Prosecutors on Monday brought additional charges against a German nurse already serving a life sentence for murdering two patients, claiming he killed at least 97 other patients with lethal injections, Reuters reports.
Niels Hoegel was convicted of two counts of murder in 2015 and sentenced to life in prison. He reportedly admitted during the trial to deliberately injecting at least 90 other patients at two clinics in northern Germany with deadly drugs because he enjoyed the feeling of being able to resuscitate them, according to Fox News.
Mr. Hoegel's statements during the trial reportedly prompted investigators to conduct toxicological reports on scores of other patients who died at the clinics, which led to the new charges filed against Mr. Hoegel, Fox News reports.
Prosecutors said Monday toxicology reports indicate Mr. Hoegel gave at least 35 patients at one clinic and 62 patients at another a lethal combination of medications, and stated Mr. Hoegel should have been aware of the drugs' effects, which could cause conditions ranging from possible cardiac arrhythmia to ventricular fibrillation, according to Reuters.
"From the prosecutorial point of view, the accused [Mr. Hoegel] accepted, at least tacitly, in all cases the death of the patients due to the effects of the drugs," prosecutors said in a statement.
If found guilty of the additional charges, Mr. Hoegel would become the deadliest serial killer in Germany, according to Reuters.