Lucy Letby is due to be sentenced today for the murder of seven babies and the attempted murder of six others, but the neonatal nurse is expected to avoid attending court – prompting calls for new legislation to force criminals to face justice in person.
Families bereaved by some of Britain’s most high-profile recent murder cases are demanding a change in the law to force killers to appear in court.
Relatives of Olivia Pratt-Korbel and Elle Edwards, who were both shot dead in Merseyside last year, said the expected absence of Letby from her sentencing was an “insult” and “disrespectful”.
Cheryl Korbel, the mother of nine-year-old Olivia, has been running a campaign called Face The Family, having been denied the chance to watch gunman Thomas Cashman being sentenced earlier this year.
Image: Cheryl Korbel speaks to Sky News
He fired shots into their family home in Dovecot, Liverpool, last August, during what prosecutors described as a “ruthless pursuit” to execute another man.
Ms Korbel told Sky News she was “in shock” when she realised Olivia’s killer, who was jailed for at least 42 years, could choose whether to appear in court.
Image: Cheryl Korbel, (centre) mother of nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel outside Manchester Crown Court after Thomas Cashman, 34, of Grenadier Drive, Liverpool, was sentenced to a minimum term of 42 years, for the murder of nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korb
“We’d spent weeks doing impact statements,” she said.
“Those feelings were deep down, and bringing them to the surface was really hard, but we did it. And to find out we weren’t able to face him was just horrendous.”
Image: Thomas Cashman
Killers ‘must see pain they’ve caused’
Ms Korbel said she wanted Cashman to see and hear “the pain he caused”, and said killers like him and Letby must face bereaved families to “help them realise what they’ve done”.
Tim Edwards did get to face her killer in court, and told Sky News it helped bring closure after a long trial.
“To have him stood in front of us in the dock and listen to what we had to say was important,” he said.
“At least we have the satisfaction and knowledge that he has heard what we’ve gone through.
“How he processes that is out of our hands, but it’s important you’re given that chance to do that.”
Image: Connor Chapman
Justice system ‘not shown in good light’
Mr Edwards admitted he had to show “restraint” when Chapman – who was jailed for a minimum of 48 years – walked past him in the courtroom and stood in the dock.
He said he “stared at him” throughout and “could see for myself he was a coward”.
Mr Edwards said it was “very disrespectful” that other bereaved families didn’t get to see justice served.
“It’s not good enough – it’s becoming more of a pattern for guilty murderers to use this option,” he added.
“It doesn’t show the justice system in a good light.”
Image: Tim Edwards, father of Elle Edwards, outside court after Chapman’s guilty verdict
Sky News understands the government is looking to change the law to force criminals to appear in court in light of the Letby trial.
The guilty verdicts, which related to incidents at the Countess of Chester Hospital in 2015 and 2016, were delivered over a period of a number of days and Letby was only present for the first two.
The 33-year-old is also expected to avoid facing the judge later for sentencing.
A Ministry of Justice source said it was a “final insult” to victims and families when criminals didn’t appear in court.
“We’re committed to changing the law as soon as we can to ensure offenders face the consequences,” they added.
Heathrow Airport bosses had been warned of a potential substation failures less than a week before a major power outage closed the airport for a day, a committee of MPs has heard.
The chief executive of Heathrow Airline Operators’ Committee Nigel Wicking told MPs of the Transport Committee he raised issues about resilience on 15 March after cable and wiring took out lights on a runway.
A fire at an electricity substation in west London meant the power supply was disrupted to Europe’s largest airport for a day – causing travel chaos for around 200,000 passengers.
“I’d actually warned Heathrow of concerns that we had with regard to the substations and my concern was resilience”, Mr Wicking said.
“So the first occasion was to team Heathrow director on the 15th of the month of March. And then I also spoke to the chief operating officer and chief customer officer two days before regarding this concern.
“And it was following a number of, a couple of incidents of, unfortunately, theft, of wire and cable around some of the power supply that on one of those occasions, took out the lights on the runway for a period of time. That obviously made me concerned.”
Mr Wicking also said he believed Heathrow’s Terminal 5 could have been ready to receive repatriation flights by “late morning” on the day of the closure, and that “there was opportunity also to get flights out”.
However, Heathrow chief executive Thomas Woldbye said keeping the airport open during last month’s power outage would have been “disastrous”.
There was a risk of having “literally tens of thousands of people stranded in the airport, where we have nowhere to put them”, Mr Woldbye said.
This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.
