A palliative nurse has been sentenced to life in prison for murdering 10 patients with lethal injections and attempting to kill 27 others.

The 44-year-old man, who has not been publicly named and entered court covering his face with a ring-binder, administered overdoses of sedatives and painkillers to mostly elderly patients to lighten his night workload, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors argued that the motive for the crimes—committed between Dec. 2023 and May 2024 at a clinic in Würselen, near Aachen, Germany, was to reduce his work during overnight shifts.

Judges at Aachen’s regional court found a “particular severity of guilt,” curbing any chance of parole after the standard 15 years for a life term. The verdict can be appealed, and investigators are reviewing other suspicious cases.

Germany’s worst post-war medical killings involved ex-nurse Niels Högel, jailed for murdering 85 patients in 2019.