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Care home workers go on trial for murdering residents ‘out of boredom’

Three care home workers went on trial Monday in Germany accused of killing two elderly residents and abusing a string of others, with prosecutors saying they acted "out of boredom".

Published: 18 September 2017 13:51 CEST

Care home workers go on trial for murdering residents 'out of boredom'

The care home in Lambrecht. Photo: DPA

The case could take on a larger dimension with investigators now looking into 40 deaths at the care home in the western town of Lambrecht.

The alleged crimes in the trial that opened Monday came to light when a co-worker discovered mobile phone footage of the abuse, according to DPA news agency.

The suspects, two men and a woman, stand accused of suffocating an 85-year-old woman with a pillow, after deliberately injecting her with insulin.

The two male defendants face a second murder charge for fatally injecting a 62-year-old woman with insulin.

All three are accused of attempted murder for allegedly trying to kill an 89-year-old woman with insulin and morphine injections, as well as a case of serious sexual assault.

The offences are said to have taken place in 2015 and 2016.

Prosecutors allege that the trio also mistreated the elderly in their care by throwing items at them and unnecessarily administering drugs such as laxatives, and took pictures and video footage of the abuse on their phones.

“The accused acted out of boredom. They wanted to exercise power over the residents out of base motives and malice,” prosecutor Herbert Stroeber was quoted as saying by Bild newspaper.

The trial is scheduled to run until the end of November, according to DPA.

Aide to German far-right MEP arrested on suspicion of spying for China

The man, named only as Jian G., stands accused of sharing information about negotiations at European Parliament with a Chinese intelligence service and of spying on Chinese opposition figures in Germany, federal prosecutors said in a statement.

On the website of the European Parliament, Jian Guo is listed as an accredited assistant to MEP Maximilian Krah, the far-right AfD party’s lead candidate in the forthcoming EU-wide elections.

He is a German national who has reportedly worked as an aide to Krah in Brussels since 2019.

The suspect “is an employee of a Chinese secret service”, prosecutors said.

“In January 2024, the accused repeatedly passed on information about negotiations and decisions in the European Parliament to his intelligence service client.

“He also spied on Chinese opposition members in Germany for the intelligence service.”

The suspect was arrested in the eastern German city of Dresden on Monday and his homes were searched, they added.

The accused lives in both Dresden and Brussels, according to broadcasters ARD, RBB and SWR, who broke the news about the arrest.

The AfD said the allegations were “very disturbing”.

“As we have no further information on the case, we must wait for further investigations by federal prosecutors,” party spokesman Michael Pfalzgraf said in a statement.

The case is likely to fuel concern in the West about aggressive Chinese espionage.

It comes after Germany on Monday arrested three German nationals suspected of spying for China by providing access to secret maritime technology.

READ ALSO: Germany arrests three suspected of spying for China

China’s embassy in Berlin “firmly” rejected the allegations, according to Chinese state-run news agency Xinhua.

According to German media, the two cases are not connected.

In Britain on Monday, two men were charged with handing over “articles, notes, documents or information” to China between 2021 and last year.

Police named the men as Christopher Berry, 32, and Christoper Cash, 29, who previously worked at the UK parliament as a researcher.

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