Berlin palliative care doctor convicted of murdering 15 patients, jailed for life
A 41-year-old Berlin doctor, Johannes M., was sentenced to life in prison Wednesday for the murders of 15 patients between 2021 and 2024.
Berlin doctor Johannes M. convicted of 15 patient murders, sentenced to life
A 41-year-old palliative care doctor in Berlin has been convicted of murdering 15 of his patients and sentenced to life in prison, cbsnews.com reports. The defendant, identified only as Johannes M. under German privacy law, killed 12 women and three men between September 2021 and July 2024.
According to the Berlin prosecutor's office, Johannes M. administered lethal combinations of sedatives to his patients without their knowledge or consent. "The latter paralyzed the respiratory muscles, leading to respiratory arrest and death within minutes," the prosecutor's office said in a statement. Prosecutors described him as having "a lust for murder" — a designation that also carries legal weight under German law.
On at least five occasions, he allegedly set fire to his victims' apartments to conceal the killings. One such attempt failed when the fire did not catch, prosecutors said.
Presiding judge Sylvia Busch noted at sentencing that the 15 convictions may represent only a fraction of his crimes. Prosecutors said during proceedings that he is suspected of having killed more than 70 additional people. Investigators initially examined four cases, but the number of suspicious deaths continued to grow throughout the inquiry.
The victims were all receiving care at the time of their deaths and ranged in age from 25 to 94. On 8 July 2024, Johannes M. allegedly killed a 75-year-old man at his home in Berlin's Kreuzberg district in the morning, then killed a 76-year-old woman in the neighbouring Neuköln district a few hours later.
On Monday, ahead of sentencing, Johannes M. told the court he had "killed people" and said, "I despair at myself." He added that he only now understood "the extent of the suffering" he had caused, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported. Prosecutors and police had previously stated that investigators found no motive beyond the act of killing itself.
Suspicions about Johannes M.'s activities were first raised by care services, prompting a police investigation. He was remanded in custody in August 2024. Prosecutors had sought a life sentence, additional measures to reduce the likelihood of early release, and a lifetime ban from practising medicine.
According to German media, Johannes M. wrote his doctoral thesis on homicides, opening the paper with the question, "Why do people kill?"
The case has drawn comparisons to two other high-profile German medical killing cases. Nurse Niels Hoegel was jailed for life in 2019 for murdering 85 hospital patients with lethal injections between 2000 and 2005. In a separate case, a palliative care nurse was sentenced to life in November for the murder of 10 patients and the attempted murder of 27 others. Last year, German police also announced they were investigating another doctor suspected of killing several mainly elderly patients.
Source: Google News MT — Crime (en)