"It's going to take some time to explain what your sentences will be," Choudhury has told Deborah Latewood and Kimberley Cookson - who are told to sit down.

He says Noah was a "patient, relaxed and gracious little boy".

The court has heard that his parents were told sleeping practices at Fairytales Day Nursery encouraged independence.

Staff said they would rock 14-month-old Noah to sleep if required, after his parents said that was how he liked to be put to sleep.

Choudhury is reminding the court that Noah's parents had become unhappy with the nursery before his death, and had interviewed an au pair.

Judge Justice Choudhury has entered the courtroom now and sentencing is about to begin.

Our correspondent Phil Mackie, who was at Wolverhampton Crown Court on Thursday, said the hearing has been marked by emotion so far.

On multiple occasions, both 14-month-old Noah's family and the defendants in the case were in tears.

The court heard:

• Noah's mother Masi Sibanda said her son died "alone, scared and in pain". She added: "My guilt comes from knowing I handed him over to people who killed him.”
• Cookson's counsel, Rashad Mohammed KC, told the court: "She herself says she deserves to be punished."
• For the nursery, Dominic Kay KC said sleeping pods should never have been introduced there but were done so in "good faith"
• The barrister added that the nursery accepted a culture had developed where some children "were not being treated with sufficient care"
• For Latewood, Mark Balysz KC said CCTV footage of the incident came as an "appalling shock" to her and that "not a day passes without his client thinking about Noah and his family"

You can read about Thursday's proceedings in more details by scrolling down and following the posts below.

For those of you who are just joining us, today is the second of a two-day sentencing.

As a recap, here are the key facts of the case:

• Noah Sibanda died on 9 December 2022 after being restrained and placed face down to sleep at Fairytales Day Nursery in Dudley
• CCTV showed nursery worker Kimberley Cookson, who was 20 at the time, place her leg across the 14-month-old's back for seven minutes while he was face down on a soft cushion in a teepee
• Staff did not physically check on him for about two hours. He was found unresponsive at about 15:13 and pronounced dead at 16:15
• Cookson is being sentenced for gross negligence manslaughter; owner Deborah Latewood, 55, for a health and safety offence - and the nursery for corporate manslaughter and a health and safety offence

Image source, Family

Welcome back to our coverage of the sentencing of a Dudley nursery, its boss and a staff member over the death of 14-month-old Noah Sibanda.

Proceedings are due to resume in front of Judge Justice Choudhury at Wolverhampton Crown Court this afternoon.

We will have live updates and reaction as it happens.

Proceedings are now wrapping up for the day at Wolverhampton Crown Court.

The hearing will recommence at 14:30 BST on Friday.

Judge Justice Choudhury tells the court he will need time to look through all of the material.

“It’s taken quite a bit longer than I had expected today,” he says.

“I had hoped to give sentence tomorrow morning but it may now be tomorrow afternoon.”

We are pausing our live coverage, we will return when the sentencing hearing resumes on Friday.

Balysz, Latewood's KC, is beginning to wrap up his mitigation speech.

"She is a woman in her 50s who has worked hard to give to society, both through her work and her voluntary work," he says.

"This is an offence where she has failed, not for want of trying to do her best," he tells the court.

"She has worked hard, she has tried to better herself."

He submits to the judge that his client Latewood should not pay any fine or receive a prison sentence.

He talks about the fact the nursery boss "never took much from the company", with her and her husband never taking more than £60,000 a year from all three of their nurseries - the equivalent of £30,000 each.

"She always preferred to keep fees low and the standard of facilities high," he says.

Fairytales Day Nursery's owner Deborah Latewood is "a person of good character and/or exemplary conduct," her KC, Mark Balysz, says.

"She placed an inappropriate degree of trust within other senior members of staff within the company," he tells the court.

Latewood and her husband were forced to sell their family home because they cannot afford to pay the mortgage, he adds.

"Simply put, this dreadful incident has seen the complete devastation and disillusion of her material life, and of course her emotional one too.

"Not one hint, within any document or anything she has said, has she said she feels sorry for herself. Her thoughts have always been for that of the family."

"The killing of Noah and what Mrs Latewood saw occurring on the CCTV, when disclosed by the prosecution, came as an appalling shock," says Mark Balysz, Latewood's KC.

He says at the time of Noah's death, she was spending most of her time at the St James' site, where the other two nurseries were based.

She did this, he adds, because she thought the management at the Bourne Street site were conducting themselves as they should be.

"The manager of the baby room has been with company for over 20 years, she trusted her and the baby room staff completely and she was wrong to do so," he continues.

He adds that Latewood was furious with herself at not identifying or knowing about the behaviour in the family room, where 14-month-old Noah died.

The KC continued his client was contrite and her professional and personal life had collapsed as a result of her conviction.

“Not a day passes without Mrs Latewood thinking about Noah and his family,” he added.

When he began reading her letter, Mark Balysz, Latewood’s KC, made it clear to the judge that “no legal input was put into this letter” and his client “wanted to express her feelings”.

“These are her words, undoctored by lawyers,” he says.

Once finished, Balysz adds that his submissions should be taken together with the letter and character references from people who know her and parents that have sent children to nurseries that she has run.

“What is apparent from that letter is the deep sorrow felt by Ms Latewood,” he adds.

Balysz says 55-year-old Latewood was respected and well regarded.

