Children’s minister Claire Coutinho insists the government is “committed” to strengthening the law on perpetrators being present at sentencing after reports emerged that convicted baby killer Lucy Letby is refusing to attend court on Monday. Report by Blairm. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
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00:00 It's really important that perpetrators of awful crimes such as these, all perpetrators in fact,
00:05 have to face their victims in court. That's the moment when victims get to read out their impact
00:09 statements and really that's a particular form of justice that perpetrators need to face.
00:14 There is a law in place which can compel people to go and if they don't go it can add a couple
00:19 of extra years to their sentence. However I do know the Justice Secretary has said that he's
00:23 very committed to strengthening the law and will do so at the earliest possible time. But I do
00:28 think we need to do everything we can to make sure that the victims get that moment of justice. It's
00:33 so important for families who really have faced I think some of the most despicable and sickening
00:38 crimes that any of us have ever seen.