Nurse Lucy Letby is due to be sentenced after being found guilty of murdering seven babies, making her the UK's most prolific child serial killer in modern times.

The 33-year-old was alsoconvicted of trying to kill six other infants at the Countess of Chester Hospital, as the trial lasted for more than 10 months and is believed to be the longest murder trial in the UK, indicating that she would not be in court for the hearing.

Her legal team said she also does not want to follow proceedings via a videolink from prison, the reasons for her non-attendance at Manchester Crown Court have not been disclosed.

If Letby does fail to show up to the hearing, she will not hear the families' victim impact statements, where people have a chance to tell the court about how a crime has affected them and those around them.

She will also not hear the judge, Mr Justice James Goss, give his sentencing remarks where he will explain the reasons for the length of the prison sentence handed down to her.

Letby, who deliberately injected babies with air, force fed others milk and poisoned two of the infants with insulin between June 2015 and June 2016 - refused to appear in the dock as the latest verdicts were read out on Friday.