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Update
At the trial, a nurse admitted to murdering 100 patients in two German hospitals, a crime that would make him the most deadly serial killer of postwar Germany.
Key points:
- According to German media, Hoegel killed more than 300 people
- He stated in a previous trial that he felt he could resuscitate patients
- Police chief says health authorities should act sooner in case of suspicion
Niels Hoegel, who is already serving a life sentence for two murders, appeared Tuesday in a court in Oldenburg (local time).
The murder charges against him stem from his stay in a hospital in Oldenburg between 1999 and 2002 and from another nearby hospital in Delmenhorst from 2003 to 2005.
When Judge Sebastian Buehrmann asked whether the charges against him were justified, Mr Hoegel replied in the affirmative.
"All I have admitted is true," added Hoegel.
Hoegel's confession will not end the trial, in which the families of the victims still hope to find more information about the crimes.
"We want him to receive the punishment he deserves," said Frank Brinkers, whose father died as a result of an overdose that was reportedly administered by Hoegel.
"Once this trial is over, we want to put everything aside and find the fence."
While Hoegel is on trial for the death of 100 patients, the German weekly magazine Der Spiegel reported that special investigators had identified 322 potential victims.
The magazine also reported that the prosecution had exhumed 134 bodies to search for traces of drugs that Hoegel may have used, but more than 100 of the former patients were cremated.
Health authorities are slow to act
Hoegel, now 41, was convicted in 2015 and sentenced to 15 years in prison for two murders and two attempted murders in a hospital in the city of Delmenhorst.
During this trial, he stated that he had intentionally caused heart attacks in about 90 patients in Delmenhorst because he had the feeling that he could revive them.
He then told the investigators that he had also killed patients in Oldenburg.
Chief of the Oldenburg Police, Johann Kuehme, said last year that other medical workers in Oldenburg were aware of a high number of resuscitations and that early indications of A possible reprehensible act of the nurse at Delmenhorst appeared as early as April 2003.
Mr Kuehme said that many of these deaths could have been avoided if the health authorities reacted more quickly to their suspicions.
An additional conviction could affect the possibility of Hoegel's parole, but there is no subsequent sentence in Germany.
As a general rule, persons serving life sentences are considered parolees after 15 years.
The authorities are prosecuting criminal cases against former staff members of both medical centers.
The state court of Oldenburg organizes the trial of Hoegel in an audience room set up in a conference center, venue chosen to accommodate a large number of co-applicants and the public interest in the procedure.
ABC / son
Topics:
courts and trials,
murder and manslaughter,
criminality,
Germany
First posted
