Berlin court sentences a doctor to life for murdering 15 patients under palliative care
Prosecutors said the doctor used lethal sedatives without consent and remains under investigation in 76 other cases.
- A Berlin court will deliver its verdict in the trial of a 41-year-old German doctor accused of killing 15 patients during outpatient palliative care visits between September 2021 and July 2024.
- Prosecutors allege the doctor injected patients with lethal drug mixtures without consent or medical justification, despite victims aged 25 to 94 not facing imminent death.
- The defendant remained silent for two years while in custody before admitting to 12 of the 15 killings, as several fires were allegedly set to cover up the deaths.
- Relatives told the court victims still had plans and wanted to live, while Prosecutors sought a life sentence, particular severity of guilt finding, and a lifetime medical ban.
- The verdict concludes a trial lasting nearly a year and will determine whether the doctor faces preventive detention following the systematic killing allegations.
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Another 76 similar cases are being investigated. If the doctor is found guilty in these as well, it would be one of the largest serial murder cases in German history.
German Doctor Convicted of Killing 15 Patients
Bethany Bell reported for BBC news on July 8, 2026 that a German doctor was sentenced to life imprisonment for killing at least 15 patients. Bell reported that: A court in Berlin found the 41-year-old man, named only as Johannes M. in line with German privacy rules, guilty of murdering 12 women and 3 men between September 2021 and July 2024. The authorities believe these killings could be just the tip of the iceberg. Prosecutors are currently i…
The man was found guilty of murdering 15 seriously ill patients to whom he administered lethal drugs without their knowledge.
His job was supposed to be to accompany seriously ill people, comfort them and offer the treatments for their improvement, or at least a relief of symptoms. But this “serial killer”, as the sentence calls it, made his employment in palliative care clinics the perfect scenario of his murders between September 2021 and July 2024. “I killed people. That’s why I despair of myself. I’m only now beginning to understand the extent of suffering,” he dec…
The authorities suspect that the number of those killed is higher, and 76 more cases are currently being investigated.
A German doctor who, according to the court, killed 15 of his patients has been sentenced to life in prison in Berlin.
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