I’m innocent, says ‘killer nurse’

4 June 2004

AMSTERDAM — An emotional Lucy de Berk spoke out in an appeals court in The Hague on Friday and told the relatives of her alleged murder victims that she was innocent of their deaths.

The convicted serial killer and former nurse addressed her words in particular to the parents of the children she is accused of murdering, news agency ANP reported.

“The pain of the next of kin is many times greater than the pain I feel because I can no longer be a nurse. I hope that they believe me when I say that I did not cause that pain,” De Berk said.

The public prosecutor claims that De Berk murdered seriously ill patients in four hospitals in The Hague between 1997 and 2001. She allegedly carried out the murders by injecting the victims with fatal doses of medicine.

In total, she is accused of 13 murders and five attempted murders and her victims were primarily elderly patients and babies. She was convicted last year of three murders and five attempted murders, but both the prosecution and De Berk have appealed.

The former nurse said on Friday that it makes her angry and sad that people suspect her of murder. “I was a nurse in my heart and soul,” she said.

Her lawyer said it is shocking that the prosecution has admitted the case against De Berk is a good opportunity to investigate the boundaries of what sorts of evidence can be used in court.

The lawyer was referring to so-called “link evidence” in which evidence of the death of one patient can be used as evidence for another death. The lawyer said there was too much at risk for De Berk to allow the prosecution to use the appeal case as a legal experiment.

But the prosecution hopes to prove that De Berk had a standard method of operation which she applied to her victims. The judge must rule on whether the “link evidence” can be used.

The court will issue its ruling on 18 June.

[Copyright Expatica News 2004]

Subject: Dutch news