Face the judge

There are far easier ways of dealing with the issue than “dragging her by her hair” like sticking her in one of the video link rooms so she has no choice but to listen but can’t disrupt anything.

Just because she is an uncivilised monster doesn’t mean we have to lower ourselves to her standards

She needs to sit and listen to the impact statements for a start.

I cannot believe your post. It’s nothing to do with the public. It’s the families.

It makes more sense that sanctions are imposed on her in prison. e.g loss of privileges, extra time in solitary etc. There's no point extending a life long sentence but they can certainly make that Syrah harder for her for behaving like this.

I agree with the sentiment that Lucy has taken the easy way out in not listening to the impact statements and the judge's ruling but what can you do? The only option is to man handle her into court but what if she is then disruptive screaming and shouting, is violent to the court staff? There is no point offering more time on her sentence as she is never getting out.

I do think these types of criminal should be in court to hear the damage they have done, but I cannot see a safe way to make this happen.

*make that stretch harder for her.

Typos. Apologies.

That would also make it harder for the prison officers dealing with her who already have an incredibly tough job

When someone is on a life sentence and has very little left to lose, and you take that little away from them, how do you control their behaviour?

The issue is that Letby has nothing to lose. Everyone is expecting a whole life sentence and she is likely to be in segregation because she will be a target.

Some of the families don't want that. Why is your opinion more important than theirs?

So that's what he said.

It's a populist soundbite appealing to people like the OP that doesn't begin to address the practicalities of the situation.

And yet they manage to get the suspect into court for the whole trial without incident...

She hasn't attended the whole trial.

There is already discussion on the practicalities. The courts already use video links so one suggestion is that the prisoner can be made to listen remotely if they won’t go into the dock.

Yes, I agree there. I was simply referring to what Sunak said. It comes from the same soundbite library as "Stop the boats".

They didnt

There's another thread on a similar theme already, full of people like the OP who don't understand the danger they'd be exposing prison and court staff to, and don't care enough about those people's welfare to take it into consideration. Lots of people who actually have experience working in these sectors and of using restraints have posted to explain why it wouldn't work like that, but to no avail.

Lucy has taken the easy way out by not appearing at sentencing but I think that she could disrupt the sentencing in a way that is disrespectful to victims too. The victims deserve to hear every word that the judge says.

I can't help but wonder if victims feel better when the criminal at televised US sentencing hearings show shock at the sentence. We read about the reactions in the UK media but I wonder if witnessing that moment helps or not.

How does denying visitation rights cause more work for prison officers? That's one obvious sanction that could be imposed.

I completely understand where the anger is coming from. In an ideal world she’d sit there and be forced to listen to the despair she’s caused instead of taking the cowards way out.

However I know in my rational mind dragging her there wouldn’t help anyone, least of all the families. There’s the risk of harm to the staff who would be the ones actually doing the dragging. Their safety is paramount. What would also concern me is the chance of any kind of retaliation from her. While unlikely as she’s pleaded not guilty… there’s every chance she could end up with a whole life order and then she has nothing to lose. What if she decided to rub salt in the already horrific wound and say something hurtful/obscene to the victims families? They have been through enough and they deserve peace today. Today isn’t about her, it’s about justice for them and their beautiful children.

I must admit I find this viewpoint really strange.

This is a woman who has been convicted of murdering and attacking tiny, vulnerable babies. Who would it help, or bring comfort to, by making her listen to her sentence? How would it show ‘courage’? And I see Rishi has jumped on the bandwagon of thought that seems to assume that horrendous crimes can somehow be slightly appeased by the perpetrator(s) listening to their sentence. It cannot.

Id imagine physically dragging the convicted in with them kicking/screaming/protesting could also potentially be distressing for the families too. It’s already very fraught and intense and then the person that hurt/killed your child is sitting near you kicking off as the sentencing is announced.

Whether or not she's made to listen to the sentence, I hope she gets pretty much ignored in prison. She wanted to be Special Lucy in her job, surrounded by drama, with weeping grateful parents in the palm of her hand. I hope the prison cooks shovel an average portion size of average mashed potato onto her plate with whichever two sausages were closest and a helping of bang average mushy peas. And that nobody is interested in listening to beige Lucy cry about her knee surgery and just walks away.

How do you control violent prisoners in prisons who are going to be there for 10, 15, 20 years or more

By allowing them small privileges such as visitations

That way if their behaviour is bad they can lose their privileges and have to earn them back

If there are no privileges in the first place, how do you control their behaviour in order to keep other inmate and prison officers safe?

I was referring to a generic suspect in a generic trial. LL attended all the trial days she was required to without killing a prison officer, so to suggest she would kill one for the sentencing is absurd.