Palliative care doctor in Berlin sentenced to life imprisonment for 15 murders
The Berlin Regional Court has sentenced a 41-year-old palliative care doctor to life imprisonment for 15 murders of patients. The chamber found particular seriousness of guilt and ordered preventive detention.
Berlin court sentences palliative care doctor for serial murder of 15 patients
The Berlin Regional Court sentenced a 41-year-old palliative care doctor to life imprisonment for 15 murders on Wednesday. According to Google News DE — Crime (de), the court also found particular seriousness of guilt, ordered subsequent preventive detention and imposed a lifelong professional ban.
Following the hearing of evidence, the chamber was convinced that the doctor had killed twelve women and three men during home visits by administering a mixture of various medications. The victims were between 25 and 94 years old — all severely ill, but their death was not imminent.
The presiding judge described the accused as a serial murderer and stated that the convicted offences were "probably only the tip of the iceberg". She referred to telephone conversations between the doctor and his wife, in which he spoke of having killed "always, for a long time". As to the motive for the crimes, the judge rejected the account given by the accused that he had wanted to relieve severely ill patients of their suffering. Rather, she found he had been driven by a sense of power.
The convicted man is from Frankfurt. Between 2004 and 2013 he studied and obtained his doctorate at Goethe University. Since 2020 he worked for a Berlin palliative care service. The investigations were triggered by fires he is alleged to have set in order to conceal the killings; tips from the care service ultimately led to him being suspected.
The public prosecutor's office had accused the doctor of killing a total of 15 people during home visits between September 2021 and July 2024. With its verdict, the court followed the prosecution's pleading entirely. The man had been in pre-trial detention since early August 2024 and remained silent about the accusations for almost two years.
Shortly before the end of the trial, he confessed to twelve of the 15 charged murders and asked the victims' relatives, his family and colleagues for forgiveness. The defence considered a life sentence to be unavoidable, but requested that neither particular seriousness of guilt be found nor preventive detention be ordered — both without success.
Independent of the completed proceedings, the Berlin public prosecutor's office is now investigating 76 additional suspected cases. An additional indictment is considered likely.
Source: Google News DE — Crime (de)