A nurse in Western Germany was sentenced to life imprisonment after a court found him guilty of murdering 10 patients and trying to kill 27 others by administering lethal sedatives and painkillers, prosecutors said. Prosecutors claimed the nurse, who remains unnamed, killed the patients, mostly elders, by administering painkillers or sedatives to lighten his workload during overnight shifts, according to a report in the BBC.
The murders took place between December 2023 and May 2024 at a hospital in Wuerselen, Western Germany.
Investigators are reported to be looking into several other suspicious cases during his career.
The crime was found to be particularly severe, said a spokesperson for the court in Aachen, meaning the nurse has little chance of being released after 15 years, the minimum time that can be served for a life sentence in Germany, Reuters reported.
The nurse was arrested in 2024. According to AFP, he completed his training as a nursing professional in 2007. The unnamed male nurse had been working at the hospital since 2020.
Prosecutors have told AFP that exhumations are taking place to identify further potential victims, which could see the man put on trial again.
According to the report, the sentence can be challenged.
The case is reminiscent of former nurse Niels Hgel, who received a life sentence in 2019 for the murder of 85 patients at two hospitals in northern Germany.
A court found that he administered lethal doses of heart medication to people in his care between 1999 and 2005, the BBC reported.
Hogel is considered Germany's most prolific serial killer in recent history.
Source: India Today