What is a whole life tariff - sentence Lucy Letby received for killing 7 babies
Killer nurse Lucy Letby has today been handed down a whole-life tariff for the murder of seven babies in her care.
The evil 33-year-old killed the defenceless infants as she worked at Countess of Chester Hospital's neonatal unit in Chester. Letby, from Hereford, harmed the infants in a number of manners, including by injecting air intravenously and administering air and/or milk into the stomach via nasogastric tubes. She also added insulin as a poison to intravenous feeds, interfered with breathing tubes, and inflicted trauma in some cases.
Last Friday, a jury at Manchester Crown Court found her guilty of seven counts of murder and six counts of attempted murder. Letby was also found not guilty of two further counts of attempted murder.
Letby's whole-life tariff is only given to the UK's worst murderers and she is the fourth woman in British history to be handed one after Myra Hindley in 1965, Rosemary West in 1995 and Joanne Dennehy in 2014.
Killer nurse Lucy Letby has been given a whole-life tariff (MEN MEDIA)
The evil 33-year-old killed the defenceless infants as she worked at Countess of Chester Hospital's neonatal unit in Chester. (Cheshire Constabulary via Getty)What a whole life tariff means
A whole life tariff, now known as a whole life order, is a custodial sentence handed out for the most heinous crimes, which means the prisoner will spend their entire life in jail.
Teachers, civil servants and train drivers walk out in biggest strike in decade
This is different to a life sentence, which only means an offender must spend a minimum period of time in prison before being eligible for parole, which the judge outlines in sentencing.
Whole life tariffs, or orders, can only be doled out in a small number of murders where the case is so serious, the killer is deemed too dangerous to be released. The crime has to fit a set of extreme set of criteria to warrant the punishment, such as sexual or sadistically motivated murders of children, or killers who have murdered before.
In England and Wales, if you're found guilty of murder, a court must give the person a life sentence, but this does not always result in spending the rest of their life behind bars, only that they will spend the rest of their life 'on licence' in the community after serving prison time.
However, if sentenced to a whole life order, the convicted person must spend the rest of their life behind bars. This is without any possibility of parole or conditional release.
Rose West murdered 10 women and girls (PA Archive/Press Association Images)
Wayne Couzens was a serving Met Police officer when he kidnapped and murdered Sarah Everard (SWNS)Current whole-life prisoners
The list of offenders with a whole life term also include Levi Bellfield and Sarah Everard's murderer Wayne Couzens who was a serving Met Police officer when he kidnaped and murdered the 33-year-old in London.
Rose West murdered 10 women and girls in her home in Gloucester- including one of her daughters and a step-daughter - and was handed down a whole life term in 1995.
While Stephen Port, who is known as the 'Grindr killer', used dating apps to meet and kill four men between 2014 and 2015. He was handed down a whole-life term in 2016.
There are currently only 67 people to be told they'll serve the rest of their days in prison.
The introduction of the tariff system came in 1983, around the time of a number of high profile murderers were convicted. In the same year, Dennis Nilsen was jailed for life for murdering 11 young men, while a few years earlier the "Yorkshire Ripper" Peter Sutcliffe had been found guilty of murdering 13 women and attacking seven others in a six-year spree.
Both remained in jail until their deaths, with Nilsen having his initial sentence changed to a whole life tariff. Meanwhile, Sutcliffe had his 20 concurrent sentences of life imprisonment converted to a whole life order in 2010.
Richard 'shuts up' GMB guest who says Hancock 'deserved' being called 'd***head'
How old do you have to be to be given a whole-life term
In the past, Home Secretaries could issue whole-life tariffs, although these are now determined by judges. Reforms which passed through Parliament last year meanwhile now allow 18 to 20-year-olds to be given the sentences in exceptional cases, after Manchester Arena bomb plotter Hashem Abedi avoided the term due to his age at the time of the 2017 attack.
He was 20 at the time and the minimum age was then 21.
Read more similar news:
Comments:
comments powered by Disqus
