THE heartbroken families of Lucy Letby's victims today told how their lives were "destroyed" as she refused the "wicked" nurse refused to face them in court.
The killer nurse became Britain's most prolific child killer after she was last week convicted of murdering seven babies in a year-long reign of terror.
Letby, 33, also attempted to kill six others as she became a "constant malevolent presence" on the ward at Countess of Chester Hospital.
The shameless monster today refused to enter court for her sentencing in a final act of wickedness from a coward."
Her decision has led to fresh calls that criminals should be forced to attend their sentencing hearings - including by PM Rishi Sunak who said it was "cowardly" for people who "commit such horrendous crimes do not face their victims".
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She was handed a whole life order that means she will be never be released from prison.
Letby is just the third woman ever to be handed the sentence after Rose West and Joanna Dennehy.
Mr Justice Goss said there was "malevolence bordering on sadism in your actions" as he told her: "You will spend the rest of your life behind bars".
He also said the case was a "cruel, calculated and cynical campaign of child murder involving the smallest and most vulnerable of children".
Beginning his sentencing remarks, Mr Justice Goss said: "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.
"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."
The judge also told how "lifelong harm" had been caused after Letby targeted babies whose lives were cut short "almost as soon as they began" in "horrific circumstances".
He added: "There was premeditation, calculation and cunning in your actions."
There were tears in court today as the brave families of Letby's victims read powerful victim impact statements.
The mum of twins Child A, who was killed by the nurse, and Child B, who Letby attacked, said 2015 was "going to be the best year of our lives" and "everything was perfect", with the babies.
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She said she never would have imagined "such despicable actions" being carried out by a nurse.
The mum added: "We never got to hold him, as you took him away.
"What should have been the happiest time of our lives became our worst nightmare."
She also slammed Letby for being "successful in your quest to cause maximum pain" as she accused her of "playing God".
While the mum of baby boy Child C, who was murdered by the nurse, wept as she told how she will always remember the "overwhelming wave of emotion" she felt holding her "tiny, feisty boy".
She said the "trauma" from that night would live with the family forever as "knowing his murderer was watching us was like something out of a horror story".
The mum continued to sob as she told how she questions whether her son would still be alive had she had not gone to bed that night.
She added: "In the dark days after his death I would open his memory box…I used to wear his hand and foot prints around my neck.
"On July 3rd when Lucy Letby was arrested I felt so conflicted. She took those hand and foot prints.
"Lucy Letby… there is no sentence that will ever compare to the excruciating agony that we have suffered as a consequence of your actions."
Child D's mum said her heart broke into a "million pieces" when the baby girl died after air was injected into her bloodstream.
Clutching a toy rabbit in the witness box, she said her death "unleashed hell" and she was forced to bury her daughter the day before her due date - leaving her wanting to end her own life.
The mum of twins E and F branded Letby "evil disguised as a caring nurse" after the monster murdered E and attempted to kill his brother 24 hours later.
She said Child E was buried in the robe Letby dressed him in before she murdered him, while Child F has been left with "complex and severe disabilities".
The mum said her boys were a "pawn in [Letby's] sick, twisted game", adding: "We have been living a nightmare, but for me, it ends today.
"I refuse to wake up with my first thought be about my boys being harmed. Lucy no longer has control over our lives. She holds no power or relevance in anybody's life. She is nothing."
'THE DEVIL FOUND HER'
The dad of Child G, who Letby attempted to murder, said his daughter now requires substantial care and is registered as blind with cerebral palsy.
He added: "He [God] saved her, but the devil found her."
Child I's mum recalled the girl's final and fatal collapse after she was repeatedly targeted by Letby while on the neo-natal ward.
She said she held her daughter's foot while feeling "absolutely broken".
The mum said her family will never get over the fact their "gorgeous little princess" was "tortured until she had no fight left."
In a pre-recorded statement, the mum of Child O and P - two triplets who were murdered said she remembered saying "thank you" to Letby.
She said the nurse was "inconsolable" after the death of Child P, who was killed the day after his brother.
Sickeningly, Letby had sent texts about the brothers looking "peaceful" in their cots.
The mum said she "hates the fact" Letby was the last person to hold Child P as she added: "She has destroyed our lives".
While her husband sobbed as he told how he turned to alcohol after their deaths and thought of ending his own life.
He added: "I felt like I had been stabbed in the heart, no words could describe how I was feeling.
"I kept wishing it had happened to me."
Letby was convicted of seven counts of murder on Friday following a nine-month trial and 22 days of jury deliberation.
She was also found guilty of attempting to murder a further six babies during her year-long killing spree.
Letby had wept as the first set of verdicts was delivered, but refused to enter court as the case was brought to a close.
The monster used insulin and air to inject newborns while working on the neo-natal ward.
