Could the bosses of the convicted patient killer Niels Högel have prevented his actions earlier and should they? The prosecutor’s charge weighs heavily.
Oldenburg – According to the public prosecutor’s office, the clinic superiors of the convicted patient killer Niels Högel could have prevented murders in the Oldenburg and Delmenhorst clinics with “probability bordering on certainty”.
From a certain point in time, it was clear to all the accused that Högel posed a danger to the patients, said prosecutor Gesa Weiß on Thursday at the opening of the proceedings against seven of Högel’s former superiors.
Nevertheless, they would have resigned themselves to the undesirable deeds and accepted them with approval. They did not intervene out of concern for the reputation of the clinics and for fear of being accused of bullying and false suspicion.
They all have to answer for manslaughter, aiding and abetted manslaughter or attempted manslaughter by omission. The seven accused are doctors, senior nurses and an ex-clinic manager.
The jury wants to clarify whether the defendants are partly to blame because they perceived evidence of the crimes but did not pass them on adequately. Högel was sentenced to life imprisonment in June 2019 for 85 murders. dpa
