German nurse admits to killing 99 patients

A German nurse admitted in court on Tuesday to being post-war Germany's deadliest serial killer, causing the deaths of 99 patients with lethal injections so that he could play the hero by trying to revive them.

When Judge Sebastian Buehrmann asked NielsHoegel if the charges against him were valid, he affirmed it and said: "All that I have admitted to is true."

Hoegel, 41, hid his face behind a blue plastic folder as he wasushered into the courtroom in the northern city of Oldenburg bypolice and his lawyer.

He had already been sentenced to 15 years in jail in 2015after he was found guilty of killing two patients with lethalinjections. In January, prosecutors brought new charges againsthim for killing another 97 people.

His admission will not end the trial, at which families ofthe victims hope to uncover more information about the crimes.The trial is scheduled to last until May.

"We want him to get the sentence that he deserves," saidFrank Brinkers, whose father died in an overdose allegedlyadministered by Hoegel. "When this trial is over, we want to putthis whole thing behind us and find closure."

Trial opens with moment of silence

Prosecutors in the northern German city of Oldenburg say aninvestigation and toxicology reports showed that he injected 35people at one clinic, in Oldenburg, and 62 at another in nearbyDelmenhorst, with drugs that could kill them.

The alleged victims were aged between 34 and 96.

On Tuesday,Buehrmann opened the proceedings by asking everyone in the courtroomto stand for a minute of silence for the deceased patients.

"All of their relatives deserve that their memory be honoured," whether or not Hoegel had anything to do with their deaths, Buehrmann said. "We will make every effort to seek the truth."

Ten years ago, a German nurse was convicted of killing 28elderly patients. He said he gave them lethal injections becausehe felt sorry for them, and was sentenced to life in prison.

In Britain, it was believed Dr. Harold Shipman killed asmany as 250 people, most of them elderly and middle-aged womenwho were his patients.

Known as Dr. Death, Shipman was sentencedto 15 life terms in 2000. He died in prison in 2004, apparently bysuicide.