Tears, pain and anger: Inside the courtroom where killer nurse Lucy Letby was finally brought to justice - as she cowered in her cell

Sitting in the packed-out annex - once filled with journalists for the public inquiry into the Manchester Arena attack - tension filled the air.

Dotted around the room, huge TV screens showed a courtroom located across the road at Manchester Crown Court.

One-by-one, mums and dads soberly walked into the air-conditioned room, followed by police officers, detectives, reporters, lawyers, jurors and court officials.

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Each glanced over at an empty dock. There was one person missing - the person whose unthinkable actions led dozens to gather on a humid August morning.

Lucy Letby, the convicted baby serial killer, was to be sentenced. Silence fell, as the judge entered the room.

Many had waited so long for this day - to see the woman responsible for so much pain and suffering held responsible for her despicable behaviour.

Families who, until her arrest in 2018, were completely in the dark about how their babies' lives had so cruelly been cut short.

Police officers who spent over six years trawling through countless documents and speaking to hundreds of witnesses to find out what had happened. Medics who raised concerns about their colleague but were pushed aside.

Journalists from all over the world who covered the trial day-in-day-out for ten months, and jurors, forced to listen to months of harrowing evidence before coming to their verdict.

But the one person who connected them refused to walk up the stairs from the cells, to sit in the dock and face justice.

Prosecutor Nick Johnson KC spoke first. He told the court what many agreed with, that Letby should be handed a whole life sentence for the murder of seven babies, and the attempted murder of