German nurse convicted of killing elderly patients

KEMPTEN, Germany, Nov 20 (Reuters) A German nurse was convicted today of killing 28 elderly patients with a lethal cocktail of injections and sentenced to life in prison in the country's worst post-war murder spree.

A state court in the southern town of Kempten convicted the 28-year-old man, who said he gave the elderly patients the deadly injections because he felt sorry for them, of 12 counts of murder, 15 counts of manslaughter and one of mercy killing.

The man, also convicted of a separate count of attempted manslaughter, admitted at the start of the trial that he had given patients in the Sonthof hospital's internal diseases ward a lethal mixture of drugs that he stole from hospital supplies.

But the tall and heavyset man, who was identified only as Stephan L, denied charges that he had acted with malice.

He said the killings started in January 2003. He was arrested in the summer of 2004 after police investigated stolen drug supplies.

Two victims survived. He was asked to explain 81 deaths that happened during his shifts in the hospital.

He admitted he killed patients because he was unable to bear seeing them ''wasting away.'' He stole quantities of a tranquiliser drug and a muscle relaxant which, when used in combination, cause death.

''He killed as if it were an assembly line,'' state prosecutor Peter Koch said in his closing arguments of the trial that began in February.

Judge Harry Rechner ruled that because of the severity of the crime Stephan L., who reacted calmly to the verdict, would not be eligible for parole after 15 years. He also issued a lifetime ban against him ever working as a nurse again.

''The nurse knew that the drugs were lethal,'' Rechner said.

''They were not ordered by any doctor. He acted on his own.'' ''The defendant said he was performing active mercy killing. But he killed people, in many cases people who were sleeping or without any inkling.'' Reuters AB DB1827