and 2007, said he was in favour of defendants being made to attend court, but warned they could make the situation worse for everyone involved by "behaving incredibly badly, being insulting, disrespecting the court".

"We have to move on from where we are now, which is uncertainty," he said. "The norm should be the judge orders the defendant to be there for sentencing. He or she is there unless there is good reason."