Doctor with “lust for murder” charged with killing 15 patients under palliative care in Berlin

A doctor in Berlin has been charged with murder over the deaths of 15 patients under palliative care, prosecutors said Wednesday, alleging he acted out of a “lust” for killing. He is also accused of trying to cover up the evidence by starting fires in their homes.

The doctor was part of a nursing service’s end-of-life care team and was initially suspected in the deaths of just four patients. That number has crept higher since last summer, and investigators now say they’ve found evidence linking him to the deaths of 15 people between September 22, 2021, and July 24 last year.

The victims’ ages ranged from 25 to 94. Most died in their own homes.

German press reports identify the suspect as Johannes M., but prosecutors have not released a name, in line with German privacy rules.

The 40-year-old doctor allegedly “administered an anesthetic and a muscle relaxant to his patients  without their knowledge or consent,” the Berlin prosecutor’s office said in a statement. “The latter paralyzed the respiratory muscles, leading to respiratory arrest and death within minutes.”

Prosecutors and police previously said that the accused is said to have had no motive beyond killing, and that the suspect’s acts meet the legal definition of “lust for murder.”

He allegedly administered an anesthetic and a muscle relaxer to the patients without their knowledge or consent. The drug cocktail then allegedly paralyzed the respiratory muscles. Respiratory arrest and death followed within minutes, prosecutors said.

The doctor has been in custody since Aug. 6. Prosecutors said Wednesday that he has not yet responded to the case against him.

The charges were filed to the Berlin state court, which will now have to decide whether to bring the case to trial and if so, when.

Murder charges carry a maximum sentence of life in prison. Prosecutors said they aim to ask the court to establish that the suspect bears particularly severe guilt, meaning that he wouldn’t be eligible for release after 15 years as is usually the case in Germany. They also want him to be banned from his profession for life.

The case recalls that of the notorious German nurse Niels Hoegel, who was sentenced in 2019 to life in prison for murdering 85 patients in his care.

Hoegel, believed to be Germany’s most prolific serial killer, murdered hospital patients with lethal injections between 2000 and 2005, before he was eventually caught in the act.

In a more recent case in Germany, a 27-year-old male nurse was sentenced to life in prison in 2023 for murdering two patients by deliberately administering unprescribed drugs. The nurse, identified as Mario G., was also found guilty on six counts of attempted murder.

In England, neonatal nurse Lucy Letby is serving a life sentence for murdering seven babies and attempting to murder six others. However, in February, a panel of experts disputed the medical evidence used to convict Letby. Last month, lawyers for Letby and former executives at the hospital where she worked asked a judge to halt an inquiry into the deaths, citing the panel of experts.

Agence France-Presse contributed to this report.