Aachen, Germany: A nurse accused of murdering nine palliative care patients went on trial in Germany Monday, with prosecutors saying he played "master of life and death" over them.
Prosecutors said the unnamed 44-year-old man injected a total of 26 patients with large doses of sedatives or painkillers, resulting in the deaths of nine.
His motive was allegedly to minimise his workload during his night shifts, they added.
The nurse used morphine and midazolam, a muscle relaxant sometimes used for executions in the United States, prosecutors said at his trial in the western city of Aachen.
He was employed in palliative care at a hospital in the nearby town of Wuerselen.
The man allegedly injected the mostly elderly and terminally ill patients and then simply walked out of their rooms, the court heard.
Prosecutors said he lacked motivation in his work and was "annoyed" by the patients, adding that he had considered himself their "master of life and death".
The nurse did not speak at the start of proceedings.
He was charged with crimes committed between December 2023 and May 2024, and authorities are also investigating incidents in Cologne, where the man previously worked.
"The public prosecutor's office is still investigating," a court spokeswoman said.
A spokeswoman for the man's previous employer in Cologne told AFP that it had only learned of his alleged crimes after being approached by police late last year.
"We have fully supported the investigating authorities in getting to the bottom of the serious allegations ever since," she said.
"We will continue to make all the necessary information available so that investigations leave no stone unturned."
A spokesperson for the nurse's former employer in Wuerselen did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Former colleagues will be called as witnesses in subsequent hearings. The trial's end date is uncertain while investigations are ongoing.
