New trial for nurse Lucia de B (update)

Tuesday 07 October 2008

The Dutch high court has ordered a retrial for Lucia de Berk, the nurse jailed for life in 2006 for murdering seven patients and the attempted murder of three more.

De Berk (47) was freed in April 2008 pending today's ruling by the Hoge Raad following serious doubts about her guilt.

Lucia de Berk's conviction was largely based on statistics and disputed evidence of poisoning. In October 2007, a legal advisory committee which looks into possible miscarriages of justice, said the case should be re-opened. De Berk has always protested her innocence.

In March 2008 the advocate general said she should be freed from jail pending the outcome of a new investigation.

Serious doubts

Serious doubts about her conviction arose when the central charge, the poisoning of baby Amber, was called into question. The evidence in this particular incident led to the other charges of murder. These patients were either very old or very sick and died as a result of 'medically unexplained' causes.

Central to the prosecution's case was the fact that De Berk was on duty 'noticeably often' when someone died. But doubts about the cause of baby Amber's death have raised questions about the conviction.

© DutchNews.nl

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