German doctor admits to killing 12 patients in high-profile trial

A German doctor admitted to having killed 12 patients nearly a year since the start of his high-profile at the Berlin Regional Court on Thursday.

The 40-year-old palliative care doctor is charged with killing 15 patients in total - 12 women and three men - between September 2021 and July 2024.

He is alleged to have administered a "lethal mixture of various drugs" to the victims, who were between 25 and 87 years old. Prosecutors also believe he set fires in some cases to try to obscure his acts.

Public prosecutors are investigating dozens of suspected further cases parallel to the trial.

Fifty-four days after the start of the trial in July 2025, the doctor confessed to 12 of the killings in a 30-minute statement on Thursday.

“It is only now that I am able to explain my actions, and I accept responsibility for what I have done," the court was told. "I apologize for the great suffering I have caused them," the doctor said, addressing the victims’ relatives, as well as his family and colleagues.

A few weeks ago, wiretapped telephone conversations held between the doctor and his wife from prison were played in court, during which he had admitted to killings.

In the conversations, the defendant tells his wife that he had not committed murder, but describes his actions as a "moral act carried out by the wrong means," intended to save his patients from "suffering and infirmity."

In court, the doctor explained that he was speaking out not because of the "overwhelming evidence" against him, but because of the soul-searching he had done over the past few months.

The Berlin Regional Court has scheduled 35 hearings up to January 2026, with at least 13 relatives of the deceased represented as joint plaintiffs in the case.

The doctor is believed to have committed the offences while working for a care service in Berlin.