Inside courtroom seven: The trial of Lucy Letby and the moment she was found guilty
For 10 months, the nondescript courtroom has been home to endless discussion, accusations and speculation, as lawyers sought to answer why seven young babies had suddenly collapsed and died in the place they should have been safest.
But in the moments before nurse Lucy Letby was found guilty of their murders, there was only a thick silence in courtroom seven.
For the jury of 11 – seven women and four men – the weight on their shoulders was enormous. But after deliberating for more than 100 hours, the foreman quietly and steadily delivered its rulings.
For her victims’ parents, it has been an agonising and unimaginable wait. Many have stood at the court every day during jurors’ deliberations, waiting to learn if their children – who by now would have been approaching their final years of primary school – were among those targeted by Letby.
They have sat through graphic descriptions of their babies’ final moments, as the prosecution tried to prove Letby poisoned them, pumped them with excessive gas or milk, or violently assaulted them.
One of her victims, Child C, was found with an unexplained amount of air in his gut.
As Letby was found guilty of the baby boy’s murder, his mother sobbed and was comforted by those around her. His father stayed still, staring straight ahead.
Another parent clutched a stuffed rabbit to her face as she tried to hold back tears.
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Lucy Letby’s mugshot has now been released. Pic: Cheshire Constabulary
How the verdicts unfolded
Letby was found guilty of seven murders and the attempted murder of six others at the Countess of Chester hospital’s neonatal unit between June 2015 and June 2016.
She was also found not guilty of two charges of attempted murder.
Sky News is one of just five news organisations that have been given a seat inside the trial, with the rest of the world’s media required to watch from the magistrates’ court across the road via a televised link.
All of the children and their parents have been granted anonymity, although their names were read out in the courtroom during the nine-month trial.
Strict reporting restrictions were put in place, which meant the media could not publish any of the verdicts until the jury had found on all counts.
First, after 76 hours of discussions, the jury unanimously found her guilty of the attempted murders of Children F and L.
They agreed with the prosecution that Letby had poisoned their IV drip bags with insulin on separate occasions, eight months apart.
Seated in the glass-fronted dock, Letby is now a shadow of the smiling, ordinary-looking woman pictured in media reports. She was in her mid-20s when she attacked her victims. She is now 33 and spent almost three years behind bars awaiting this trial.
Her once shiny blonde hair hung long and limp around her face, which is now gaunt and angular. Flanked by guards, as the first verdicts were read out, she bowed her head and wiped away tears.
Susan Letby, the mother of Lucy Letby
Her mother, Susan, sobbed as her daughter was taken back to the custody area.
After the first two verdicts, the jury was ordered by the judge, Mr Justice Goss, to try to reach a majority decision on all other counts.
Three days later, the jury returned again and this time, quiet gasps accompanied each guilty verdict in the courtroom.
Letby was found guilty of murdering four of the infants and attempting to murder two more.
She remained emotionless, but as she stood to be taken back down to the cells her shoulders began to shake.
Susan broke down again – whispering “you can’t be serious, this can’t be right” into her husband’s arms – before howling as her only child was led out of court.
John and Susan Letby, the parents of nurse Lucy Letby, outside Manchester Crown Court
Letby refused to come up from cells
A third set of verdicts came after the jury had been discussing the case for 99 hours and 38 minutes.
But this time, the dock was empty as Letby refused to leave the cells. In her absence, she was found guilty of a further three murders and three more attempts. With this, she surpassed Beverley Allitt and became the UK’s most prolific child murderer.
She was also found not guilty of one of the attacks on Child G, a baby girl.
One mother put her head in her hands and sobbed silently as Letby was found guilty of her child’s murder. Another gasped and then cheered quietly. Their relief was visible – like 15 people had just let go of one collective breath.
This time, John and Susan Letby were silent, resigned, and leant on each other with their eyes closed.
Exclusive: Mother fears Letby attacked her baby too
Pic: Shutterstock
The final verdicts
Five hours of deliberation later, Letby was cleared of another attempted murder, again in her absence, and made it clear, via her defence barrister, she would not be returning to the courtroom under any circumstances – including for sentencing.
The following day, family members who had already received a verdict for their child returned to court, in a show of solidarity for those who had not.
But on six counts, the jury could not reach a decision.
The father of one child stormed out of the room, and several members of the jury cried, while others put their heads in their hands and looked down.
The jury was discharged from its service and sentencing was scheduled for Monday morning at 10am.
Both Letby and her parents were absent from court.
Court artist Elizabeth Cook drawing outside Manchester Crown Court
The trial
The high-profile case against Letby contrasted with the unremarkable surroundings of courtroom seven at Manchester Crown Court, where the trial sat over for almost a year.
