A German court has sentenced a 44-year-old palliative care nurse to life imprisonment for the murder of 10 patients and the attempted murder of 27 others, marking one of the country’s most shocking medical crime cases in recent years.
The ruling was delivered on Wednesday by a regional court in Aachen, western Germany, after months of tense proceedings that exposed the horrifying extent of the crimes committed at a hospital in Würselen between 2023 and 2024.
According to the court’s judgment, the nurse deliberately administered lethal doses of medication to terminally ill patients under his care.
Prosecutors said the motive was not mercy or compassion but rather a “perverse fascination with death” and a desire to stage medical emergencies he could later “heroically” resolve.
The defendant, whose identity was withheld under German privacy laws, showed little emotion as the verdict was read.
Photographs from earlier hearings showed him hiding his face behind a folder, refusing to make eye contact with the families of his victims.
During the trial, prosecutors described him as a “cold, manipulative man” who abused the trust placed in him by both patients and hospital authorities.
Evidence presented in court revealed that he routinely altered patient files and manipulated medication logs to conceal his actions.
Several victims’ relatives were present in court, some breaking down in tears as the presiding judge described the nurse’s pattern of deliberate overdosing and medical tampering.
“He played God in the most horrific way imaginable,” the judge said. “He decided who lived and who died, all under the guise of care.”
The crimes came to light in 2024 after hospital staff raised concerns about an unusual spike in cardiac arrests during the nurse’s shifts. An internal audit and toxicology tests confirmed that several patients had been injected with unprescribed sedatives and paralytic drugs.
The nurse was arrested shortly afterward, triggering a sweeping investigation that spanned several German states and led to the review of hundreds of patient records.
Authorities said his actions bore eerie similarities to those of Niels Högel, another German nurse who was convicted in 2019 for murdering more than 85 patients—a case that sent shockwaves through the global medical community.
The Aachen court’s life sentence includes a determination of “particular severity of guilt,” meaning the defendant will likely never be eligible for parole.
In his final statement, he offered a muted apology but denied premeditation, claiming he had only tried to “ease suffering” — a defense the court dismissed as implausible.
“His actions were deliberate, repeated, and methodical,” the judge ruled. “There was no mercy, only manipulation and ego.”
The case has reignited debate in Germany over oversight in healthcare institutions and the psychological screening of medical staff working in high-stress environments.
Germany’s Federal Association of Nursing Professionals has since called for stricter hiring checks, routine audits of controlled medication use, and the establishment of anonymous reporting systems to detect unethical behavior earlier.
The Aachen hospital where the killings occurred issued a public apology to the victims’ families, acknowledging failures in supervision and expressing “deep shame and regret” over the crimes committed under its roof.
“We should have detected the warning signs sooner,” the hospital board said in a statement. “We owe an apology that words cannot cover.”
Legal experts say the case could lead to further reforms within Germany’s healthcare and criminal justice systems, similar to the systemic changes introduced after the Högel case.
The tragedy has also reignited international attention on medical serial killings, a disturbing pattern seen in healthcare systems worldwide where rogue practitioners exploit patient vulnerability and institutional trust to commit crimes undetected for years.
As Germany comes to terms with yet another betrayal of medical ethics, the families of the victims say their fight is not over.
“He may spend life in prison, but our loved ones are gone forever,” one grieving relative told AFP. “There is no justice that can balance that.”