Rishi Sunak blasts Lucy Letby for refusing to appear in court to face justice as she's sentenced for murdering 7 babies | The Sun

RISHI Sunak today blasted Lucy Letby for refusing to appear in court to face justice as she's sentenced for murdering seven babies.

The PM dubbed the killer nurse a coward for refusing to face justice, victims' families and her fate.

Letby was found guilty last week of killing seven infants at the Countess of Chester Hospital.

She will be sentenced this morning but is refusing to to turn up.

Her absence means she won't hear victim impact statements from the families who lives she ruined.

Ministers have said they will change the law to force killers to attend to hear their punishments.

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Visiting a nursery in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, today, Mr Sunak said: "The first thing is to extend my sympathies to everyone affected by this.

"I think, like everyone reading about this, it's just shocking and harrowing."

He added: "I think it's cowardly that people who commit such horrendous crimes do not face their victims and hear first hand the impact that their crimes have had on them and their families and loved ones.

"We are looking and have been at changing the law to make sure that that happens and that's something that we'll bring forward in due course."

This morning Children's Minister Claire Coutinho promised that Justice Secretary Alex Chalk is "very committed to making changes that are needed to make sure that people who have committed awful crimes have to go to court".

She added:  "I know that there is commitment across Government to making sure that people who have committed crimes are facing the reality of that so they can hear these things.

"My understanding is that does mean that a change in the law is needed and the Justice Secretary has said that he's committed to looking at that."

Letby became Britain's most prolific child killer after she was last week convicted of murdering seven babies in a year-long reign of terror.

The killer nurse, 33, also attempted to kill six others as she became a "constant malevolent presence" on the ward at Countess of Chester Hospital.

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 non-statutory 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.

The PM this morning shut down criticism that the inquiry should statutory, which would mean witnesses are legally compelled to present evidence.

He insisted a non-statutory probe would enable investigations to "happen as quickly as possible".

Mr Sunak said:  "I think the important thing for the inquiry to do is make sure that families get the answers that they need, that it is possible for us to learn the lessons from what happened, everything conducted transparently and to happen as quickly as possible.

"Those are the objectives that we want for the inquiry and we'll make sure that it's set up to deliver on those aims."

A victim impact statement from 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.

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.

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"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."

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