Frédéric Péchier, a 53-year-old French anaesthetist, has been convicted of intentionally poisoning 30 patients and causing the deaths of 12 over nearly a decade while working as a top medic. Described by prosecutors as “Dr Death” and “one of the biggest criminals in the history of the French legal system,” Péchier was sentenced to life in prison on Thursday. The charges stemmed from suspicious cardiac arrests among patients at two private clinics in Besançon, eastern France, between 2008 and 2017.

Péchier, once considered a “star anaesthetist” by his colleagues, systematically tampered with various medical supplies, including paracetamol bags and anaesthesia pouches, as well as IV bags. He contaminated these with substances such as potassium, local anaesthetics (like lidocaine), adrenaline, and heparin, deliberately inducing cardiac arrests or hemorrhaging. The victims, aged between four and 89, included children and adults.

The three-month trial meticulously explored Péchier’s complex motives. State prosecutors Christine de Curraize and Thérèse Brunisso detailed that Péchier acted out of a profound “need for power,” a desire to damage and discredit co-workers with whom he was in competition or conflict. He would target their patients to make them appear incompetent. In some instances, he even intervened to resuscitate patients he had poisoned, not out of a desire to save them, but to cover his tracks and assert his perceived omnipotence. Brunisso emphasized that Péchier’s crimes had two aims: “the physical death of the patient” and “the slow and insidious psychological attack on his colleagues.” Killing, according to Curraize, had become “a way of life” for him, stemming from feelings of inadequacy and frustration.

The trial featured harrowing testimonies from victims and their families. Tedy, a four-year-old boy, miraculously survived two cardiac arrests in 2016 during a routine tonsil operation. His father, Hervé Hoerter Tarby, recounted the family's “nightmare” and sense of betrayal, stating that Péchier used his son as an object to “settle scores.” Now 14, Tedy described his “great suffering” in a written statement, fearing the long-term effects of the poisoning. Sandra Simard, 36, suffered a heart stoppage during a routine back operation in 2017 due to a tampered anaesthesia pouch. She survived but lives with lifelong consequences, describing her body as feeling like that of an old person. Tests revealed her intravenous drugs had potassium concentrations 100 times the expected dose. Damien Iehlen, 53, was the first patient to die in October 2008 at the Saint-Vincent Clinic after a routine kidney operation, having been given a potentially lethal dose of lidocaine.

Despite Péchier’s consistent denial of any wrongdoing throughout the trial, stating, “I have never poisoned anyone … I am not a poisoner,” the Besançon Court of Appeal found him guilty of all 30 counts of poisoning. The court’s deliberation, which took place in a secret location, required a majority of at least seven out of nine votes for guilt in each case. Lawyers for the victims portrayed Péchier as emotionless and lacking empathy, while prosecutors described him as a “serial killer” and a “highly twisted” individual. He reportedly shed tears during one session, describing an attempt to take his own life in 2021.

Péchier, who came from a privileged background with an anaesthetist father and a cardiologist wife (from whom he is now divorced, with three children), has not practiced medicine since 2017. Though he was authorized in 2023 to work in a role without patient contact, the verdict has brought a sense of “relief, a liberation” to the civil parties, according to their lawyer, Stéphane Giuranna. Péchier has 10 days to appeal the sentence, which includes a minimum term of 22 years.