Berlin palliative care doctor sentenced to life imprisonment for murder of 15 patients
A 41-year-old German doctor has been sentenced to life imprisonment after a Berlin court found him guilty of murdering 15 patients between 2021 and 2024.
Berlin palliative care doctor sentenced to life imprisonment for murder of 15 patients
A 41-year-old palliative care doctor has been sentenced to life imprisonment in Berlin after a court found him guilty of the intentional killing of 15 patients. The man, identified only as Johannes M. under German data protection rules, murdered 12 women and 3 men between September 2021 and July 2024.
The victims ranged in age from 25 to 94 years old. Although all were seriously ill, the court heard that none were on the verge of death. Prosecutors told the court that the doctor administered a lethal mixture of medications to patients during home visits without obtaining their consent. On several occasions, he is said to have set fires to destroy evidence of his crimes.
In July 2024, shortly before police arrested him, the doctor killed two people in a single day – a 75-year-old man in his flat in Berlin-Mitte and, hours later, a 76-year-old woman in a neighbouring district of the city. The prosecution stated that he attempted to set fire to the woman's house but failed to do so.
During the roughly one-year trial, the defendant largely remained silent. However, last month he confessed to killing twelve of his seriously ill patients. He told the court that he had convinced himself he was acting in their best interests, sparing them "suffering and infirmity". "Throughout, I thought it was the best thing for everyone," he said, and apologised for the pain he had caused.
The mother of the youngest victim, a 25-year-old woman who died in 2021, wept in the courtroom. "She never said she didn't want to live," she told the judges. The son of a 72-year-old woman killed in 2024 said his mother had planned a trip to the Baltic Sea with her sister. "My mother wanted to keep living," he said.
The court classified the defendant's culpability as extraordinarily serious. It ordered preventive detention after his prison sentence and imposed a lifetime ban on him practising as a doctor.
Authorities suspect that the number of victims could be considerably higher. The prosecution is currently investigating 76 additional cases linked to the doctor. German media report that, should these further charges be proven, the case could develop into one of the country's largest serial murder trials in history. The doctor announced that he would participate more actively in all future proceedings.
Source: BBC
Source: Google News UK — Crime (en)