Nurse turned baby killer, Lucy Letby, wasn't present in court when she was handed a life sentence by a judge this week. Prime minister Rishi Sunak has since confirmed that the government will change the law to compel convicts to attend their sentencing in the future. Do you agree that criminals should be forced to face justice?
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00:00 Yes, I think killers should be forced to face justice. I think this particular case that's
00:06 been in the news recently is so horrific, so awful, and the families that have to live
00:13 with what Lucy Letby has done for the rest of their lives deserve to at least see that
00:18 she faces justice. And I think them being able to see that happen in court and see her
00:23 reactions and then see her taken away is an important part of the process for them.
00:29 Lucy Letby has become only the fourth woman in the UK to receive a whole life sentence
00:33 for the murders of six babies and the attempted murder of seven others. But she wasn't in
00:39 court to hear her sentence handed out. She refused to attend, a move which many have
00:43 since argued shouldn't be allowed. Among those in favour of a change to the law is Prime
00:48 Minister Rishi Sunak and Labour leader Sikhir Starmer. Do you think criminals should be
00:52 forced to court for sentencing?
00:54 I'm a nurse and assistant myself, so I think it's absolutely disgraceful, first of all,
00:59 what she's done. But she should have been made to go to court. Her victims had no choice
01:03 in what she'd done, so why should she be given any choice? Totally unfair on the families.
01:07 She was a coward, couldn't even go to court to face them.
01:10 I actually was on jury service just before the lockdown, and the case was about a young
01:16 woman who had been raped as a child. She didn't attend at all. And, yeah, you know, why should
01:24 she be sat through this trial with this awful man who basically did it? There was no doubt
01:30 about it. And nobody was like, well, why isn't she here? Everyone totally got it. But in
01:37 the case of Lucy Letby, I think she should have been there.
01:41 People that have committed a crime that serious, you know, they should be in court and they
01:45 should be presented in front of the families. And, you know, that's the way it should be.
01:49 Well, if they've done the crime and they've done it, I think they should face what they've
01:53 done and face the family in court.
01:54 Would it not be possible to put them in a situation whereby they cannot hail obscenities
02:04 or give their own opinion? Take that freedom away from them.
02:09 No, because I've read about this, and it's just if someone is wanting to cause trouble,
02:14 they will still do so. So I don't think it's a good idea to force it. I know there's a
02:19 lot of talk about it at the moment. So much as she should face justice, if she was there
02:24 or someone else was there and ended up being more abusive to the families, I feel that
02:28 would just be worse.
02:29 Yes, if you've done the crime, then your day in court is needed, basically. It's just the
02:34 justice system, really, isn't it? It's just how it should be. Because if not, it would
02:38 be a lawless land of probably a lot of murder and death. So, yes, I think so.
02:44 Even if they do face them, they don't have to listen. They could actually just put their
02:48 fingers in their ears, wouldn't they? So I don't really know what it's really going to
02:52 achieve. So I'm all for it, but I think there's maybe other ways that families can deal with