German palliative doctor gets life for 15 murders, 76 cases pending

A Berlin court has sentenced a 41-year-old palliative care doctor, identified under German privacy rules as Johannes M., to life imprisonment for the murder of 15 patients. The victims, 12 women and three men aged between 25 and 94, were killed during home visits across the capital between September 2021 and July 2024. The court established that while all were critically ill, none were facing imminent death.

Prosecutors detailed how the doctor administered lethal combinations of medicines without the patients' consent. To conceal his actions, he set fires at several locations. This included a failed arson attempt at the home of a 76-year-old woman, killed just hours after he murdered a 75-year-old man in a neighbouring district on the day before his arrest in July 2024.

The 15 confirmed murders could represent only a fraction of the actual death toll. Prosecutors are currently investigating 76 additional cases involving the doctor. If these further deaths are proven in court, German media noted it would rank among the largest instances of serial murder in the nation's history, exposing stark vulnerabilities in how home-based medical care is supervised.

After remaining largely silent for much of the year-long trial, Johannes M. confessed last month to killing 12 of his patients. He claimed to have rationalised his actions as a form of mercy. "Throughout it all, I thought this was the best thing for everyone," he told the court, adding that he apologised for the suffering he had caused.

The victims' families firmly rejected his assertion that he was sparing them suffering. The mother of the youngest victim, a 25-year-old woman who died in 2021, wept in court and said: "She never said she didn't want to live anymore." The son of a 72-year-old victim noted his mother had upcoming plans to travel to the Baltic Sea, stating: "My mother wanted to keep on living."

Because the court determined the doctor's guilt was particularly severe, it ordered him to be placed in preventive detention following the completion of his life sentence. He has also been hit with a lifetime ban from practising medicine. As authorities continue their extensive investigations, Johannes M. told the court he would "get involved much earlier in the forthcoming proceedings."