Serial killer nurse murdered 85 patients
Source: (
https://bit.ly/3fedNnu)
A twisted 'Angel of Death' nurse administered fatal doses
of medication to victims in two hospitals to impress his
co-workers by resuscitating the victims and playing the hero.
Today, October 30, is the anniversary of the trial of Niels
Hogel, 41, opening in 2018. He was initially jailed for the
murders of six patients, and later convicted of a total
of eighty-five murders.
But, as more detail emerged, he was believed to have claimed
300 victims over fifteen years, which would make him one
of the most prolific serial killers in post-war Germany.
While working at Oldenburg Clinic in the titular city in northwest
Germany in the early 2000s, management noticed an unusual
spike of resuscitations and deaths, a large percentage of which
occurred when Hogel was on shift.
Soon after, he called in sick over a three-week period where far
less, just two, people had died, and later admitted he thought he
was found out.
This behaviour continued through to 2005, when - in a new facility
- colleagues caught him intentionally manipulating a patient's
syringe pump to improperly administer antiarrhythmic agent ajmaline.
Police investigated and found that in 2005, 73% of deaths could
be connected to Hogel's work schedule.
He was sentenced to five years in prison and an employment ban
of equal length for attempted voluntary manslaughter, but in June
2008, a higher court reversed the decision and Hogel was then
given a seven-and-a-half-year prison sentence, as well
as a life-long employment ban.
More investigations followed and In September 2014, Hogel was
charged with three counts of murder and two counts of attempted
murder, before he admitted he had committed thirty additional
murders.
He did so by giving ninety unauthorised injections. Sixty patients
were successfully resuscitated.
Hogel was then sentenced to life in prison. Prosecutors said the
second-generation caregiver picked off patients at random out
of "boredom".
Hogel was already serving 15 years in jail after he was found guilty
of killing two patients with lethal injections in 2015.
In January 2018, prosecutors brought new charges against him for
killing another 97 people.
On the first day of his main trial on October 30 that year, Hogel
confessed to 43 killings, stated he could not recall 52 and denied
his involvement in the five remaining deaths.
On 6 June 2019, Hogel was sentenced to life in prison. He was found
guilty on 85 separate murder charges and not guilty on 15 further
murder charges.
Hogel appealed, but the Federal Court of Justice denied his appeal
alongside another plaintiff's in 2020.
