German nurse jailed over care home killings

A German regional court on Wednesday sentenced a caregiver to 15 years in prison over the killing of four people in a disabled care home in Potsdam, near Berlin.

In April, four acutely disabled residents were found dead in various rooms in the facility with fatal wounds. 

The 52-year-old nurse was found guilty of four counts of murder and three counts of attempted murder. 

The defendant, identified as Ines Andrea R.*, will be barred for life from working in care homes.   

'Intense, extreme violence'

According to the court, the defendant had first tried to strangle two residents, believing one of them to be dead and giving up on the other because it was too difficult. She then stabbed four other residents to death with an 11-centimeter (4-inch) knife.

Ines Andrea R. was also found to have tried to kill a fifth resident, who survived with serious injuries after emergency surgery.

Police said the murdered victims, two women and two men aged between 31 and 56, had been subjected to "intense, extreme violence."

Wednesday's verdict met the prosecution's demands. Chief prosecutor Maria Stiller had called the killings a "profoundly evil" act.

The care home, the Thusnelda-von-Saldern-Haus, has around 65 residents and more than 80 employees. It specializes in helping patients with physical and mental disabilities. 

Psychiatric care required 

The court required Ines Andrea R. to remain in a secure psychiatric facility for an unspecified period of time.

The nurse was sent to psychiatric care after she was detained immediately following the rampage. 

At the start of her trial in October, the defendant told the court that she had been a lonely child and had bad relationships. 

The married mother of two sons expressed her regret after closing arguments at the trial last week. She said she was still in shock about committing the murders.

"I'm really sorry," she told the court.

Murder cases in German care facilities

In one of the most prominent murder trials in Germany, a court in 2019 sentenced a nurse, Niels H.*, to life in prison for killing 85 patients in his care.

Niels H. was found to have murdered patients with lethal injections between 2000 and 2005.

Last year, a Munich court sentenced another nurse to life in prison for killing at least three people with insulin injections. 

fb/rt (AFP, dpa)

*DW has withheld last names in accordance with German privacy laws