The collapses and deaths of the children were not “naturally-occurring tragedies” and instead the gruesome work of “poisoner” Letby.
During a mammoth trial, jurors were told some of the newborns were repeatedly targeted by the nurse - including one baby Letby killed after three previous failed attempts.
Her rampage was finally uncovered after staff grew suspicious of the "significant rise" in the number of babies dying or suffering "catastrophic" collapses.
Letby was found to be the "common denominator" among the deaths and collapses.
When she was arrested in July 2018, the calm killer could be heard telling police "I've just had knee surgery" as she was bundled into the back of a car.
Officers then searched her three-bedroom home in Chester and discovered a chilling cache of evidence.
The nurse had scribbled haunting notes in diaries and on Post-It notes, including one that read: "I am evil I did this."
The note added: "I don't deserve to live. I killed them on purpose because I'm not good enough to care for them.
"I am a horrible person."
Other notes were declarations of love for a doctor colleague, who cannot be identified, that she repeatedly confided in as her death toll rose.
There were also some that bore the messages "Kill me" and "Help me" along with the names of some the babies she murdered.
In one, Letby scrawled: "I can't do this anymore. I can't live like this.
"No one will ever understand or appreciate what's like."
She also wrote "I loved you", adding: "I wanted you to stand by me but you didn't."
It was this married doctor who became her "best friend" while she was murdering babies that caused the only flicker of emotion in the calculating nurse.
The medic broke down in court as her "sweetie" gave evidence against her and attempted to leave the dock.
In texts exchanged between the pair, he told her she was "one of a few nurses I would trust with my own children".
But Letby's fixation with her colleague led her on a sinister path of "attention-seeking" as she sought to make sure she would not be forgotten.
Between 2015 and 2016, two babies on the neo-natal unit were "deliberately" poisoned with insulin, which was "no accident".
Some of the other babies were killed or harmed when air or milk was injected into their bloodstream or via a tube in their stomachs.
In some cases, Letby allegedly took up to three attempts before she managed to kill some of her victims.
One mum told the jury: “I could hear my son crying, and it was like nothing I’d heard before.
"It was more a scream than a cry – a sound that shouldn’t come from a tiny baby. It was horrendous.”
She also murdered another child, one of triplets, by injecting him with a lethal dose of air and inflicting trauma to his liver.
The nurse had returned to work that day after a week's holiday to Ibiza with two friends.
Letby messaged a colleague saying she would "probably be back in with a bang lol".
The nurse, who had special training in caring for ICU babies, showed an "unusual interest" in searching for her victims' families on social media.
She also sent a sympathy card to a mum of a baby she murdered on the fourth attempt as she attempted to craft twisted relationships with her victims' parents.
A photograph of a thank you card from the parents of two of her victims was kept it in a treasure trove of sick mementos at her home.
And she searched the name of the twins' mum on Facebook nine times between Child E's death and January 2016.
She said it was a "normal pattern of behaviour" for her to look for the parents of babies she had treated more than once on Facebook.
Away from the "cover of trust" she hid beneath was a cold-hearted killer who showed "no emotion" towards the tragic babies.
Described as "beige" by police, there was nothing spectacular about the church-going nurse that suggested at first she could be behind the killings.
But post-January 2015, the number of baby deaths and catastrophic collapses at the hospital significantly rose and links started to become clear.
Consultants grew concerned when they realised the children who died had "deteriorated unexpectedly".
The babies who collapsed also did not respond to appropriate and timely resuscitation.
Prosecutor Nick Johnson KC said some of the babies "who did not die collapsed dramatically but then - equally dramatically - recovered".
This "defied the normal experience of treating doctors", jurors were told.
Mr Johnson branded Letby "devious" as she sought to distance herself from the high death rates.
The prosecutor said she"gaslighted" colleagues to persuade them that a rise in baby collapses was "just a run of bad luck".
Jurors were also told she was "in effect playing God" by targeting the newborns.
Letby's conviction has cemented her as the worst killer nurse in the UK - surpassing Beverley Allitt, who murdered four children and attempted to kill three others.
Chillingly, police fear she could be behind more attacks.
Officers are now probing 4,000 babies Letby cared for at the hospital from January 2012 to the end of June 2016, as well as two work placements at Liverpool Women's Hospital in 2012 and 2015.
An independent inquiry has now been ordered by the government that will examine how concerns raised by doctors were dealt with and the circumstances surrounding the deaths.
Consultants who raised concerns about Letby as far back as 2015 have said babies could have been saved if hospital management had listened and acted sooner.
Jurors failed to reach verdicts on six remaining counts of attempted murder against four babies.
The prosecutor has now asked for 28 days to consider if there will be a retrial.
Letby was cleared of two counts of attempted murder against two babies.
