Life-sentence nurse Lucia de B freed

Wednesday 02 April 2008

A nurse jailed for life in 2006 for murdering seven patients and attempting to murder three more, was freed from jail on Wednesday pending an official investigation into her case.

Lucia de Berk has always protested her innocence of the charges, and won support from academics and medical experts. Her conviction was largely based on statistics and disputed evidence of poisoning.

In October last year, a legal advisory committee which looks into possible miscarriages of justice said the case should be re-opened.

According to news agency ANP, the advocate general told ministers last week he has serious doubts about De Berk's guilt and recommended she be freed pending the outcome of a new investigation.

The alleged murders and attempted murders took place at three hospitals between 1997 and 2001. They came to light after police began investigating the death of a baby girl named Amber.
De B's eventual conviction was based on two deaths, including that of baby Amber, which toxicology reports said could have been caused by digoxin poisoning.

All the other patients were either very old or very sick and died as a result of 'medically unexplained' causes. In these cases, De B was on duty 'noticeably often' when someone died, the prosecution department said during the court case. The statistical probability of her being present at so many deaths was central to the prosecution's case.

One of her lawyers, Ton Visser, told ANP on Monday that De Berk was in a secret location with her partner and daughter.

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