Angel of Death 'driven by kindness'

A 27-year-old nurse dubbed the Angel of Death went on trial in Germany yesterday for killing 29 patients by injecting them with lethal doses of painkillers and tranquillisers.

If convicted, Stephan Letter would be the country's biggest serial killer in its post-war history. He is charged with the murder of 16 patients, the manslaughter of a further 12 and the killing on request of another one.

Letter has confessed to killing some of the patients who died at the Sonthofen Hospital between January 2003 and July 2004 and has apologised to their relatives.

But he denies murder, saying he acted out of sympathy for the patients. Most of his alleged victims were elderly and Letter said he wanted to end their suffering.

"I wanted to help the victims, out of spontaneous sympathy, although I now know how catastrophically wrong my actions were," he told the Kempten district court.

But the prosecutor, Peter Koch, said Letter killed out of malice. He had little chance to develop sympathy as he had little or nothing to do with many of the alleged victims before their deaths, he said. Some victims were not in a life-threatening condition and were due to be released from hospital, he said.

Letter fell under suspicion after colleagues discovered tranquillisers were missing from stocks. He was arrested in July 2004, and accused of stealing medication. He immediately admitted that, and killing 16 patients. Yesterday he contradicted that confession.

The case continues until the end of May, by which time it will have heard more than 80 witnesses.

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