German palliative care doctor Johannes M, who murdered 15 people with lethal doses of sedatives and is being investigated over the deaths of dozens of others, has been jailed for life
Johannes M has been sentenced to life in prison(Image: Getty Images)
A German palliative care doctor has been jailed for life after murdering 15 people using a lethal cocktail of sedatives and setting fire to some of their homes to try to cover up his crimes.
The 41-year-old man – identified only as Johannes M in line with German privacy rules – was convicted by a Berlin court of killing 12 women and three men during home visits between September 2021 and July 2024. His victims were aged between 25 and 94. He set fire to the victims’ flats to cover up the killings on at least five occasions, the court heard.
But presiding judge Sylvia Busch said the 15 murders may be only the tip of the iceberg. Prosecutors are currently investigating the deaths of 76 other people.
The judge described Johannes M as a “serial killer” at the centre of an “unfathomable” and “extraordinary” case.
The court ruled that the exceptional seriousness of the crimes meant there could be no review after 15 years to determine whether the remainder of the sentence should be suspended. The court also ordered preventive detention after his prison sentence has been served. He was also banned from practising medicine again.
Prosecutors said the doctor had “a lust for murder” and had “no other motive for killing these people than the act of killing itself”.
The mum of the youngest victim, a 25-year-old woman who was killed in 2021, wept as she told the court: “She never said she didn’t want to live anymore.”
The court found that Johannes M intentionally administered an anaesthetic and a muscle relaxant that “paralysed the respiratory muscles, leading to respiratory arrest and death within minutes”.
On the morning of July 8, 2024, he killed a 75-year-old man at his home in the central Berlin district of Kreuzberg. A few hours later, he killed a 76-year-old woman in the neighbouring Neukolln district. Prosecutors said his attempt to burn the second crime scene failed when the fire did not catch.
On Monday, Johannes M confessed that he had “killed people” and told the court: “I despair at myself.” He said he only now understood “the extent of the suffering” he had caused, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper reported.
Suspicions over Johannes M’s activities were initially raised by care services, leading to a police investigation. He was remanded in custody in August 2024.
Investigators initially looked into four cases, but the number of suspicious deaths continued to grow. German media report that if the additional deaths under investigation are proven to be murders and Johannes M is convicted, he could become one of Germany’s most prolific serial killers.
