Lucy Letby, the neonatal nurse convicted of the murders of seven babies and the attempted murders of six others, has been sentenced to life in prison.

Letby, 33, refused to attend the sentencing hearing and was not present in the courtroom. She also declined to appear at the last few sessions in which the verdicts were read. The judge, in pronouncing the sentence, addressed her in absentia.

“There was a malevolence bordering on sadism in your actions,” Justice James Goss said before declaring the sentence, The Guardian reported. “During the course of this trial you have coldly denied any responsibility for your wrongdoing. You have no remorse. There are no mitigating factors.”

Eight of the jurors who heard the case were present in the courtroom, and many family members of the babies harmed by Letby. The judge heard from the parents of all 13 victims, some in in person, some by video, and some in statements read by the prosecutor. All were heart-wrenching.

“You thought it was your right to play God with our lives,” the mother of one of a set of twins killed by Letby said in a statement read by the prosecutor. “Our lives are tough. We struggle with depression, anxiety and PTSD. We sometimes want to give up but we never will … we have a duty to give [our surviving child, who Letby tried to kill] the best life possible and we will spend our lives doing that.”

“We hope you live a very long life and spend every day suffering forever … We will never think of you again from this day. You are nothing.”

Several of the surviving babies were left with brain damage or other defects.

In another statement read by the prosecutor, the father of a surviving baby said that the girl’s mother “finds it very difficult to trust people in hospitals because of what happened” and lives on about two hours of sleep per night because the little girl, now 8, doesn’t sleep well. She is blind with quadriplegic cerebral palsy, he said.

“Our worry is: What if [she[ outlives us and has no one to care for her?” he said.

“Lucy Letby has destroyed our lives,” the father of two triplets slain by the nurse said in a video statement. “The anger and hatred I have for her will never go away. It has destroyed me as a man, as a father. Even after the trial has ended it will continue to haunt us and continue to have an impact on our lives.”

During a break in the proceedings, after all the family statements and before Goss pronounced the sentences, the Northern Care Alliance, a National Health Services organization that employed the former hospital executive who was the first  to be told that Letby was connected to the unexplained deaths a year before the nurse was finally taken off the neonatal unit — had been suspended.

“I can confirm Alison Kelly has been suspended,” said Nicky Clarke, chief people officers at Northern Care. “We are unable to comment any further at this moment in time.”

Goss, in handing down the sentence, said the no early release provision would apply to Letby, and he sentenced her to life on each of the 14 counts (she tried to kill one of the babies twice).

“The cruelty and calculation of your actions were truly horrific,” he said. ” … By their nature and number such murders and attempted murder by a neonatal nurse entrusted to care for them is a case of very exceptional circumstances … This was a cruel, calculated and cynical campaign of child murder.”

After the hearing’s conclusion, multiple advocates and public officials expressed outrage that Letby was allowed to avoid appearing in court and urged the changing of laws to compel defendants to attend court.

“Lucy Letby is not just a murderer but a coward, whose failure to face her victims’ families, refusing to hear their impact statements and society’s condemnation, is the final insult,” the justice secretary, Alex Chalk, said. “We are looking to change the law so offenders can be compelled to attend sentencing hearings.”

Letby’s convictions were read out over several hearings in August, as CrimeOnline previously reported. British law barred reporting on the convictions until they’d all been read. Prosecutors said Letby injected some of the babies with air, force fed some with milk, and poisoned two with insulin.

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[Featured image: Lucy Letby/Handout]