What’s the point of forcing murderers like Lucy Letby into the dock?

We all recoiled when Lucy Letby, a nurse of all things, was convicted of killing seven babies in cold blood. But this murderess had one more card up her sleeve. When called to court for the last time to receive the inevitable sentence – not only life, but in her case whole-life – she casually declined to appear. By doing so, Letby added insult to injury, constraining the grieving parents of her victims to watch the judge address an eerily empty dock. 

Under the present law she was arguably within her rights. But not for much longer. The government, with it seems the full backing of Labour, has promised to change things. In future, not only will judges be able to order convicted offenders into court to be sentenced and punish them for contempt if they refuse, but prisons and police will get the power to use force to get them there.

This went down well in Middle England.