Berlin court imposes life sentence on palliative care nurse for 15-fold murder
A 41-year-old nurse from Berlin has been sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of 15 patients. He secretly injected the victims with lethal drug combinations and subsequently attempted to conceal evidence through arson.
Berlin court imposes life sentence on palliative care nurse for 15-fold murder
The Berlin Regional Court has sentenced a 41-year-old nurse from community care to life imprisonment for murder in 15 cases. The court also ordered subsequent preventive detention and imposed a lifelong ban on the convicted man from practising his profession.
The man, identified in the charges only as Johannes M., killed a total of twelve female and three male patients aged between 25 and 94 years old between September 2021 and July 2024. He provided care to the people in their homes and administered lethal drug combinations to them by injection without their knowledge or consent.
Although all those affected suffered from severe illnesses, the prosecution was convinced that their death was not imminent. In several cases, the accused also set fires in the victims' homes in order to destroy evidence.
A particularly grave crime occurred in July 2024, when the nurse first killed a 75-year-old man and a few hours later a 76-year-old woman in another residential complex in Berlin. With the second victim, he unsuccessfully attempted to set the flat on fire.
During the nearly year-long trial, the accused initially made no statement. Only last month did he confess to having killed twelve of the patients. He claimed to have convinced himself that he was sparing the people suffering and the need for care. In court he said: "I believed that was the best for everyone," and asked for forgiveness for the pain he had caused.
The relatives described their despair during the trial and their inability to comprehend what had happened. The mother of the youngest victim, a 25-year-old woman, said her daughter had "never said that she did not want to live". The son of a 72-year-old woman emphasised that his mother had planned a holiday with her sister on the Baltic Sea and "wanted to go on living".
The investigation is not yet complete. German law enforcement authorities are currently examining 76 further deaths for a possible connection to the same nurse. Should his involvement in those cases be confirmed, it could be one of the largest serial murders in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany.
Source: Η ΝΑΥΤΕΜΠΟΡΙΚΗ
Source: Naftemporiki