Germany – 30th October, 2018: Niels Hoegel is already serving a life sentence for murdering two patients and has been in court to answer charges that he killed many more.
Hoegel, 41, was sentenced to life behind bars in 2015 for murdering two patients by giving them an overdose.
He has been labelled as Germany’s most prolific serial killer since the Second World War for his horrific abuse of power.
When he was asked by the judge whether the charges against him were accurate, the nurse said: “yes”.
He said: “What I have admitted took place”.
According to the prosecuting lawyers, the nurse’s motive was to impress colleagues by trying to bring the patients back to life.
They believe he was motivated by professional vanity, but also by boredom.
The crimes were committed during his time at a hospital in Oldenburg between 1999 and 2002 and also in a hospital in Delmenhorst from 2003 to 2005.
He has been convicted of 38 murders in Oldenburg and 62 in Delmenhorst and his victims were aged between 34 and 96.
Christian Marbach, whose grandfather was killed by Hoegel, described him to the Heidelberg Heraut newspaper as a “sad guy who gave himself God’s powers”.
During his previous trial, he said he gave his patients heart attacks as he enjoyed the feeling of being able to resuscitate them.
Each time, the nurse followed a similar procedure; he would inject his patient with a medication triggering a cardiac arrest, which would follow an attempted resuscitation.
As part of the investigation, police and prosecutors reviewed more than 500 patient files and hundreds of hospital records.
Investigators believe the killer could have murdered even more people, but potential victims have been cremated.
In 2017, the Oldenburg police chief Johann Kuehme said many of the deaths could have been prevented if the authorities were alerted sooner.
He said: "If the people responsible at the time, particularly at the Oldenburg clinic but also later in Delmenhorst, hadn’t hesitated to alert authorities – for example police, prosecutors.”
Source: https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1038541/niels-hoegel-german-nurse-kill-oldenburg-germany-nurse