Mammoth trial for the murder series of a German nurse started

Oldenburg (APA / AFP) – The trial for the unprecedented series of murders of a former nurse opened Tuesday in Germany with confessions. Aged 41, he admitted in the district court of Oldenburg, Lower Saxony, to have committed the 100 acts charged. "Yes," he said at the court's request if the allegations were correct. In advance, a minute of silence was reserved for the dead.

The accused allegedly killed ICU patients in Oldenburg and Delmenhorst clinics between 2000 and 2005. "What has been admitted is also," he said, citing his earlier statements to investigators and evaluators. He put drugs in life-threatening conditions and then revived them to earn the respect of his colleagues. He committed the acts because of the "positive reactions", he said.

The defendant, who has already been sentenced to six life imprisonment, must answer for 100 other alleged murders, which were discovered during subsequent systematic investigations. For the process, dates are scheduled until May 2019. More than 120 family members participate as co-applicants in the procedure, which takes place in a meeting room for reasons of space. They strongly criticized the reluctant judicial investigations and the refusal of clinics in this case.

But reading the indictment took more than an hour. The 41-year-old was "low motivation and insidious", killed to "present" his ability to revive patients against his colleagues and supervisors and "fight his boredom," said high prosecutor Daniela Schiereck-Bohlmann .

The man would have administered to patients his resuscitation department for years without a doctor's prescription, various drugs to trigger life-threatening cardiovascular complications, and then revive them. Many victims aged 34 to 96 years have died.

He was released in 2005 and arrested shortly thereafter because a colleague was supervising him for a criminal offense. At a first trial, he was sentenced in 2008, a second case involving five other cases that followed the years 2014 to 2015. He surprisingly confessed more murders.

Only then did systematic investigations begin, and for three years a special commission examined all the deaths that occurred while working in both clinics. Many of the deceased have been exhumed and examined for drug residues. The result of the survey is the beginning of the third process.

According to the investigators, it can not be said with certainty whether the 41-year-old has committed more murders. Many former hospital patients who died were cremated. The credibility of his confessions is unclear. Despite internal suspicions, he was able to continue killing for a long time without hindrance. Several hospital administrators are now billed separately.

Family representatives responded with surprise to his first public confession and his statements about his state of mind early in his career, which was already very quickly marked by high stress in intensive care units. "Today, he looks like a small vulnerable mbad murderer," said his spokesman, Christian Marbach.

Even the 41-year-old is due to the process "under high personal stress". A confession to the prelude he was not expecting, said Marbach. This opens the possibility of "taking a big step" in the preparation.

The president of the court, Sebastian Bührmann, who had already negotiated the first two lawsuits against the former nurse, promised information to the parents. The court will do everything it can. Whether in view of the complexity and events of a long time ago, the truth can be found, it is uncertain. "But we'll get it, I promise you." There are many destinies, and for loved ones, it is "a terrible feeling" to learn years later about the true circumstances of death.