A FORMER male nurse already serving a life sentence for two murders has admitted to killing a further 100 patients on the opening day of his trial in Germany.
Niels Högel, 41, is alleged to have administered fatal doses of medication to scores of victims at two hospitals in northern Germany between 1999 and 2005.
He is already serving a life term after being convicted in 2015 of the murder of two intensive care patients at Delmenhorst Hospital, near Bremen.
According to local media, Högel replied "yes" when asked by a judge today whether the charges against him were accurate at the court in Oldenburg where he is facing 100 further counts of murder.
"What I have admitted took place," he is reported to have said.
Detectives claim Högel's motive was to impress colleagues by trying to resuscitate the very patients he had put into cardiac arrest, as well as "boredom".
It is alleged that 64 of the patients were killed at the hospital in Delmenhorst and 36 in nearby Oldenburg.
Högel was jailed in February 2015 for two murders and several attempted murders, but authorities long suspected he was responsible for further patient killings.
Investigators exhumed and analysed hundreds of bodies and found evidence of dozens of additional murders in what has been dubbed post-war Germany's worst serial killing spree.
Police in Germany claim Högel could have been stopped earlier if local health officials had not hesitated in alerting them.
Authorities are also pursuing criminal cases against former staff at the two hospitals involved.
There are no consecutive sentences in Germany but a further conviction could affect Högel’s possibility of parole.
See More: Germany, Male Nurse, Murder, Niels Högel, Serial Killer, Trial
