German hospital nurse faces verdict over 13 patient deaths

The 44-year-old defendant -- who was accused by prosecutors of playing "master of life and death" over those in his care -- was not publicly named during his trial.

He is accused of injecting his mostly elderly patients with large doses of sedatives or painkillers, with the simple aim of reducing his workload during night shifts.

Prosecutors told the court the man suffered from a personality disorder, had never shown any compassion for the patients and had voiced no remorse during the trial.

The verdict is expected at noon (1100 GMT) in the regional court in the western city of Aachen. The prosecution is demanding a sentence of life in prison if the defendant is convicted of the 13 murder and 24 attempted murder charges.

It also wants the court to determine a "particular severity of guilt" that would bar him from early release.

The defence is calling for an acquittal in the trial, which started in March, initially based on allegations of nine murders and 34 attempted murders.

The defendant is alleged to have committed the crimes between December 2023 and May 2024 in a hospital in Wuerselen near Aachen.

He used morphine and midazolam, a muscle relaxant sometimes used for executions in the United States, the court was told.

"The indictment assumes that the defendant administered the medication in order to sedate the patients so that they would cause him as little work as possible during his shifts," the court said in a statement.

The case echoes that of German nurse Niels Hoegel, who was handed a life sentence in 2019 for murdering 85 patients and who is believed to be modern Germany's most prolific serial killer.

Hoegel killed patients with lethal injections between 2000 and 2005 before he was eventually caught.

In July this year, a 40-year-old palliative care specialist named by media as Johannes M. went on trial in Berlin accused of killing 15 patients with lethal injections between 2021 and 2024.