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A German court has sentenced a palliative care nurse to life imprisonment for murdering ten patients and attempting to murder 27 others using lethal injections.
In the western city of Aachen, the court found the 44-year-old man guilty of these crimes committed between December 2023 and May 2024 at a hospital in Würselen, near Aachen.
The court concluded that the crimes exhibited a “particular severity of guilt,” preventing him from being eligible for early release after 15 years, which is typically possible in such cases.
The man’s identity has not been disclosed to the public; prosecutors accused him of assuming the role of “master of life and death” for those he was responsible for. His defence argued for an acquittal during the trial that began in March.
According to prosecutors, he administered lethal doses of sedatives or painkillers to primarily elderly patients with the intention of easing his workload during night shifts.
They informed the court that the nurse had a personality disorder, lacked compassion for his patients, and displayed no remorse throughout the trial. The court heard that he used morphine and midazolam, a muscle relaxant which is sometimes employed in executions in the United States.
When confronted with patients who required greater care, he displayed only “irritation” and no empathy.
He completed his nursing training in 2007 and subsequently worked for multiple employers, including one in Cologne. Since 2020, he had been working at the Wuerselen hospital and was arrested in the summer of 2024.
This case is reminiscent of nurse Niels Hoegel, who received a life sentence in 2019 for the murder of 85 patients and is considered modern Germany’s most prolific serial killer.
Hoegel murdered patients with lethal injections from 2000 to 2005 before being apprehended. Psychiatrists noted that he suffered from a “severe narcissistic disorder.”
In July, a 40-year-old palliative care specialist referred to in the media as Johannes M. began trial in Berlin on charges of killing 15 patients with lethal injections between 2021 and 2024.
He is suspected of setting fire to the homes of at least five victims in an effort to conceal his crimes.
