A FORMER anaesthetist who intentionally poisoned 30 patients and killed 12 – including a four-year-old child – has been jailed for life.
Following a three-and-a-half-month trial, Frédéric Péchier, 53, was found guilty of spiking infusion bags in operating rooms over a nine-year period.
An investigation was launched eight years ago, when he was first suspected of poisoning patients in two French clinics.
Dubbed “Doctor Death” by prosecutors, his sick game began in Besançon between 2008 and 2017.
His deadly cocktail used potassium, local anaesthetics, adrenaline, or heparin to cause patients to experience cardiac arrest or haemorrhaging.
“You are Doctor Death, a poisoner, a murderer,” a prosecutor said last week.
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“You bring shame on all doctors.
“You have turned this clinic into a graveyard.”
On Thursday, Péchier was sentenced to spend at least 22 years locked up, after being found guilty in a court in eastern France.
His youngest victim was a four-year-old child who suffered two cardiac arrests while undergoing a routine tonsil surgery in 2016.
Péchier’s oldest victim was an 89-year-old.
Public prosecutor Christine de Curraize was scathing as she addressed the disgraced doctor, saying he was “not worthy of the title”.
“[You are] one of the greatest criminals in history,” she said.
“You who have always portrayed yourself as a victim, you are not worthy of the title of doctor.
“You are the doctor of death.”
Following the sentencing, he was taken into custody to be directly imprisoned.
Péchier has consistently denied the accusations, saying “I am not a poisoner”.
“I have said it before and I’ll say it again … I have always upheld the Hippocratic oath,” he told the court.
His lawyer Randall Schwerdorffer arguing for an acquittal throughout the trial.
“A culprit has been manufactured,” Schwerdorffer said.
The lawyer further claimed the “entire medical community” had conspired against him.
Schwerdorffer is expected to lodge an appeal for his client in the next 10 days, previously telling ICI Besancon he would not be representing the doctor alone.
“I won’t be able to do it again, I’ve done everything I can,” he said.
He revealed he would bring in a legal heavyweight to “very seriously strengthen the defence”.