Nurse Killed 22 Patients...Umm...Or More...He Can't Remember Them ALL

[bloodrayne]

Ex-nurse Jailed For 22 Murders

Charles Cullen was fired many times but always got another job
An ex-nurse has been sent to prison for the rest of his life for killing 22 New Jersey patients in his care.

Charles Cullen, 46, pleaded guilty to 22 murders and three attempted murders.

He closed his eyes for much of the hearing, angering victims' relatives, who described him as a "monster", "garbage", and "Satan's son".

Cullen - who will also be sentenced for other killings - earlier said he had performed mercy killings to end the suffering of terminally-ill patients.

He agreed to help investigators solve the killings, in return for guarantees that he would not face the death penalty.

However the total number of sick and elderly patients he killed is uncertain, because he could not remember all the details, and in some cases medical records have been destroyed.

By his own reckoning, it was between 30 and 40 people.

He will be sentenced for seven further killings and three more attempts, which he committed in Pennsylvania, at a later date.

"You betrayed the ancient foundations of the healing professions," Superior Court Judge Paul Armstrong told Cullen, who stood motionless, his eyes closed, in the dock.

Sometimes there was so little response from the killer that the judge had to ask him: "Can you hear me Mr Cullen? Are you choosing not to answer me?"

He gave him 11 consecutive life terms.

Dolores Stasienko, whose father Jack Toto, 89, was killed by Cullen in 2003, told the sentencing hearing: "The monster who played God can justify his actions; sometimes he possibly believes he was an angel of mercy"

"Let us correct him. He was a demon from the lowest depths of hell."

Cullen was fired from five nursing jobs and resigned from two others because of concerns over his practices.

But over a 16-year career he always found re-employment. It is thought this is partly because hospitals did not share their suspicions about him for fear of being sued.

Now victims' families have filed lawsuits against many of them, arguing that they failed to check his background or follow up on warning signs.