WURSELEN, Germany – A German court has sentenced a palliative care nurse to life in prison after finding him guilty of murdering 10 patients and attempting to kill 27 others in a hospital in western Germany.
The unnamed nurse, who worked at a hospital in the town of Würselen near Aachen, was accused of injecting his mostly elderly patients with fatal doses of morphine and sedatives to reduce his workload during overnight shifts between December 2023 and May 2024.
Prosecutors said the man, employed at the facility since 2020, displayed “irritation and a lack of empathy” toward patients requiring intensive care and acted as a self-appointed “master of life and death.”
The Aachen court described his crimes as carrying a “particular severity of guilt,” ruling that he should not be eligible for early release after the standard 15 years. He retains the right to appeal the verdict.
Investigators are also probing several other suspicious deaths linked to the nurse, with authorities conducting exhumations to determine whether more patients were killed under his care.
According to AFP, the convicted nurse completed his training in 2007 before joining the hospital in Würselen.
He was arrested in 2024 after colleagues raised concerns about an unusual number of sudden deaths during his shifts.
The case has drawn comparisons to that of Niels Högel, another German nurse who was sentenced to life in prison in 2019 for murdering 85 patients between 1999 and 2005 — one of the deadliest serial killings in German history.
If further evidence emerges, the convicted nurse could face additional trials for other suspected killings.
