Dutch nurse denies she killed13 patients
By Gerald de Hemptinne
THE HAGUE, (AFP) - A Dutch nurse, said tobe a psychopath "obsessed with death", denied killing13 people, including four babies, at the opening of her murdertrial in The Hague.
"I never killed anybody. I have nevereven thought about such a thing," 40-year-old Lucy de Berktold the court. She is charged with injecting her victims witha lethal cocktail of drugs over a period of more than four years.
Dutch prosecutors say the slight blondewoman is "obsessed with death" and a "classic psychopath"but media reports say there is no conclusive forensic evidenceagainst her.
Tuesday's hearing began with judge JeanneKalk questioning the impassive nurse about the events. It wasthe first time de Berk broke her right to remain silent aboutthe case since her arrest in December last year.
The nurse allegedly injected young childrenand old-age pensioners with fatal mixtures of drugs includingmorphine and potassium, in three hospitals where she worked inThe Hague between February 1997 and September 2001.
She is charged with 13 murders and fiveattempted murders.
Among her alleged victims was an aged judgefor the UN war crimes court for the former Yugoslavia. Judge LiHaopei died aged 91 in hospital in November 1997.
De Berk also faces counts of forgery forfaking her high school diploma to get into nursing school andtheft for stealing several books including one reportedly called"Under the Skin of a Serial Killer".
Suspicion about the nurse was only raisedwhen a five-month-old baby died unexpectedly in September 2001,just after de Berk has gone off duty and an hour after doctorssaid its health was improving.
De Berk seemed tired but very composed incourt as she answered Kalk's questions about children who haddied in her care.
"I cared for him the way I was supposedto," the nurse told the court of the baby who died. "Idid my job well".
She said she had even raised the alarm several times because shefelt the baby did not look well.
After the baby's death, the Juliana children's'hospital began an investigation into other unexpected deaths onthe ward.
It found that five such deaths had occurredin the previous 18 months, all of them when de Berk was on duty,the director of the Paul Smit hospital told the daily Telegraafprior to the trial.
In court Tuesday the prosecution presentedseveral passages from de Berk's personal diaries in which shewrote of "impulses" and "strange obsessions".
"Today I succumbed to my impulses again,"the prosecutor quoted from the journal.
She also wrote of a "big secret thatI will carry to my grave".
The prosecution alleged that the days deBerk wrote about her impulses corresponded with the dates on whichher patients died.
"I meant Tarot. I secretly did Tarotcards for the patients," she said.
"You wrote in detail about your sexuallife in your diary but you never mentioned Tarot cards?",the prosecutor asked incredulously.
"In a hospital, that's not ethical,"de Berk responded, adding the big secret referred to a periodin her past when she worked as a prostitute in Canada.
In a bid to cut off the prosecution's questionsabout her diary, she said it not written it to be read by outsiders."You're trying to establish links that don't exist. Thesewere things I wrote for myself. I know what I meant," shesaid.
Asked about the apparent coincidences thatthe prosecution alleged pointed to her guilt, de Berk said: "I'dalso like to be able to explain that but I can't. I'm sorry."
The media interest in the case is immensein the Netherlands, the only country in the world to have legalizedeuthanasia, albeit under strict guidelines.
The hearings are expected to last untilSeptember 23, with a verdict expected two weeks later, but theprosecution will have to rely heavily on circumstantial evidence.
De Berk's lawyer Ton Visser was confidenthis client, who has tried in the past to commit suicide and beentreated for depression, would not be found guilty.
"To convict someone, you need proof,a smoking gun. I have the impression the prosecution does nothave that," he said.