Who is the 'killer nurse'?
Roberta Cowan gets the story behind The Hague's 'killer nurse' trial.
With a record number of victims, ranging in ages from two months to 91 years, the 'killer nurse' murder trial in The Hague district criminal court is the most serious that the city has ever seen.
Lucy Isabella Quirina de Berk, born in Holland but grew up in Canada, is accused of murder and attempted murder of patients under her care whilst working as a registered nurse in The Hague.
The trial, which started on 17 September, is set to conclude next week.
The charges
The charges against De Berk date back to 1995 and include five attempted murder charges of infants, four murder charges of infants and nine murder charges of seniors including a 91-year-old Chinese judge at the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal.
De Berk was suspended from her job at the Juliana Children’s Hospital last September after a five-month-old infant died in her care less than an hour following an extensive medical examination. An autopsy indicated foul play, prompting an immediate police investigation into the deaths at the hospital over the 18 months prior.
'Killer nurse' denies charges
Previously the deaths were not considered suspicious because the children were born with such serious physical abnormalities.
Lethal overdoses
The prosecution’s case is built on evidence that de Berk allegedly gave her victims, each seriously or terminally ill, lethal doses of “medicines, industrial substances and chlorohydrate” - a substance found in some sleeping pills.
In March, the bodies of three children allegedly killed by the nurse were disinterred for examination. The bodies of other alleged victims have been exhumed since.
De Berk, 40, has denied the charges.
Dutch investigators visited Winnipeg and Vancouver last December to gather evidence, interview witnesses and further the criminal investigation with the help of Justice Canada, the RCMP, local police authorities and Interpol.
De Berk was arrested immediately upon their return. She has been in custody since and, as is her right in the Netherlands, has refused to speak with anyone other than her lawyer and has refused to undergo any psychiatric exams or questioning.
An extensive case
Initially de Berk was charged in May with four counts of murder and one attempted murder but further police and prosecution investigation lead to a total of 13 murder charges dating back eight years, spanning three different health care facilities in The Hague and one in the seaside town of Scheveningen.
The trial has been postponed to give prosecutors more time to incorporate further charges and more evidence.
According to her lawyer Antony Visser, de Berk left Vancouver in her mid-twenties and qualified as a registered nurse ten years ago in The Hague after completing an internal hospital training programme, eventually specialising in children’s health.
She allegedly falsified her Winnipeg high school diploma to get into the Dutch nursing school.
The indictment
The indictment lays out voluminous evidence that de Berk is fascinated and obsessed with death, that she exhibits psychotic behaviour and has narcissistic tendencies.
Lead prosecutor Astrid Degeling said evidence collected in the investigation and witness accounts strongly suggest a history of mental illness.
Thus it will be difficult to prove she is of sound mind.
Her indictment says de Berk recently faked her own death and issued her own obituary in the country’s biggest newspaper noting how grief-stricken her estranged mother was of her daughter’s demise.
De Berk also told friends in Winnipeg she was attacked by a priest who used a knife to carve a cross on her chest and, a few years ago, she told her family she had leukaemia and had only a year to live.
Last May at a pro forma sitting where the prosecution requested an extension from the court to further investigate the case and also that the accused be detained in custody until the trial, lead prosecutor Degeling, described a disturbed family life.
Alcoholic parents, abusive relationships, violent and constant fighting in the home, compulsive lying, anti-social behaviour, stints working as a prostitute both in Vancouver and the Netherlands, many suicide attempts, and the list goes on.
The nurse's reaction
In response to the prosecution’s charges de Berk replied in court by saying:
“What the prosecutor has said about me is totally untrue. I have never taken someone’s life nor have I attempted to take someone’s life.
When asked by the presiding judge whether she would voluntarily have a psychological exam she said:
“I do not want to cooperate with the investigation by submitting to a psychological exam. I did not do anything that would justify such an examination and investigation. If I need psychological help, then I will seek it myself.”
The judge decided not to call for a court appointed psychologist to examine de Berk but said she would reserve her right to do so at a later point.
Her lawyer A. Visser said there was no evidence that his client had hurt anyone.
“An unexplained death is not necessarily an unnatural death and that goes for all the cases. There is no evidence of overdoses in those deaths and that my client was working those days is just a coincidence."
The office of the prosecution said that if de Berk is found guilty of murder, she will be sent to a high security prison and depending on possible mental illness, she will be obliged to have psychiatric treatment.
The case began on 17 September and is scheduled to last five days.
September 2002 |
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