Another 23 female potential victims have reported that they may have been raped by Zhenhao Zou – the Chinese PhD student detectives believe may be one of the country’s most prolific sex offenders.
The Metropolitan Police launched an international appeal after Zou, 28, was convicted of drugging and raping 10 women following a trial at the Inner London Crown Court last month.
Detectives have not confirmed whether the 23 people who have come forward add to their estimates that more than 50 other women worldwide may have been targeted by the University College London student.
Metropolitan Police commander Kevin Southworth said: “We have victims reaching out to us from different parts of the globe.
“At the moment, the primary places where we believe offending may have occurred at this time appears to be both in England, here in London, and over in China.”
Image: Metropolitan Police commander Kevin Southworth
Zou lived in a student flat in Woburn Place, near Russell Square in central London, and later in a flat in the Uncle building in Churchyard Row in Elephant and Castle, south London.
He had also been a student at Queen’s University Belfast, where he studied mechanical engineering from 2017 until 2019. Police say they have not had any reports from Belfast but added they were “open-minded about that”.
“Given how active and prolific Zou appears to have been with his awful offending, there is every prospect that he could have offended anywhere in the world,” Mr Southworth said.
“We wouldn’t want anyone to write off the fact they may have been a victim of his behaviour simply by virtue of the fact that you are from a certain place.
“The bottom line is, if you think you may have been affected by Zhenhao Zou or someone you know may have been, please don’t hold back. Please make contact with us.”
Image: Pic: Met Police
Zou used hidden or handheld cameras to record his attacks, and kept the footage and often the women’s belongings as souvenirs.
He targeted young, Chinese women, inviting them to his flat for drinks or to study, before drugging and assaulting them.
Zou was convicted of 11 counts of rape, with two of the offences relating to one victim, as well as three counts of voyeurism, 10 counts of possession of an extreme pornographic image, one count of false imprisonment and three counts of possession of a controlled drug with intent to commit a sexual offence, namely butanediol.
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3:16
Moment police arrest rapist student
Mr Southworth said: “Of those 10 victims, several were not identified so as we could be sure exactly where in the world they were, but their cases, nevertheless, were sufficient to see convictions at court.
“There were also, at the time, 50 videos that were identified of further potential female victims of Zhenhao Zou’s awful crimes.
“We are still working to identify all of those women in those videos.
“We have now, thankfully, had 23 victim survivors come forward through the appeal that we’ve conducted, some of whom may be identical with some of the females that we saw in those videos, some of whom may even turn out to be from the original indicted cases.”
Mr Southworth added: “Ultimately, now it’s the investigation team’s job to professionally pick our way through those individual pieces of evidence, those individual victims’ stories, to see if we can identify who may have been a victim, when and where, so then we can bring Zou to justice for the full extent of his crimes.”
Mr Southworth said more resources will be put into the investigation, and that detectives are looking to understand “what may have happened without wishing to revisit the trauma, but in a way that enables [the potential victims] to give evidence in the best possible way.”
The Metropolitan Police is appealing to anyone who thinks they may have been targeted by Zou to contact the force either by emailing survivors@met.police.uk, or via the major incident public portal on the force’s website.
An 11-year-old girl who went missing after entering the River Thames has been named as Kaliyah Coa.
An “extensive search” has been carried out after the incident in east London at around 1.30pm on Monday.
Police said the child had been playing during a school inset day and entered the water near Barge House Causeway, North Woolwich.
A recovery mission is now said to be under way to find Kaliyah along the Thames, with the Metropolitan Police carrying out an extensive examination of the area.
Image: Barge House Causeway is a concrete slope in North Woolwich leading into the Thames
Chief Superintendent Dan Card thanked members of the public and emergency teams who responded to “carry out a large-scale search during a highly pressurised and distressing time”.
He also confirmed drone technology and boats were being used to “conduct a thorough search over a wide area”.
He added: “Our specialist officers are supporting Kaliyah’s family through this deeply upsetting time and our thoughts go out to all those impacted by what has happened.”
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“Equally we appreciate this has affected the wider community who have been extremely supportive. You will see extra officers in the area during the coming days.”
On Monday, Kerry Benadjaoud, a 62-year-old resident from the area, said she heard of the incident from her next-door neighbour, who “was outside doing her garden and there was two little kids running, and they said ‘my friend’s in the water'”.
When she arrived at the scene with a life ring, a man told her he had called the police, “but he said at the time he could see her hands going down”.
Barge House Causeway is a concrete slope that goes directly into the River Thames and is used to transport boats.
Residents pointed out that it appeared to be covered in moss and was slippery.