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OLDENBURG, Germany (Reuters) – A German nurse admitted in court Tuesday was the deadliest serial killer in post-war Germany.
Former nurse Niels Hoegel covers his face as he arrives for the start of his trial in a courtroom in Oldenburg, Germany on October 30, 2018. Julian Stratenschulte / Pool via REUTERS
When Judge Sebastian Buehrmann asked Niels Hoegel, 41, whether the charges against him were well founded, he replied in the affirmative, adding: "All that I have admitted is true. "
Hoegel hid his face behind a blue plastic folder while he was being introduced into the Oldenburg courtroom, in the north of the country, by the police and his attorney.
He had already been sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2015 after being convicted of murdering two patients who received a lethal injection. In January, prosecutors again charged him with the murder of 97 more people.
The court said in a statement that the number had increased to 100.
His admission will not end the trial, during which the families of the victims hope to discover 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. "When this trial is over, we want to put everything aside and find the fence."
Prosecutors in Oldenburg, a city in northern Germany, said that a survey and toxicology reports had revealed that he had injected people who could kill them, 35 people in a clinic in Oldenburg and 62 others in the nearby town of Delmenhorst.
Ten years ago, a German nurse was found guilty of murdering 28 elderly patients. He said that he had given them lethal injections because he felt sorry for them. He was sentenced to life imprisonment.
In Britain, Dr. Harold Shipman reportedly killed up to 250 people, most of whom were elderly women and middle-aged women. Known as Death, Shipman was sentenced to 15 life sentences in 2000; he died in prison in 2004, apparently a suicide.
(This story corrects the number of victims to 100)
Written by Joseph Nasr; Edited by Peter Graff
