Agence France Presse English Mon 02 Dec 2002
International News
BUDAPEST, Dec 2 (AFP) - A Hungarian court Monday sentenced a nurse dubbed
the "Black Angel" to nine years in jail after she pleaded guilty to killing
patients by lethal injection in a Budapest hospital in 2000 and 2001.
Budapest Municipal Court also banned Timea Faludi, 25, from ever working
as a nurse again in a verdict that may be appealed, a court spokesman said.
During a police investigation, Faludi admitted killing at least 40
terminally ill patients, but later withdrew that testimony.
The court established that she arbitrarily gave intravenous injections to
seven seriously ill patients between May 2000 and February 2001, and found
that all seven patients died shortly afterwards.
But the court found her directly responsible for only three of the deaths,
saying it "could not see a direct, proven link between the injections and
the deaths" in the remaining cases.
Faludi admitted killing eight people during the trial, but denied that she
wanted to kill them, saying she only wanted to ease the patients' suffering.
Euthanasia is illegal in Hungary.
She was convicted on multiple counts of attempted murder and intentionally
endangering lives.
After the killings became public, colleagues dubbed the nurse the "Black
Angel" because of her long black hair and habitual black clothing.
Faludi administered deadly injections to several terminally ill patients
while she thought she was alone on her night shifts, according to the
prosecution.
Nurses in Hungary are not allowed to administer intravenous injections
without a doctor's order, the court heard.
She was arrested in February 2001 after colleagues became suspicious when
patient deaths coincided with her shifts.
Produced by the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, Box 25033, London ON N6C 6A8
Tel: 1-877-439-3348, Email: info@epcc.ca