British nurse Lucy Letby will spend the rest of her life behind bars, a judge has ordered, following her conviction for murdering seven newborn babies and trying to kill another six.
Letby, Britain's most prolific serial child killer in modern times, refused to appear in court for the sentencing hearing.
The 33-year-old woman murdered the five baby boys and two baby girls at the neonatal unit of Countess of Chester hospital in northern England where she was working in 2015 and 2016, injecting the infants with insulin or air or force feeding them milk.
More than a dozen relatives of Letby's victims sat in the public gallery for the hearing and eight jurors returned to see the sentencing.
Some of those Letby attacked were twins - in one case she murdered both siblings, in another she killed two of three triplets, and in two instances she murdered one twin but failed in her attempts to kill the other.
"This was a cruel calculated and cynical campaign of child murder involving the smallest and most vulnerable of children," said the judge, James Goss, who sentenced her to life imprisonment with no prospect of release.
"There was a deep malevolence bordering on sadism in your actions ... You have no remorse. There are no mitigating factors."
In a statement read to the court, the mother of Child A, who was murdered by Letby, and Child B, who she attempted to kill, said: "You thought it was your right to play God with our children's lives."
She said after the death of Child A they feared for their second child and made sure a member of the family was always with her, but "made a mistake" and started to believe what happened to the first child was a "tragic event that couldn't be stopped".
She added: "Little did we know you were waiting for us to leave so you could attack the one thing that gave us a reason to carry on in life."
In the statement, made on behalf of her and her partner, she said: "Maybe you thought by doing this you would be remembered forever but I want you to know my family will never think of you again.
"From this day you are nothing."
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The mother of Child C choked back tears as she told Letby in her absence: "At least now there is no debate that, in your own words, you killed them on purpose. You are evil. You did this."
The woman added: "I blame myself entirely for his death. I still live with the guilt that I couldn't protect him during pregnancy or in his short life."
Letby has joined the list of the UK's most infamous child killers, including the Moors murderers Ian Brady and Myra Hindley and paediatric nurse Beverley Allitt, the so-called Angel of Death.
Whole-life orders are the most severe punishment available in the UK criminal justice system, for those who commit the most serious crimes.
Letby was arrested at her semi-detached home in Westbourne Road, Chester on 3 July 2018.
During searches of her address, a number of closely written notes were discovered.
On one note she wrote "I don't deserve to live. I killed them on purpose because I'm not good enough to care for them", "I am a horrible evil person" and in capital letters "I am evil I did this".
She used various ways to harm the babies, including injecting air into the bloodstream, injecting air into the stomach, overfeeding with milk, physical assaults and poisoning with insulin.
Letby, who denied all the allegations, falsified medical notes to cover her tracks and lied to doctors and nurses to persuade them the collapses were "just a run of bad luck".
Watch: Killer nurse Lucy Letby being arrested at her home
On Friday jurors completed their deliberations of 110 hours and 26 minutes - spanning 22 days - following a trial which began last October.
The jury of seven women and four men convicted Letby of seven counts of murder and seven counts of attempted murder in relation to six other infants.
Cheshire Police say they are continuing to review the care of some 4,000 babies who were admitted to the Countess of Chester, and also at Liverpool Women's Hospital when Letby had two work placements, during her employment from 2012.
Prisoners given a whole-life order are never considered for release unless there are exceptional compassionate grounds to warrant it.
Under the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, which passed through the British parliament last year, the government has expanded the use of whole-life orders for premeditated murder of a child.
Only three women have previously been handed a whole-life order, which used to be known as a whole life tariff - Hindley, who died in 2002, and serial killers Rose West and Joanna Dennehy.
