German ex-nurse says he killed 100 patients
BERLIN — A former nurse accused of killing 100 patients at two hospitals in Germany more than a decade ago told a court as his trial opened on Tuesday that the charges against him are largely accurate.
Niels Hoegel, 41, is already serving a life sentence for murder. His trial in the northwestern city of Oldenburg began with a minute of silence for the patients.
Asked by presiding judge Sebastian Buehrmann whether the charges against him are largely true, Hoegel replied “yes,” news agency dpa reported. There are no formal pleas in the German legal system.
The murder charges stem from Hoegel’s time at a hospital in Oldenburg between 1999 and 2002 and at another hospital in nearby Delmenhorst from 2003 to 2005. The alleged victims were between 34 and 96.
Hoegel was convicted in 2015 of two murders and two attempted murders. He said then that he intentionally brought about cardiac crises in about 90 patients in Delmenhorst because he enjoyed the feeling of being able to resuscitate them. He later told investigators that he also killed patients in Oldenburg.
Authorities subsequently investigated hundreds of deaths, exhuming bodies.
The Oldenburg state court is conducting the trial at a courtroom set up in a conference centre.
An additional conviction could affect Hoegel’s possibility of parole, but there are no consecutive sentences in Germany. In general, people serving life sentences are considered for parole after 15 years.
Police have said that, if health officials hadn’t hesitated in alerting authorities, Hoegel could have been stopped earlier.
Authorities are pursuing criminal cases against former staff at the two medical facilities.