The study followed more than 45,000 people.

Killer nurse Lucy Letby is due to be sentenced later today.

Susan and John Letby haven’t attended their daughter’s sentencing hearing today (Picture: PA)

Lucy Letby’s parents have not turned up to see their daughter sentenced after she was confirmed as the most prolific child serial killer in modern history.

The nurse’s parents, Susan, 63, and John, 77, attended every day during her ten-month trial at Manchester Crown Court.

But they were not present for the final verdicts last Friday, and again failed to turn up this morning for the sentencing hearing as she faces a whole-life order.

Mr and Mrs Letby even relocated from their home in Hereford, on the England-Wales border, to live in Manchester.

The pair wanted to hear every detail of the case, perhaps clinging to desperate hope that their beloved only child might be innocent in all of this.

Susan Letby attended every day of the trial (Picture: PA)

Susan and John Letby pictured together outside Manchester Crown Court during the trial (Picture: AFP)

When Letby, 33, was led away from the dock after the first two guilty verdicts of murder had been handed down, she burst into tears.

Coming to the realisation that her own daughter – whose job as a nurse was to nurture and protect little children coming into the world – Letby’s mother also completely broke down.

As Susan, 63, an accounts clerk, was comforted by her retail boss husband John, 77, in the public gallery, she shielded her face and sobbed.

She then fell into her husband’s arms and whispered eight words: ‘You can’t be serious, this can’t be right.’

The jury would go on to find Letby guilty of the murder of seven babies in total – and the attempted murder of six others.

The cold stare of Letby, 33, who will be sentenced later today (Picture: PA)

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Last week, Letby refused to return to the dock as the jury continued to return verdicts and the court was told she did not want to take any part in her sentencing hearing, and would not follow the hearing via video-link from prison.

She again refused to attend court today, despite being brought there in a prison van.

The corridor within the Countess of Chester Hospital’s neonatal unit, showing the entrances to nurseries 2,3 & 4, where Letby worked – and carried out her heinous crimes (Picture: Cheshire Constabulary/CPS)

The nurse murdered seven babies and tried to kill six more while working at the Countess of Chester Hospital neonatal unit between 2015 and 2016.

Investigators suspect Letby had told her parents scant detail about the crimes she was being accused of before it was laid out in front of them in court.

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Tributes have been paid to Laura Ann Carleton, 66, who was killed on Friday.

She was also not present to hear the final verdicts from the jury last week.