Court upholds “Angel of Death” life sentence
A male nurse who was sentenced to life imprisonment for the killings of 22 elderly people in central Switzerland has lost an appeal against his sentence.
The 37-year-old man was at the centre of one of the worst cases of serial killing in the country’s recent history.
The nurse was convicted of 22 unlawful killings, seven of which the appeal court qualified as murder.
The Lucerne cantonal court said on Wednesday that the other 15 cases were premeditated killings.
His victims, mainly elderly women, were all residents at care homes in the central cantons of Lucerne, Obwalden and Schwyz between 1995 and 2001. They were aged between 66 and 95 and many were suffering from senile dementia.
An investigation concluded that the nurse killed his victims with tranquillisers or by suffocating them.
At his trial in January 2005, which caused huge media interest in Switzerland, the man explained that he had acted out of compassion and wanted to release the victims from their suffering.
However, the appeal court found that the maximum sentence was appropriate in view of the number of deaths and the long period over which the killings were committed.
It is not clear whether the defendant, who has already served four years in pre-trial detention, will challenge Wednesday’s verdict in the Federal Court.
“Played God”
In a written judgement, published in May last year, the trial court said that the accused couldn’t cope with the amount of work and had tried to lessen the load.
It said he had acted purely out of selfish reasons and had “played God” showing a total absence of morals or scruples.
The nurse was arrested in June 2001 after the authorities became suspicious about the high number of deaths at a special unit for the senile in Lucerne, where he had worked for six months.
Following his arrest, investigators widened their probe to include other homes and hospitals where the man had been a staff member. Five bodies were exhumed as part of the investigation.
swissinfo with agencies
The killings took place between 1995 and 2001.
The victims were aged between 66 and 95.
All except four were women.
All were residents in care homes in cantons across central Switzerland.
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