Berlin Palliative Care Physician Sentenced to Life for 15 Murders; Dozens More Cases Under Investigation

A German palliative care physician has been sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of 15 patients.

A Berlin court on Wednesday found the 41-year-old defendant, identified only as Johannes M. in accordance with German privacy laws, guilty of killing 12 women and three men between September 2021 and July 2024.

Authorities believe these convictions may represent only a fraction of the actual toll. Prosecutors are currently investigating dozens of other incidents involving the doctor.

The victims ranged in age from 25 to 94. Although all were critically ill, the court determined their deaths were not imminent.

Prosecutors said the doctor administered lethal combinations of medication during home visits without his patients’ consent.

On several occasions, he allegedly set fires to cover his tracks.

In July 2024, shortly before his arrest, prosecutors said the doctor killed two patients in a single day—a 75-year-old man at his home in central Berlin and, hours later, a 76-year-old woman in a neighboring district.

He also attempted to set fire to the woman’s house, but failed.

For much of the year-long trial, the defendant remained silent. Last month, however, he confessed to having “killed people”—specifically twelve of his severely ill patients.

He told the court he had convinced himself he was doing the right thing, sparing them “suffering and infirmity.”

“Throughout it all, I thought this was the best thing for everyone,” he said.

He apologized for all the suffering he had caused.

Authorities suspect him of additional killings. Prosecutors are currently examining 76 other cases.

German media report that if the further cases are proven, it would constitute one of the worst serial murder cases in the country’s history.

The doctor informed the court that he would “get involved much earlier in the forthcoming proceedings.”

Earlier in the trial, relatives of the victims testified that they still struggled to comprehend the crimes.

The mother of the youngest victim, a 25-year-old woman who died in 2021, broke down in tears. “She never said she didn’t want to live anymore,” she said.

The son of a 72-year-old woman who died in 2024 said his mother had planned a trip to the Baltic Sea with her sister. “My mother wanted to keep on living,” he said.

The court ordered preventive detention following the prison sentence and imposed a lifetime ban on the defendant practicing medicine.

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