Dec. 18 (UPI) -- A French court sentenced a former "star" anesthetist to life in prison after convicting him of murdering 12 of his patients over a period of almost 10 years by administering substances that caused cardiac arrest or deadly haemorrhages.
The youngest of 53-year-old Frederic Pechier's 30 victims was 4 and the oldest was 89, according to prosecutors who said he was a twisted serial killer, dubbed "Doctor Death" and one of the worst criminals in French legal history.
Pechier will serve at least 22 years but has 10 days to appeal, which, if successful, would see him retried.
The case goes back to 2017 when an investigation was launched into poisoning deaths at two clinics he worked at in Besancon, 240 miles southeast of Paris, over the previous nine years.
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