A German nurse who killed 10 patients in an effort to lessen his workload has been sentenced to life in prison.
As reported by CNN, the palliative nurse, who has not been publicly named, was convicted on Wednesday (November 5) of murdering 10 of his patients with lethal injections. He was also accused of the attempted murder of 27 other patients, injecting many of his elderly patients with sedatives or strong painkillers so that his night shifts would have a lighter workload. The crimes happened between December and May 2024 in western Germany.
A spokesperson for the Aachen court, where he was sentenced, said he received a life sentence because of the severity of the crime. It’s unlikely that he’ll be released after 15 years in prison, which is the minimum amount of time someone can serve a life sentence in Germany. The verdict in the case can be appealed if the nurse chooses to do so.
According to German media, investigators are looking into several other cases that could be traced back to the nurse. It marks the biggest example of a killing spree in Germany post-WWII since former nurse Niels Hoegel was convicted for the murder of 85 patients in 2019. Before that, a German nurse named Stephan Letter was convicted for the murder of at least 29 patients at a hospital in Sonthofen, Bavaria, in 2004.
In 2020, English nurse Lucy Letby was charged with seven counts of murder and 15 counts of attempted murder for killing babies during her time working at the Countess of Chester Hospital. She was sentenced to life imprisonment and is under investigation for further cases.