Lucy Letby 'should have nowhere to hide' as killer nurse threatens to shun court

While Buckland says the court’s “hands are tied” on the matter, he feels Letby should have “nowhere to hide” when it comes to watching the sentencing.

It comes amid renewed calls for a law to force criminals to face justice in person.

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Letby, 33, was convicted of the murder of seven babies and the attempted murder of six more during her shifts on the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital between 2015 and 2016.

She had denied the charges and was not present in the dock.

The jury could not reach verdicts on six counts of attempted murder.

The families of her victims have said they have been left “heartbroken, devastated, angry and feel numb” by her actions.

Speaking to Tom Harwood on GB News, Buckland said: “I think sadly that the court's hands are tied at the moment.

“I mean, my suggestion have been to make sure that there was a a live link beamed into the cell, either sound or sound and pictures, to ensure that let me have nowhere to hide and that she in effect has to listen to what the judge is saying about the case and most importantly, the victim.

“Personal statements, those impact statements that will really bring home, I think to the wider world the appalling, devastating impact of the loss of these innocent children, these innocent babies have had upon dozens of families.”

Appearing on GB News, Nick Gibb said: “Well look this is an appalling, horrific case of child murder. And as soon as those verdicts were handed down on Friday, the government announced there would be a full inquiry into what happened so the parents can understand what happened.

“There are stories that the consultants reported early warnings about what was happening and the inquiry will look at how those warnings and how those concerns were raised and were handled by the hospital, by the trust, and by the executives.

"That all will be covered by the inquiry - we'll be announcing a chair of that inquiry very soon and the terms of reference, we don't know yet what the terms of reference will be.

"What I can assure you is that they will look at all aspects of this, right across the health service so that we can understand what happened and learn lessons and absolutely prevent anything like this from happening again.

“We want parents to be involved in shaping this inquiry, so the government will be talking to the parents and the representatives to make sure that the inquiry does cover all the aspects of the concerns that they have and indeed the concerts the whole country has, so we can make sure that we learned all the lessons that need to be learned.”