Berlin palliative care doctor sentenced to life for killing 15 patients

Berlin doctor given life sentence for 15 patient murders, court rules

A Berlin court on Wednesday found a 41-year-old palliative care doctor, identified as Johannes M. under German privacy rules, guilty of murdering 15 patients between September 2021 and July 2024, and sentenced him to life imprisonment, the court announced.

The victims, 12 women and three men aged between 25 and 94, were reportedly critically ill but not imminently dying, prosecutors said. Authorities say the doctor administered lethal combinations of medicines during home visits without patient consent.

Prosecutors told the court that the killings occurred across Berlin and included an incident in July 2024 when the doctor allegedly killed two patients in a single day: a 75-year-old man in central Berlin and, hours later, a 76-year-old woman in a neighbouring district.

Officials also said the doctor attempted to set fires on several occasions to conceal his actions; in one July case he reportedly tried but failed to burn the woman’s house after her death.

For much of the year-long trial the defendant remained silent, but last month he confessed to having killed people, admitting to the deaths of twelve severely ill patients and saying he believed he was sparing them suffering and infirmity. He expressed apology for the suffering caused.

Prosecutors are investigating 76 further cases they suspect may be linked to the doctor, saying the proven cases could represent only part of a larger pattern. German media noted that if more convictions follow, the case could be among the worst serial murder cases in the country’s history.

The court ordered preventive detention following the life sentence and imposed a lifetime ban on the doctor practicing medicine. Relatives of victims gave statements during the trial, describing disbelief and grief; the mother of the youngest victim, a 25-year-old woman who died in 2021, said her daughter never indicated she wanted to die.