The company that ran the nursery was established by her in 2003 and she was the director of Fairytales, which had operated without incident, he says, until 9 December 2022.

She was involved in nursery and childcare since she was 16 and "dedicated most of her adult life to caring for children".

In 2007, the nursery signed a health and safety contract with an advisory company, which maintained links with the nursery until Noah's death, Balysz says.

"Simply put, this was a company which methodically was growing, was establishing itself, was hiring the right people for the right positions, was developing the right relationships with the local authority and colleges," he adds.

Phil Mackie
reporting from Wolverhampton Crown Court

Latewood cries as her letter is read out as it talks about her 40 years spent in the industry.

She went on: “[Noah’s] sister will never feel the joy of sibling rivalry which is so important or the help of a big brother in learning to navigate this world. I am so sorry she will have this loss in her life.

“All I have ever wanted to do was be with our greatest asset: children.

“I have always loved the pressure, gift of trust and caring for a child but I failed Noah and his family, his community and his God.

“I will always send love and wishes to the family of Noah and can never be sorry enough.I thought after 40 years in my trade I had made a difference. This was not the difference I wanted.”

Mark Balysz KC is speaking now in court, representing the nursery owner, Deborah Latewood, and he reads a letter from her.

"I am very sorry," she begins. "Noah was a beautiful, happy, loveable child. His smile radiated, and he was a cheeky chappie and his laugh was endearing.

"Noah should have been safe."

She says in her letter that setting up the nursery was a "lifelong dream" and motivated by working in "not so good" nurseries with greedy owners.

"My total aim has and always will be, the safety and security of children and families," the court hears.

"This did not happen for that beautiful child Noah.

"My words will never be enough, this loss has devastated me and my family - I have one daughter; I cannot and will not ever be able to comprehend Noah's parents' loss - [their] grief, anger at Noah's loss of life."

Dominic Kay tells the court that Fairytales Ltd has expressed "genuine and utter remorse", and had no previous convictions, warnings or notices.

The nursery had previously won awards, had a good health and safety record and was rated highly following inspections by Ofsted.

He adds that there were three cases of injuries in the past but two "did not involve this company".

One was a trapped finger and the other was a broken arm - no further action was taken.

A third was in 2018, when a child suffered a broken bone and the incident was reviewed by an external inspector, found to be an accident and no further action was taken, Kay says.

Dominic Kay KC says the CCTV footage shows that in the weeks immediately before Noah's death, children being put to sleep in an unsafe way had become "commonplace".

However, he tells the court there was no evidence of this behaviour going on at the company's two other nursery sites, or in any other rooms at Fairytales Day Nursery.

The sleeping pods did not comply with NHS sleep guidance, and should not have been approved by the nursery, Dominic Kay KC tells the court.

This was because the sleeping bags used were three-season, meant for outdoor use, could be too hot indoors and had a soft surface that could surround the head and face of a baby, he adds.

The bags were introduced by the nursery in March 2021.

Kay says, before Noah's death, it was never suggested that the sleeping bags were in any way inappropriate.

"The bags were introduced in good faith," he continues. "The nursery believed them to be appropriate at the time they were introduced."

However, he adds that they were not being used in the way they were expected to be - they were not introduced for children to be tightly wrapped in.

The nursery, on Bourne Street in Dudley, opened in 2003 with five members of staff, including Deborah Latewood.

A second nursery was opened in 2015 and a third in 2017, Dominic Kay adds, each rated as outstanding at the time of their first inspections.

"Prior to these events, this company was a well run, successful business and a popular nursery," he says.

The actions of senior management at the nursery amounted to a gross breach of Noah's care, says Dominic Kay KC.

But criticisms against the company about nursery practitioners not receiving any training were not accepted, he adds.

He says that CCTV footage showed in the weeks before Noah's death that a culture appeared to have developed in the room where he died "where children were not being treated with sufficient care by some of the practitioners".

This behaviour was "not stopped or challenged by at least one member of Fairytale's management," he says.

"That failure by the company's senior management permitted an environment in which Ms Cookson then acted as she did," he tells the court.

Dominic Kay KC is representing Fairytales Ltd, and says the company wishes to publicly record its sincere remorse to Noah's family.

"Noah's parents, as we know and can imagine, trusted their child to Fairytales, and this should never have happened," he tells the court.

"Nothing I say on behalf of the company can begin to address the grief and the sorrow felt by Noah's family. The owners of Fairytales are truly deeply sorry for what happened."

He adds that nothing he says on behalf of the company should be taken as downplaying the seriousness of what happened, or passing blame.

Warning: This post contains distressing content

Kimberley Cookson's motivation on the day 14-month-old Noah died was to try and put him to sleep, and she did not intend to cause him any harm, Rashad Mohammed says.

She knows she must live with this for the rest of her life, he adds, and has expressed regret and remorse, which he believes is genuine.

"She herself says she deserves to be punished," he adds.

Cookson turned 20 the day before Noah's death.

"Her lack of maturity and professional experience may have contributed to poor decision-making, and her inability to speak out against unsafe practices," Mohammed adds.

She is currently out of work and had shown self harming behaviour, he says, adding "she continues to present as someone vulnerable".

She also had no experience of a custodial setting and prison would be "a real shock," he adds.

If you have been affected by this update, you can find help from BBC Action Line.