Letby cried in court today as the guilty verdicts were read out.

British neonatal nurse Lucy Letby (33) has been convicted at Manchester Crown Court today for the murders of seven babies and the attempted murders of six others at the Countess of Chester Hospital.

Letby will spend the rest of her life in prison after she preyed on babies by injecting air into their feeding tubes, amongst other evil methods, causing them to collapse and die.

She attacked twins and murdered two boys out of a set of identical triplets within 24 hours of each other.

Prosecutors said Letby was a "calculated opportunist" who used the vulnerabilities of premature and sick infants to disguise her heinous acts.

Moment of arrest (Cheshire Police)

Letby cried crocodile tears in court as the guilty verdicts were read out. Her mother broke into sobbing which continued after she left the court.

“You can't be serious. This cannot be right,” she shouted.

The killer refused to return to hear the last of the verdicts - with the judge saying he had no power to force her to come up from the cells.

In 2015 and 2016, there had been a rise in the numbers of babies who suffered serious and unexpected collapses in the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital.

Letby was the only member of the nursing staff who was on duty each time the incidents happened, which were not natural events.

The nurse injected air into the stomach, overfed with milk, physically assaulted the babies and poisoned them with insulin.

It was suggested Letby attacked the babies because she wanted a married paediatrician, who she insisted was just a close friend but was suspected of having an affair with, to be crash called to the neonatal unit so they could try to save the children together, talk about treatments and sympathise with each other after their deaths.

Some of the children were subjected to repeated attempts to kill them by the "cold, cruel and relentless" killer.

Letby's presence when collapses took place was first mentioned to senior management by the unit's head consultant in late June 2015.

Lucy Letby

But Letby was not removed from the unit until after the deaths of two triplet boys and the collapse of another baby boy on three successive days in June 2016.

The nurse was arrested at her semi-detached home in Westbourne Road, Chester, at 6am on 3 July 2018.

During searches of her address, a number of closely written notes were discovered.

On one green Post-it 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”.

Families of the babies killed and harmed have demanded a public inquiry into how Letby was able to murder and maim babies for so long. None of the parents had any idea their children had been the victims of foul play until they were visited by police up to three years later.