Dad of murdered PC Nicola Hughes says forcing criminals to go to sentencing may cause ‘more anguish’ in wake of Lucy Letby trial

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

The father of murdered police officer Nicola Hughes has said a law change following the refusal of Lucy Letby to attend her sentencing hearing may cause “more anguish” for the families of victims.

Letby did not leave her cell at Manchester Crown Court on Monday as she was given a whole-life sentence in prison for the murder of seven babies and the attempted murders of six more.

Former prison officer Bryn Hughes, whose daughter Nicola was killed by Dale Cregan in 2012 alongside fellow Pc Fiona Bone in a gun and grenade ambush while on duty in Tameside, said calls for a law change are a “knee-jerk reaction”. Try MEN Premium for FREE by clicking here for no ads, fun puzzles and brilliant new features. Mr Hughes told the PA news agency: “Most of the time they’re going to be sociopaths and they feed off that anguish and grief. “If they can see families in the dock they’re going to shout abuse, they’re going to play up, start fighting and anything else, because they can see that pain and anguish on their faces, I don’t think it’s worth going through all that. “I’ve carried people into the dock who are biting, spitting and shouting abuse and within two or three minutes of the judge speaking to deliver a sentence they’ve started again and the judge has just said ‘take them back downstairs’. “It disrupts everything, causes more anguish and it delays things, so it’s a really hard choice and they’re not the type of people to just say to them ‘sit down and be quiet’, they’re beyond that, they’ve got total disregard for life and disrespect for law and order.” Mr Hughes, who was a prison officer for 25 years, said making it mandatory for criminals to be present at court will “eat away” at the families of victims, saying they should