KILLER nurse Lucy Letby’s parents are expected to move 250 miles to stay near the jail where she faces the rest of her life behind bars.
John and Susan Letby attended each day of the serial child murderer’s trial in Manchester despite living far off in Hereford.
Now the couple are tipped to leave behind the semi-detached home on the Wales border where Letby grew up, MailOnline reports.
Neighbours say they expect the pair to sell their £230,000 property and move closer to “cushy” HMP Low Newton in County Durham.
That’s the maximum-security all-female jail where Letby is thought to be caged after being given a whole life term yesterday.
The sentence came after the 33-year-old was found guilty of murdering seven babies.
She was also convicted last week of attempting to murder another six newborns at the Countess of Cheshire Hospital.
Letby used insulin and air to inject the infants in a year-long killing spree while working on the hospital’s neo-natal ward.
She was arrested in 2018 at the Chester home where she lived alone, although her father was staying there at the time.
Her mother is reported to have responded to the news by trying to protect her, insisting to police: “I did it – take me instead.”
And when the first guilty verdict was announced, Mrs Letby cried out in court: “You can’t be serious – this cannot be right.”
Despite being at Manchester Crown Court throughout the ten-month trial, Letby’s parents were absent for her sentencing yesterday.
Letby also didn’t attend, refusing to come up from her cell for the bereaved parents’ victim impact statements and the judge’s ruling.
Despite Letby not being there, Mr Justice Goss addressed her as he said there was “malevolence bordering on sadism in your actions”.
He added: “You will spend the rest of your life behind bars.”
Retired accounts clerk John, 77, and 63-year-old book-keeper Susan are said to have been renting a flat in Manchester for the trial.
PARENTS ‘HARDLY SEEN’ BY NEIGHBOURS
A neighbour in Hereford says Mrs Letby now seems intent on moving to be closer to where her daughter is jailed.
They told MailOnline: “She’s their life really, and they’re convinced of her innocence, but eventually they may have to let her go.”
Another said neighbours had “hardly seen” them since Letby’s arrest, with the pair spending “all their time at the back of the house”.
They added: “This is a friendly cul-de-sac and people do feel for them.
“But I guess there will always be a bit of finger-pointing and more so as new people move in who never knew John and Susan.”
Letby’s proud parents had marked her 21st birthday and graduation from nursing college with congratulatory local newspaper notices.
She was first in the family to go to university, prompting her parents to announce: “We are so proud of you after all your hard work.”
But the trial revealed text messages she shared with friends claiming her parents “worry massively about everything and anything”.
She wrote: “They hate that I live alone. I feel bad because I know it’s really hard for them – especially as I’m an only child.
“They mean well, just a little suffocating at times and constantly feel guilty.”
Other inmates at HMP Low Newton, where Letby is expected to serve her time, have included fellow serial killer Rose West.
Also there have been Tracey Connelly, Baby P’s evil mum who abused the boy who died in Tottenham, north London– as well as extremist Roshonara Choudhry, who stabbed MP Stephen Timms.
Karen Matthews, who faked the kidnapping of her daughter Shannon, and Mairead Philpott, who along with husband Mick started a fire that killed six of her children, have also spent time there.
Letby could instead be sent to HMP Bronzefield in Ashford in Surrey, Europe’s biggest female prison.
She is only the UK’s fourth woman to be given a whole life order, following West, Moors Murderer Myra Hindley and Joanna Dennehy
A dad tonight told of feeling sick on learning how Letby held his baby girl shortly before beginning her neo-natal ward murder spree.
Meanwhile, prison experts warned she could have a “price on her head” among dangerous fellow inmates at HMP Low Newton.
