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CRIME

‘Killer nurse’ tells court he’s sorry

A nurse who admitted to injecting patients with overdoses of heart medication to force resuscitation procedures has expressed his remorse over the deaths and harm to people in his care.

Published: 19 February 2015 15:37 CET
'Killer nurse' tells court he's sorry
The accused hiding his face from press photographers at his hearing. Photo: DPA

“I am truly sorry,” the 38-year-old accused told the state court in Oldenburg, adding that his crimes were “inexcusable”.

“There was excitement and a sense of expectation for what would happen,” he said when asked to explain his motivation for the crimes.

Successful revivals of patients whose hearts had stopped made him feel good, he added.

While patients' deaths were “devastating” and always left him intent on stopping his abuse of his position, he always returned to his deadly habit after the guilt “faded with time”.

He is standing trial for five cases, including three cases of murder and two attempted murders – although he has admitted to 90 separate attacks on patients, up to 30 of whom died.

Lead prosecutor Daniela Schiereck-Bohlmann said that he “treated the deaths of patients lightly,” making his guilt particularly grave.

If found guilty, the nurse may stand trial for further murders.

A special police squad is investigating more than 200 deaths during the man's service in Delmenhorst, Oldenburg and Wilhelmshaven – all towns in the Bremen area in Lower Saxony.

But he claims that he didn't harm any patients outside the Delmenhorst Clinic.

SEE ALSO: Nurse killed up to 30 patients, court hears

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CRIME

Teenager turns self in after attack on German politician

A 17-year-old has turned himself in to police in Germany after an attack on a lawmaker that the country's leaders decried as a threat to democracy.

Published: 5 May 2024 12:52 CEST
Teenager turns self in after attack on German politician

The teenager reported to police in the eastern city of Dresden early Sunday morning and said he was “the perpetrator who had knocked down the SPD politician”, police said in a statement.

Matthias Ecke, 41, European parliament lawmaker for Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD), was set upon by four attackers as he put up EU election posters in Dresden on Friday night, according to police.

Ecke was “seriously injured” and required an operation after the attack, his party said.

Scholz on Saturday condemned the attack as a threat to democracy.

“We must never accept such acts of violence,” he said.

Ecke, who is head of the SPD’s European election list in the Saxony region, was just the latest political target to be attacked in Germany.

Police said a 28-year-old man putting up posters for the Greens had been “punched” and “kicked” earlier in the evening on the same Dresden street.

Last week two Greens deputies were abused while campaigning in Essen in western Germany and another was surrounded by dozens of demonstrators in her car in the east of the country.

According to provisional police figures, 2,790 crimes were committed against politicians in Germany in 2023, up from 1,806 the previous year, but less than the 2,840 recorded in 2021, when legislative elections took place.

A group of activists against the far right has called for demonstrations against the attack on Ecke in Dresden and Berlin on Sunday, Der Spiegel magazine said.

According to the Tagesspiegel newspaper, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser is planning to call a special conference with Germany’s regional interior ministers next week to address violence against politicians.

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