German ex-nurse admits to killing 100 patients
OLDENBURG: Former nurse Niels Hoegel admitted on Tuesday to killing 100 patients in his care, on the first day of his trial in the biggest serial killing case in Germany’s post-war history.
Hoegel, 41, has already spent nearly a decade in prison on a life term for other patient deaths, and is accused of intentionally administering medical overdoses to victims so he could bring them back to life at the last moment.
As the proceedings opened in the northern city of Oldenburg, presiding judge Sebastian Buehrmann asked whether the charges against him were accurate. Hoegel replied quietly “yes”.
“What I have admitted took place,” he told the courtroom crowded with dozens of grieving relatives.
Buehrmann said the main aim of the trial was to establish the full scope of the murder spree that was allowed to go unchecked for years at two German hospitals.
“It is like a house with dark rooms -- we want to bring light into the darkness,” he said.
After a minute of silence in the courtroom for the victims, the bearded, heavyset Hoegel listened impassively, his head lowered, as public prosecutor Daniela Schiereck-Bohlmann read out the name of each dead patient and the charges against the defendant. Prosecutors say at least 36 patients were killed at a hospital in Oldenburg where he worked, and about 64 more at a clinic in nearby Delmenhorst, between 2000 and 2005.