Unlike in the movies, there was no grand wooden interior – instead a small and fairly clinical space where defence barrister Ben Myers KC and Nick Johnson KC, for the prosecution, pored over medical notes, texts, photos and other evidence to make their arguments.
For most of the trial, Letby sat in a dock in front of prison guards, watching as her former friends gave evidence against her, her WhatsApp messages were read out, her Facebook searches revealed and the details of her horrendous crimes made public.
To the right of the dock sat the public gallery which was always filled with the parents of the victims, often teary-eyed but always stoic in their dedication to find out what had happened to their children.
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![Lucy Letby Still 1 [IB1706]. Forensics shorthand](https://e3.365dm.com/23/07/768x432/2372307100192179707_6214678.jpg?20230710170721)
Letby’s parents were positioned in the gallery opposite, frequently making eye contact with their daughter as she was led from the room at the end of each day.
When she was called to give evidence in May, some seven months after the trial started, Letby sat at a small table with two guards on either side of her.
She mostly answered questions calmly but became emotional when photographs of her bedroom after a police search were shown to the court. She spoke quietly and was repeatedly told to raise her voice.
As she was cross-examined she repeatedly contradicted herself, muddling her story, and grew frustrated with the prosecution’s questions. She was accused of only crying for herself – something she denied.
![J124 [IB1210]. Forensics shorthand](https://e3.365dm.com/23/07/768x432/2372307100191848307_6214306.jpg?20230710121223)
Justice at last for families changed forever
Letby’s fate rested in the hands of 12 ordinary men and women. Partway through deliberations, one had to be discharged for “good personal reasons”, reducing the number to 11.
For 10 months they have listened closely to everything that has been said, studiously making notes, the importance of this job not lost on any of them.
During one set of verdicts, a female member of the jury put her head down and cried, while her fellow jurors looked down at their desks.
No motive has ever been established, and perhaps it will never be known why the “evil” nurse chose to target defenceless infants.
Lucy Letby
Families have been changed forever, and may never truly be able to come to terms with the loss of lives that had only just begun.
And now, Letby could likely face a record-breaking sentence.
For her victims’ families, her imprisonment may finally bring some small justice that has been eight years in the making.
It’s like The Godfather, one reformed drug trafficker tells me.
The mythical gangster film centred on an organised crime dynasty locked in a transfer of power.
Communities in Scotland currently have a front row seat to a new war of violence, torture, and taunts as feuding drug lords and notorious families grapple for control of Glasgow and Edinburgh.
There have been more than a dozen brutal attacks over the past six weeks – ranging from fire bombings to attacks on children and gun violence.
A firebomb attack in Scotland
Victims left for dead, businesses up in flames
Gangsters have filmed themselves setting fire to buildings and homes connected to the associates and relatives of their bitter rivals.
The main aim, they boast, is to “exterminate” the opposition.
The taunting footage, accompanied by the song Keep On Running by The Spencer Davis Group, has been plastered over social media as part of a deliberate game of goading.
A 12-year-old boy and 72-year-old woman were left for dead when teenagers wearing balaclavas burst into a home in north Glasgow.
Garages and businesses have gone up in flames. Shots were fired at an Edinburgh house.
Signals are being sent of who wants control of Scotland’s dark criminal underworld.
A firebomb attack that saw a man throw an incendiary device through a building window
The fire attack set to the song Keep On Running by The Spencer Davis Group
What’s caused the gang war?
The former director of the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency, Graeme Pearson, explains how a “vacuum of leadership” is playing a part.
Last October, Glasgow-based cocaine kingpin Jamie Stevenson, known as The Iceman, was jailed after orchestrating a £100m cocaine shipment stashed in banana boxes from South America.
The mob leader was one of Britain’s most wanted, running his business like another on-screen criminal enterprise: The Sopranos.
The 59-year-old fugitive went on the run before eventually being hunted and apprehended by police while out jogging in the Netherlands.
Jamie Stevenson. Pic: Police Scotland
Pic: Crown Office
‘Old scores to settle’
But paranoia was running rife about how this notorious gangster could be brought down. Was there a grass? Was it one of their own?
It further fuelled divisions and forced new alliances to be forged across Scotland’s organised criminal networks.
It wasn’t until The Iceman case came to court that it was revealed an encrypted messaging platform, known as EncroChat, had been infiltrated by law enforcement.
It ultimately led to Stevenson pleading guilty.
Ex-senior drug enforcement officer Mr Pearson told Sky News: “It is a complex picture because you have got people who are in prison who still want to have influence outside and look after what was their business.
