Court to re-hear nurse Lucia de B case

Thursday 05 February 2009

The Arnhem appeal court is to hear evidence from two scientific experts in the new criminal trial of nurse Lucia de Berk who is accused of killing seven patients. The retrial started on Thursday.

De Berk was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2004 for killing two babies, five other patients and the attempted murder of three others.

Her conviction was based on two deaths, including that of baby Amber, which toxicology reports said could have been caused by digoxin poisoning.

Serious doubts about her conviction arose when the baby's cause of death was called into question by experts.

Central to the prosecution's case was the fact that De Berk was on duty 'noticeably often' when someone died - which led to her conviction for multiple murders.

Last October, the high court said the case had to be heard again and released De Berk from custody.

She has always maintained her innocence.

It also emerged on Thursday that the home of a close relation to the former nurse was raided by police last week who were looking for missing parts of her diary.

In the diary, De Berk writes about wanting to kill patients. The search, which found nothing, was based on a tip-off, the public prosecution department said.

© DutchNews.nl

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