German nurse sentenced to life in prison for killing 10 patients in bid to reduce workload

Thursday, November 6, 2025 - A 44-year-old nurse in Germany has been sentenced to life imprisonment for killing 10 patients and attempting to murd3r 27 others with lethal injections in a bid to reduce his workload.

Prosecutors accused the unnamed nurse of playing “master of life and de@th” over those in his care while working at a hospital in Wuerselen, near the city of Aachen in western Germany. The court found him guilty of committing the offences between December 2023 and May 2024.

According to prosecutors, the nurse injected mostly elderly patients with high doses of sedatives and paink!llers, including morphine and midazolam, a muscle relaxant also used in ex3cutions in the United States, simply to lighten his duties during night shifts.

He was described as having a severe personality disorder and showing no compassion or remorse throughout the trial. Prosecutors told the court that the nurse “worked without enthusiasm, with no motivation,” and displayed “irritation and lack of empathy” toward patients requiring intensive care.

The court determined that his cr!mes carried a “particular severity of guilt,” meaning he will not be eligible for early release after 15 years, which is typically possible under German law.

The nurse completed his professional training in 2007 and worked for various employers, including in Cologne, before joining the Wuerselen hospital in 2020. He was arrested in the summer of 2024 after suspicions arose over several sudden de@ths in his ward.

Authorities said exhumations have been carried out to identify additional v!ctims, raising the possibility of a second trial.

The case has drawn comparisons to that of Niels Hoegel, a German nurse sentenced to life imprisonment in 2019 for murd3ring 85 patients between 2000 and 2005, considered modern Germany’s most prolific serial k!ller.

In a separate but similar case, a 40-year-old palliative care specialist, identified by media as Johannes M., went on trial in Berlin earlier this year, accused of k!lling 15 patients with lethal injections between 2021 and 2024. In at least five of those cases, prosecutors allege he set fire to his v!ctims’ homes to cover up the cr!mes.