12 June 2024 , 13:45
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When Lucy Letby was convicted of murdering babies, her loyal mother Susan wailed from the courtroom.
"You can't be serious! This can't be right!" the mum-of-one exclaimed. She and her husband John stood by their daughter throughout her trial, attending Manchester Crown Court each day last year before the NHS nurse was handed a whole-life order.
They moved to a flat to be close to the court and since her sentencing, it's believed they sold their family home to move closer to the prison where she will now live for the rest of her life. Last August, Letby was found guilty of murdering seven babies and deliberately harming six others at Countess of Chester Hospital between June 2015 and 2016.
Susan, 63, and John, 73, appear to be in complete denial of their daughter's crimes. They share a very close relationship with their only child, as evidenced during Letby's 10-month trial.
The couple have always publicly supported their daughter and believed she's innocent (PA)
Letby is the couple's only child and they were 'so proud' when she graduated with a nursing degreeShe was born in Hereford on January 4, 1990, the only child of furniture boss John, then 44, and accounts clerk Susan, then 29. She had a 'difficult birth' and carried this with her later in life.
Lucy Letby administered a morphine overdose to a baby years before her first murder, an inquiry has heard
A childhood friend of Letby, called Dawn, previously spoke to BBC reporter Judith Moritz about her upbringing. "She told me she'd had quite a difficult birth herself and was quite poorly, and I think that's affected a lot of her life," Judith wrote. "She feels that's what she was called to do - to help children who might have been born in similar circumstances."
The family's neighbours said Letby was always a 'delight' to her parents, who no doubt felt protective of their infant after such a traumatic start. She was born six months after John and Susan married and was raised in a 1930s semi-detached house in a cul-de-sac in Hereford. One neighbour said after her arrest: "Her parents absolutely doted on her, it'll be the end of them. I feel so sorry for them, but I also feel so sorry for all those parents who have lost their babies."
Growing up, the couple watched their daughter thrive at comprehensive Aylestone School, then Hereford Sixth Form College and her first part-time job was as a teenager at WHSmith. She became the first member of the family to graduate - with a BSc in Child Nursing from the University of Chester in 2011 - and they were so delighted that they took out an advertisement in the local paper.
It read: "We are so proud of you after all your hard work." They did the same again for her birthday when she turned 21. After graduating, Letby moved away from Hereford to start her new job across the country - much to her parents' distress.
But still, they helped her buy her first home; a £179,000 three-bedroom semi, just a mile from the Countess of Chester Hospital, where she lived alone with her two rescue cats, Tigger and Smudge. However, John and Susan 'hated it' when Letby did not return home after graduating from university - something she admitted to friends made her feel 'constantly guilty'.
Mother Susan wailed in court when Letby's guilty verdicts were announced and claimed: 'This cannot be right' (Chester Standard / SWNS.com)Creatures of habit, John and Susan - who reportedly still run a radiator business - would take their daughter on holiday to Torquay three times a year throughout her childhood, right up until she was arrested in July 2018. A source told the Daily Mail that Susan was distraught when she was arrested - wailing, crying and even telling police: "I did it, take me instead," in a desperate bid to protect her. The court also heard how John tenderly made Letby's bed following her arrest.
Once she was charged, John and Susan relocated to Manchester for the 10-month trial and rented an apartment in the city. The couple allegedly turned into recluses and one neighbour said they had "hardly seen" them since the arrest. They said that before the move up north, John and Susan "spent all their time at the back of the house and never even answered the phone". The neighbour added: "This is a friendly cul-de-sac and people do feel for them, but I guess there will always be a bit of finger-pointing, and more so as new people move in who never knew John and Susan."
In August, when the first guilty verdicts were returned, Susan collapsed into her husband's arms and exclaimed: "You can't be serious. This cannot be right." And when Letby refused to attend her sentence hearing at Manchester Crown Court, so did her mother and father.
After the trial, it was reported Mr and Mrs Letby had decided to ditch their beloved hometown and permanently move 250 miles up north to be closer to their daughter in prison. It is believed Letby was first locked up at the notorious HMP Low Newton in Durham, and recently moved to the privately-run HMP Bronzefield in Surrey.