“On the outside you’ve got wannabes who are coming forward, and they think this is an opportunity for them, and you have got others have old scores to settle that they could not settle when crime bosses were around.”
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Graeme Pearson
Mr Pearson describes a toxic mix swirling to create outbursts of violence unfolding in Scotland.
He concluded: “All that mixes together – and the greed for the money that comes from drugs, and from the kudos that comes from being a ‘main man’, and you end up with competition, violence, and the kind of incidents we have seen over the past four to six weeks.”
New wave of violence ‘barbaric’
Glasgow man Mark Dempster is a former addict, dealer, and drug smuggler who is now an author and respected counsellor helping people quit drinking and drugs.
He describes the “jostle for power” as not a new concept among Glasgow’s high profile gangland families.
Mark Dempster
“There is always going to be someone new who wants to control the markets. It is like The Godfather. There is no difference between Scotland, Albania, or India,” he said.
Mr Dempster suggests a shift in tactics in Glasgow and Edinburgh in recent weeks, with 12-year-olds being viciously attacked in the middle of the night.
“It is barbaric. When young people, children, get pulled into the cross fire. It takes it to a different level.
“At least with the old mafiosa they had an unwritten rule that no children, no other family members. You would deal directly with the main people that were your opposition.”
Police Scotland is racing to get control of the situation, but declined to speak to Sky News about its ongoing operation.
It has been suggested 100 officers are working on this case, with “arrests imminent”.
But this is at the very sharp end of sophisticated criminal empires where the police are not feared, there are fierce vendettas and, clearly, power is up for grabs.
UK
Laws may need to be bolstered to crack down on exploitation of child ‘influencers’, senior MP suggests
Laws may need to be strengthened to crack down on the exploitation of child “influencers”, a senior Labour MP has warned.
Chi Onwurah, chair of the science, technology and innovation committee, said parts of the Online Safety Act – passed in October 2023 – may already be “obsolete or inadequate”.
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Experts have raised concerns that there is a lack of provision in industry laws for children who earn money through brand collaborations on social media when compared to child actors and models.
This has led to some children advertising in their underwear on social media, one expert has claimed.
Those working in more traditional entertainment fields are safeguarded by performance laws, which strictly govern the hours a minor can work, the money they earn and who they are accompanied by.
The Child Influencer Project, which has curated the world’s first industry guidelines for the group, has warned of a “large gap in UK law” which is not sufficiently filled by new online safety legislation.
Official portrait of Chi Onwurah.
Pic: UK Parlimeant
The group’s research found that child influencers could be exposed to as many as 20 different risks of harm, including to dignity, identity, family life, education, and their health and safety.
Ms Onwurah told Sky News there needs to be a “much clearer understanding of the nature of child influencers ‘work’ and the legal and regulatory framework around it”.
She said: “The safety and welfare of children are at the heart of the Online Safety Act and rightly so.
“However, as we know in a number of areas the act may already be obsolete or inadequate due to the lack of foresight and rigour of the last government.”
Victoria Collins, the Liberal Democrat spokesperson for science, innovation and technology, agreed that regulations “need to keep pace with the times”, with child influencers on social media “protected in the same way” as child actors or models.
“Liberal Democrats would welcome steps to strengthen the Online Safety Act on this front,” she added.
‘Something has to be done’
MPs warned in 2022 that the government should “urgently address the gap in UK child labour and performance regulation that is leaving child influencers without protection”.
They asked for new laws on working hours and conditions, a mandate for the protection of the child’s earnings, a right to erasure and to bring child labour arrangements under the oversight of local authorities.
However, Dr Francis Rees, the principal investigator for the Child Influencer Project, told Sky News that even after the implementation of the Online Safety Act, “there’s still a lot wanting”.
“Something has to be done to make brands more aware of their own duty of care towards kids in this arena,” she said.
Dr Rees added that achieving performances from children on social media “can involve extremely coercive and disruptive practices”.
“We simply have to do more to protect these children who have very little say or understanding of what is really happening. Most are left without a voice and without a choice.”
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The researcher pointed to one particular instance, in which children were advertising an underwear brand on social media.
She said: “The kids in the company’s own marketing material or their own media campaigns are either pulling up the band of the underwear underneath their clothing, or they’re holding the underwear up while they’re fully clothed.
“But whenever you look at any of the sponsored content produced by families with children – mum, dad, and child are in their underwear.”
Dr Rees said it is “night and day” in terms of how companies are behaving when they have responsibility for the material, versus “the lack of responsibility once they hand it over to parents with kids”.
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