Neonatal nurse Lucy Letby’s sentence to a whole-life term today is a sign of the exceptional circumstances of her crimes. But she will be far from alone in spending the rest of her life behind bars without the chance of parole.

The murder of seven babies and attempted killing of six more makes her the most notorious child killer of the modern age.

The sentence is rare. A normal life sentence – an obligatory punishment for murder – usually carries a minimum term which allows for release, under licence, once complete.

But under a whole-life order, the recipient can never be released. Kent has seen its fair share of such sentences – here we take a look at the most recent.

Wayne Couzens

There have been few murders in recent years which had such a profound impact on British society as that of Sarah Everard.

The 33-year-old marketing executive had been walking home in February 2021 when she was stopped by a serving Metropolitan Police officer. Wayne Couzens, who lived in Deal, flashed his warrant card after spotting Sarah walking home in Clapham Common and falsely arrested her.

Claiming she had flouted Covid regulations, she was handcuffed. It would be her final moments of freedom.

Driven to Kent, she was raped and murdered – her body dumped in Great Chart near Ashford.

That a police officer had betrayed the trust society has in the force, and that another woman had been a victim, led to protests around the country and shone the light on police recruitment.

Couzens was arrested, charged and pleaded guilty to the crime. He was given a whole-life term. He has subsequently been found guilty of indecent exposure prior to Sarah’s murder.

David Fuller

The so-called ‘Bedsit Murders’ of Wendy Knell, 25, and Caroline Pierce, 20, had been one of county’s longest unsolved cases.

Strangled and sexually assaulted in separate incidents in their homes in Tunbridge Wells in 1987, it was feared their killer would never be brought to justice. When he finally was, however, no one can have imagined the horror of his other crimes.

It was discovered that in addition to the DNA evidence linking David Fuller to the two murders, he had recorded himself abusing the bodies of more than 100 female corpses – aged between nine and 100 - while working as an electrician at the now-closed Kent and Sussex Hospital and Tunbridge Wells Hospital in Pembury.

Arrested in 2020, he was sentenced for his crimes in 2021 – and was told he would never be released. In 2022, he subsequently admitted further mortuary offences.

He is serving his sentence at HMP Frankland in County Durham – the same prison as Wayne Couzens.

Stephen Port

In a one-bedroom flat in Barking, east London, Stephen Port would bring back his victims.

Having met young men on the dating app Grindr, he lured them to his home where he drugged, raped and murdered them. He then dumped their bodies nearby.

Among them was 21-year-old Daniel Whitworth, from Gravesend.

He was killed, along with three other men, with overdoses administered by Port – nicknamed the ‘Grindr Killer’ – of GHB. All were committed between June 2014 and September 2015.

Police only started investigating after the fourth body was found.

Arrested, Port was charged and found guilty of all four murders in 2016. He was also found guilty of a number of additional rape, sexual assault and drugging charges. Eleven men, in total, were victims of his depravity.

He was handed a whole-life sentence and is currently serving time at HMP Belmarsh.

Peter Tobin

In November 2007, police confirmed that as part of their investigation into the disappearance of two girls, they had dug up the garden of a property in Margate.

Buried in shallow graves and concealed in black bin bags, they found the remains of schoolgirl Vicky Hamilton, 15, and student Dinah McNicol, 18. Both had last been seen in 1991.

The property had been the home to Peter Tobin – a man already serving a life sentence, with a minimum 21-year term, for the murder and rape of 23-year-old Angelika Kluk at a church in Scotland.

The investigation into that led police to look more closely at Tobin – a man the judge in the Angelika Kluk case had described as “evil”.

It led them to the back garden of 50 Irvine Drive in Margate and the grisly discovery.

After being found guilty in subsequent murder trials for both women, in 2008 and 2009, a judge handed Tobin a whole-life term. Officers suspected he had also been involved in other murders.

He died in October of last year at the age of 76 while serving his sentence in Edinburgh. No one claimed his ashes and his remains were scattered into the sea.