A French court found this Thursday, December 18, anesthetist Frédéric Péchier guilty of poisoning 30 patients, 12 of whom died, between 2008 and 2017 and sentenced him to life in prison.
The Court of Assize in Doubs, in eastern France, imposed a minimum sentence of 22 years. Patients were poisoned at two clinics in Besançon between 2008 and 2017.
The mixed court, made up of six jurors assisted by three judges, did not believe the defendant’s declaration of innocence, presented for three months in the Besançon court, due to the lack of direct evidence.
“For eight years I have been fighting against those who accuse me of being a poisoner. I took an oath in 1999 and I have always respected it, the Hippocratic Oath”, said the doctor last Monday, in his final statement.
Despite that, the jury accepted the prosecution’s arguments, which maintained that Péchier was the only one who could have committed these crimes and that he did so out of spite against some of his fellow doctors, on whom he wanted revenge.
Defense lawyers have already expressed their intention to appeal the sentencealthough this does not prevent his preventive detention, despite having appeared free during the trial.
The announcement of the sentence caused great commotion among the anesthesiologist’s family, especially his children and his mother, who burst into tears upon hearing the guilty verdict, according to the local press present at the court.
The prosecution described Péchier, 53, as a “serial killer” and a “doctor of death”, who injected potassium and other substances into patients to induce cardiac arrest, with the aim of psychologically wearing down doctors with whom he had conflicts.
Although they found no formal evidence of his actions, investigators considered the anesthesiologist the only common link between all the deaths.
Doctor Frédéric Péchier was first accused in 2017 of seven cases of poisoning, two of which were fatal. At that point, the doctor would be released under judicial supervision.