Little time? At the end of the text there is a summary.
If lying requires talent, Niels Högel has more than enough of it. In court, he gives himself jovial and informative. But that he is not to be trusted, the judges know only too well. "How much can we believe you, Mr. Högel?", Asked the presiding judge Sebastian Bührmann at the very beginning of the process at the district court Oldenburg. It is a question that should remain at the end.
Niels Högel has been responsible for murder in one hundred cases since October 2018 before the Oldenburg district court. From 2000 to 2005, the nurse is said to have injected 36 people in the Klinikum Oldenburg and 64 people in the Klinikum Delmenhorst with medicines that brought their hearts to a standstill. At the end of April, a psychiatrist should present his report on the guilty party of the accused, and in May the pleadings are expected; at the latest in June, the verdict could be dropped.
But it is questionable whether Högel can actually be sentenced for all the hundred accused deeds. This is partly due to Högel's talent to lie. But that's also because of the narcotic lidocaine. It's one of the ways he should have killed himself.
His defenders Ulrike Baumann and Kirsten Hüfken doubt that their client is responsible for the deaths of all patients in whose body posthumous lidocaine was detected. Lidocaine is also used in everyday clinical practice for the pain-free insertion of catheters and gastric tubes.
DPA
Defenders Kirsten Hüfken (l.) And Ulrike Baumann
The judges got professional help on this matter. Professor Wolfgang Koppert is Director of the Department of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine of the Hannover Medical School. In court he has gone through all the deaths. In each case, he has stated how likely he thinks that Högel killed the patient in question. And in some cases, he also considers a manipulation by Högel only "possible." On Koppert's scale this is the lowest degree of probability.
"Patient suddenly screams and is afraid"
Heinrich R., for example, died at the age of 76 at the Klinikum Delmenhorst on January 14, 2004. The accused himself had testified that he had no recollection of Heinrich R. Whether he also injected him with a drug, he could not say. He also does not want to exclude it. And also reviewers Koppert could only say: "I can not say clearly what ultimately led to death." Whether the lidocaine with the gastric tube, the catheter or Högel in Heinrich R.'s body has reached, he could not distinguish.
But there are also lidocaine cases that are so conspicuous that Koppert considers a manipulation by Högel to be "very likely". For example, the death of Friedrich W. The cycle of the 92-year-old had been quite stable on May 3, 2004, said Koppert with a look at the files. What happened then is also there: "patient suddenly screams and is afraid."
Friedrich W. suffered a cardiac arrest and died. For Koppert, the man's anxiety reaction is a clear indication of a lidocaine dose: "If a drug causes a cardiac arrest, it feels threatening." He also said, "The reaction shows how awake the patient was and how he realized it."
How many murders are Högel to prove?
On the other hand, another active substance in the bodies of the dead has a "very high evidential value" for the judges, that Högel caused the death of humans. Ajmalin is called an active ingredient, Gilurytum a cardiac drug. Only doctors are allowed to administer it, but they do it according to the court's judgment "extremely rare".
For the court is Högel's perpetration in these cases, almost certain. He confessed to injecting patients Gilurytmal. And medical doctor Koppert assumes in almost all these cases that it was "very likely" Högel who killed the patients with the drug.
That the trial for Högel will end with a life sentence is barely out of the question. Maybe not because of a hundred, but because of dozens of murders. It is also clear that the series of hospital killings will continue to occupy the judiciary for years even after the verdict.
It's about the possible complicity of doctors, nurses and carers. For Högle's activities did not go unnoticed in the clinics in which he killed. Colleagues and supervisors were suspicious. Niels Högel could still continue to kill. For five and a half years.
After the change of the department Högel does not want to have killed any more
Against two former senior physicians of the Clinic Delmenhorst, against the former ward manager of the intensive care unit and against a deputy, the indictment for manslaughter by omission was already allowed. The Public Prosecutor's Office Oldenburg has not yet completed the preliminary investigation into the same allegation against five employees of the Klinikum Oldenburg.
If his former superiors and colleagues one day stand trial as defendants, Högel will testify there. And among those involved in the process it is speculated whether the 43-year-old with the penchant for narcissism and lying will then possibly cause unpleasant surprises. Because there is an inexplicable gap in Högel's murder series. In 2002, he moved from the cardiac surgery intensive care unit to the anesthesia department in Oldenburg. He does not want to have killed there anymore.
"Did you manipulate there at the anesthesia ward?" Richter Bührmann asked right at the beginning of the trial. "No," said Högel. There was no further manipulation at the anesthesia ward in Oldenburg? "The judge asked again. "Yes," said Högel. Bührmann repeatedly checked in the course of the taking of evidence. His doubts have remained. "The idea that you just kept quiet during that time is hard for me."
Bührmann knows who he's dealing with. It was he who led the first two trials against Högel as chairman. At that time, there were a total of six deaths at the Klinikum Delmenhorst. That it comes to many, many more cases, admitted Högel until the beginning of 2015 at the end of the second process. And only in 2016 he confessed to have already murdered in Oldenburg. He had simply forgotten these murders, Högel said then. To forget?
February 7, 2000 - Högel's alleged first murder
"The knowledge that he manipulated in Oldenburg, he had the whole time," said legal psychologist Max Steller now in the current process. "Mr. Högel knows what he did." Steller was until his retirement Professor at the Institute for Forensic Psychiatry of the Berlin Charité. He is considered a luminary in the field of propositional psychology and is thus an expert in the detection of lies. And he stated: "Mr. Högel is able to lie high in quality." Also Steller analyzed all hundred cases of the indictment. His focus was on the information Högel.
Högel confessed in 43 cases that he had injected patients with medication, he denies five acts, in 52 cases he states that he does not rule out his perpetration, but can not remember. For example, the death of Elisabeth S. on 7 February 2000 in the Klinikum Oldenburg, his alleged first murder.
"Do you have a reminder of the case?" The judge asked on the second day of the trial. "No, there's nothing I can say, no memory," said Högel. "I suppose it might have been the first case, I can not rule it out."
Psychologist Steller has made that suspicious. For if the 77-year-old Elisabeth S. had actually been Högel's first murder victim, then it would be very unusual if he forgot this act. It would contradict the so-called primacy effect, according to which people remember the first event of a series particularly well, said Steller.
So what does it mean when Högel says that he can not remember Elisabeth S.? Is he lying? Is he telling the truth? Worrying would be both. Steller stated: "If what Mr Högel says is true, it means that he has probably manipulated before."
In summary: Because of a hundredfold murder Niels Högel has to answer before the district court Oldenburg. The evidence has shown that it would be difficult to prove to him every act. How many deaths are clearly attributable to Högel's actions? And which possibly other causes? The court does not want to rely on statements made by the defendant - an expert has certified Högel a high readiness to lie and considerable lie competence.