Will Lucy Letby ever be released from prison?

Lucy Letby has been convicted of the murder of seven babies and attempting to murder six more, making her the UK’s most prolific killer of children in modern British history, but now eyes turn to her sentencing on Monday.

She will be sentenced at Manchester Crown Court at 10am – with Letby already saying, via her defence barrister, that she will not attend the courtroom.

Because she has been convicted of murder, Mr Justice Goss must impose a life sentence, but there is the question of what would be Letby’s minimum tariff (the minimum amount of time she must spend in prison before she is eligible for release).

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Depending on the facts of the offence, the starting point for the minimum time served in prison for murder ranges from 15 to 30 years.

But, Letby may be sentenced to a whole life tariff – meaning she would spend the rest of her life behind bars, without the possibility of release – as this can be applied in cases of a planned murder of two or more people.

Read more:Inside court and the trial of a baby killerHow the police caught Lucy LetbyMore families told their children could be victims

The judge will also take into account the aggravating factors that make the sentence even more serious. He will consider Letby’s level of premeditation, and the fact the victims were particularly vulnerable because they were newborn babies.

He will also take into account the fact that Letby was working as a nurse – and therefore providing a public service – when she murdered the infants, abusing her role and the trust the public placed in her.

Rose West and Myra Hindley

Letby could become only the third woman alive to be handed a whole life order.

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She would join the ranks of Rosemary West, Joanna Christine Dennehy and deceased moors murderer Myra Hindley.

West was convicted of 10 murders in 1995 alongside her husband Fred.

Joanna Christine Dennehy stabbed three men to death and dumped their bodies in ditches outside Peterborough in March 2013. Hindley – who murdered five children alongside partner Ian Brady – died behind bars in 2002.

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