Advertisement

We need your help now

Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.

You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.

If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.

Shutterstock/Anna Jurkovska
Denmark

Nurse gets life sentence for murdering three patients in Denmark

Christina Hansen was found guilty of administering overdoses of medication to three elderly patients.

A DANISH NURSE, dubbed a “devil of death” by prosecutors, was sentenced to life in prison for murdering three patients and trying to kill a fourth.

Christina Hansen, 31, was found guilty of administering overdoses of morphine and the sedative diazepam to three elderly patients at a hospital in the southern town of Nykobing Falster between 2012 and 2015.

A fourth patient, who survived, was also found to have traces of the substances in her blood.

Her life sentence was handed down in Nykobing Falster district court yesterday. Under Danish law, a parole hearing is allowed after 12 years.

The Nykobing Falster district court found that the patients had been given, among other things “morphine in lethal doses, and that the perpetrator was the nurse,” a statement said.

denmark Nykobing Falster GoogleMaps.ie GoogleMaps.ie

“The accused was not an angel of death. She was a devil of death,” prosecutor Michael Boolsen said while calling for her to get a life sentence.

Lawyer Jorgen Lange appealed the verdict, telling Danish media the court’s decision was “shocking” given that some of the patients had been terminally ill.

The court heard more than 70 witnesses, several of which said they had suspected Hansen of trying to harm patients long before she was detained in March last year and that they believed she had done so in search of drama and attention.

A psychological evaluation found that the nurse was not mentally ill but that she suffered from a personality disorder characterised by “egocentricity” and a “persistent quest for excitement.”

Hansen, who denied all charges, was also ordered to pay 425,000 kroner (€57,100) in damages to family members of one victim.

She was also to pay 25,000 kroner (€3,362) to the 74-year-old woman who survived the attempt on her life.

Preliminary charges filed against Hansen in August last year over a fourth suspicious death were later dropped.

© AFP 2016

Read: Cyclists presenting to Emergency Departments after crashing while taking photos

Read: ‘Our colleagues didn’t die peacefully like in the movies… They died painfully, slowly’

Your Voice
Readers Comments
8
    Submit a report
    Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
    Thank you for the feedback
    Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.