Families of the babies who were murdered and attacked by Lucy Letby have told Manchester Crown Court of the horrific impact the serial killer has had on their lives.

The former nurse will spend the rest of her life in prison, with no chance of parole, for murdering seven babies and trying to kill six others. Their parents gave victim impact statements before she was sentenced. Some of the surviving babies have been left with disabilities, they said.

In court, families of the babies sat in the public gallery, some crying quietly. Members of the jury were also visibly upset as they listened to the statements. Letby refused to attend court to hear the suffering she had caused.

Reporting restrictions protect the identities of the babies and their families, so they are referred to as babies A to P.

Warning: This article contains details some readers may find upsetting

“You thought it was your right to play God with our children’s lives.”

The twins were attacked in June 2015 – Baby A was murdered on 8 June and Letby attempted to kill his sister 28 hours later.

“Our minds are so traumatised it won’t let us remember the night you killed our child,” their mother said in a statement. “After losing (Baby A) we were riddled with fear for his sister (Baby B). We are so thankful that we had that fear for her, as it saved her life… there was always a member of our family at her side watching.”

“Little did we know you were waiting for us to leave so you could attack,” she added.

“You thought you could enter our lives and turn it upside down but you will never win. We hope you live a very long life and spend every day suffering for what you’ve done.”

“Knowing his murderer was watching us was like something out of a horror story.”

The mother of Baby C remembered the “overwhelming wave of emotion” she felt when she first held Baby C, whom she called “my tiny feisty boy”. He was murdered on 14 June, 2015.

She wore her first-born’s hand and footprints around her neck after his death. But when Letby was arrested she felt “so conflicted” – the nurse had been the one to take those prints.

She cried as she spoke of the impact Letby has had on her family: “There is no sentence that will ever compare to the excruciating agony that we have suffered as a consequence of your actions.”

“I was desperate to feel her, smell her, cuddle her.”

The mother of Baby D held a toy rabbit as she spoke from the witness box. After her daughter was murdered on 22 June 2015, she pushed for answers, but she was initially told it was not a police matter.

“I missed (Baby D) so much. I was desperate to feel her, smell her, cuddle her. I was desperate to keep her safe.”

She said she lost confidence “as a woman, as a friend, as a wife”, and said her marriage suffered. “It has been hard to keep strong together at times.”

“Since (Baby D) passed away I live behind my own shadow.”

“Our worlds were shattered when we encountered evil disguised as a caring nurse.”

Letby murdered Baby E on 4 August 2015. She attempted to murder his brother 24 hours later.

The mother of the twin boys said the family had been “living with a life sentence because of Letby’s crimes”. She said her surviving son had been left with complex needs after the attack. She is still frightened to leave him alone.

When Letby was first identified as a murder suspect, she and her husband felt “cheated, deceived and utterly heartbroken”. She described Letby’s absence from court as “just one final act of wickedness from a coward”.

“Her condition affects every aspect of our lives.”

Baby G was left severely disabled by Letby. The nurse was found guilty of attempting to murder her twice, in September 2015.

“Every day I would sit there and pray. I would pray for God to save her. He did. He saved her, but the devil found her,” her father said of their time in hospital.

The court heard Baby G is now registered blind, has cerebral palsy and progressive scoliosis. Her father said she needs substantial care and that her mother only gets about two hours of sleep a night.

“We see other families and their children fishing, playing football, other things we can’t do. She will never have a sleepover, go to high school, have a boyfriend, get married.”

“A part of us died with her.”

Baby I was alert, content and feeding well before she died, her mother said. The family was planning to bring their daughter home when they were told she’d had another collapse, on 23 October 2015. Letby was found guilty of murdering her.

“She was our gorgeous little princess and I can’t even begin to explain the pain when we lost her.”

The mother said her whole body was shaking when she was told someone had been arrested for murder. “We were both absolutely broken that someone could do something so evil to our precious little girl.”

She has had therapy and taken medication over the past six years to cope with her daughter’s death. “We have been in some very dark places mentally.”

After the death of Baby I, they had another daughter who was born prematurely and with sepsis, but she said she found it incredibly hard to be back on a neonatal unit. She refused to leave her daughter’s side until she came home.

“We struggle with trust. I won’t leave my kids in a hospital. We will never give anyone that type of trust with our kids again. I don’t think we will ever get over the fact that our daughter was tortured until she had no fight left in her.”

“Letby kept looking over at me.”

The serial killer attempted to murder the twin boys in early April 2016. Their father said the image of his son collapsing was “forever etched” in his mind.

The family was initially told by doctors that the events were “normal for premature babies”, he said in a statement. “Little did we know that a year or so after their birth the police would come knocking on the door and break the news that this could be an attempted murder case.”

He said he had been prescribed anti-depressants but “even though they have helped, they can never take away the feelings I have as a parent”.

During the trial, he said he had to sit in Letby’s line of view one day, saying the nurse kept looking over at him. “That made me feel quite uncomfortable and uneasy and I had to move in the afternoon, so I was out of her view.”

“We believe Baby N has lasting damage as a result of the injuries he sustained.”

Letby attempted to murder the baby boy in June 2016. “The day we were called to the neonatal unit was the worst day of our lives,” his mother said in a statement.

She said she always knew her son had been deliberately harmed: “I don’t know if it was a mother’s instinct, but I just knew.” She added: “We just questioned why a healthy baby boy was fine one minute and bleeding from the mouth and needing CPR the next.”

“We both relive this every day.”

She said she felt “happy and relieved” when the police contacted them to say they were investigating Letby. “We felt like we were being listened to.”

The family still has a camera in their now seven-year-old’s bedroom so they can check on him while he sleeps. “We are extremely protective,” she said. “We wanted him to be home-schooled as we didn’t want anybody else looking after him.”

“It has destroyed me as a man and as a father.”

The parents had triplets, all boys. Two of the brothers were murdered on 23 and 24 June 2016 respectively.

Their parents gave statements via a pre-recorded video, played in court. “Going through the ‘firsts’ with the surviving triplet is very hard,” said the mother. “I started to blame myself. I thought I’d passed on an illness to all three of the boys – an infection.”

After the death of Baby P Letby seemed “inconsolable” said the mother, who thanked the nurse at the time. She said she hates the fact Letby was the last person to hold her son.

The boys’ father spoke about watching Baby O deteriorate and die. “It was horrific to see – it is an image that I’ll never forget,” he said. He sobbed throughout his statement and many in court were in tears.

He said he had suffered mental breakdowns and struggled with alcohol and suicidal feelings. He is still classed as long-term sick.

“The anger and the hatred I have towards [Letby] will never go away,” he said. “It will continue to haunt us and will always have an impact on our lives.”