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Timea
FALUDI
A.K.A: "Black Angel"
Classification: Homicide
Characteristics:
Nurse - Murders "for
mercy"
Number of victims: 30
+
Date of murder: May 2000 - February 2001
Date of arrest:
February 19, 2001
Date of birth: 1977
Victim profile:
Terminally ill patients
Method of murder: Poisoning (lethal injections)
Location: Budapest,
Hungary
Status:
Sentenced to 9 years in prison on December 2, 2002
In early 2001 the Hungarian nurse
Timea Faludi (then 24) confessed on killing appr. 40 elderly patients
"for mercy". The case was uncovered when the medical director of the
Gyala Nviro Hospital in Budapest noticed, that the death toll was
unusually high, when sister Timea was on night-shift. Controls of the
drug usage showed a shortage of tranquilizer. Anyway Timea Faludi
withdrew her confessions during trial and as all the victims had been
cremated there was no evidence left.
Faludi was sentenced to 9 years in
prison for repeated attempts of murder and a lifelong prohibition to
work as nurse.
Hungarian "Black Angel" Nurse Gets Nine Years'
Jail
France Presse
December 2, 2002
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 Time 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 withrew 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.
Police were called in
and found she had illegally administered tranquilisers and pain
killers to patients.
According to a court
psychiatrist, Faludi had a "well-developed ability to empathise, while
internally she felt she was God".
"She alternately put
herself in the place of the doctor or in that of the patient and took
decisions instead of them," the court said in its verdict.
It also said Faludi's
actions could not be viewed as euthanasia.
"The term euthanasia
can only be used at all if a patient expresses a wish to have his or
her life terminated. In Faludi's cases, this did not happen," the
verdict said.
'Black Angel' nurse jailed over killings
BBC News
December 2, 2002
A court in Hungary has sentenced a nurse dubbed the
"Black Angel" to nine years in prison after she pleaded guilty to
killing patients by lethal injection in a Budapest hospital.
During her trial, she had admitted carrying out
some of the killings, but said she had only wanted to end her
patients' suffering.
The court in Budapest rejected the prosecution's
request that the nurse, Timea Faludi, be convicted of murder and
instead found her guilty of the lesser charge of attempted murder.
The 25-year-old nurse, who was arrested in February
last year, became known as the "Black Angel" among her colleagues
because of her long black hair and her habit of dressing in black.
Colleagues became suspicious when patient deaths
coincided with her shifts, and turned to police.
Police had no material evidence against the nurse
as all her alleged victims had since been cremated.
The court said no causal link could be ascertained
between the administration of the medication and death in these cases.
'Tacitly acknowledged'
However, during the investigation Faludi confessed
to giving lethal injections to some 40 elderly patients at the Gyula
Nyiro hospital between May 2000 and February 2001.
She later retracted this confession, and police
were only able to find eight cases in which she was strongly suspected
of having helped them die.
Her lawyer had told the court that she had lied
about the killings to make herself seem more interesting.
Euthanasia is illegal in Hungary.
The revelations about Faludi's activities sparked a
review of procedures in hospitals across the country when they were
made.
Although nurses at the Budapest hospital were
banned from giving intravenous injections, this happened and was
tacitly accepted, said Faludi in her testimony.
The court banned her from working as a nurse again.
Nurse Tells Court She Killed 30
Los Angeles Times
May 28, 2002
BUDAPEST, Hungary — On the first day of her trial
for murder, the nurse who became known as the "Black Angel" claimed
Monday that she killed at least 30 patients in her care over a period
of nine months.
Timea Faludi, 25, told the court in Budapest that
she remembered administering lethal doses of drugs to 30 to 35
seriously ill elderly patients at the capital's Gyula Nyiro hospital
from May 2000 to February 2001.
In her confession to the court, Faludi, who has
been in custody since Feb. 19, 2001, said she considered herself
guilty not only in the eight cases of killing patients by lethal
injection for which she is charged, but in the other cases as well.
However, she claimed that she administered the
drugs to relieve the patients' pain, not to intentionally kill them.
Faludi became known as the "Black Angel" because of
the dark clothes she wore to work on her night shift at the hospital.
Faludi joined the hospital staff in 1994.
After hearing her confession, the court retired to
review videotapes of her often contradictory statements to police.
Police did not give a motive for the killings.
The trial was expected to continue next week.
'Black Angel' nurse admits killings
BBC News
May 27, 2002
A 25-year-old nurse dubbed the "Black Angel" has
told a Hungarian court that she killed 30 seriously ill and elderly
patients in her care over a period of nine months.
Timea Faludi appeared in court in Budapest for the
first day of her trial, where she answered charges of killing eight
terminally ill patients at the Gyula Nyiro hospital between May 2000
and February 2001.
Miss Faludi said she considered herself not only
responsible for their deaths, but also those of a series of other
patients - all of whom had died of overdoses of morphine and other
painkillers.
But the nurse, who worked in a special unit for the
terminally ill, insisted before the court that she had not intended to
kill them, but merely to alleviate their pain.
'Tacitly acknowledged'
Miss Faludi has been in custody since February last
year, when she admitted helping up to 40 seriously ill patients die.
She later retracted this confession, and police
were only able to find eight cases in which she was strongly suspected
of having helped them die.
Euthanasia is illegal in Hungary, and Miss Faludi
faces life imprisonment if she is found guilty.
Correspondents say the fact that the alleged
victims have now been cremated could make the prosecution's case very
difficult.
The court is currently reviewing videotapes of her
often contradictory confessions, and the case is expected to continue
into next week.
The revelations about Miss Faludi's activities
sparked a review of procedures in hospitals across the country when
they were made.
Although nurses at the Budapest hospital were
banned from giving intravenous injections, this happened and was
tacitly accepted, said Miss Faludi in her testimony.
Killer Nurse
Sparks Hungary Hospital Probe
BBC News
November 21, 2001
A major inquiry has
been ordered in hospitals across Hungary after a nurse confessed to
killing more than 40 patients in the capital, Budapest.
The nurse, in her
early 20s, is said to have told police she killed the terminally-ill
patients as an act of mercy.
The woman, identified
only as Timea F, has been dubbed the Black Angel.
Hungary's health
minister ordered the nationwide inquiry after claims that the nurse
was free to kill because of gaps in procedures.
"I have ordered an
investigation by the Public Health Officer at every Hungarian hospital
to regain the confidence of the public in the health service," said
the minister, Istvan Mikola.
"Whatever a
hospital's procedures may be, you cannot have a situation whereby a
nurse has the power of life and death."
The nurse, who
apparently carried out the killings during night shifts, is undergoing
psychiatric evaluation. The deaths are believed to be spread over the
past year.
The Gyula Nyiroe
hospital where the killings took place has said it is not to blame for
the killings.
"In the current
situation, I do not feel that even a limited responsibility of doctors
could be established," said hospital director Gabor Takacs.
"If a psychopath, or
a person with mental disorders or personality deviations - one who
thinks to be master of life and death - gets into the system, the
system cannot protect itself," he added.
The nurse worked in a
special unit for the terminally ill, and has reportedly told police
she wanted to spare the patients any further suffering.
Managers insist they
had been given no cause for concern about her conduct.
"She had worked here
for six years and was an experienced, professionally well-trained
nurse. If you ask whether she had made any serious mistake that could
have alerted us, the answer is no," department chief Mariann Vadnai
told a press conference.
The alarm was raised
when a colleague finally saw the nurse giving dying patients
intravenous injections without a doctor's prescription.
Police spokesman
Attila Petoefi said the case was "unprecedented" in Hungarian police
and medical history.
