French Doctor Frédéric Péchier, who was sentenced to life for 30 cases of poisoning, behaved like a "serial killer," according to a document of the court's reasoning obtained by AFP on Tuesday.
"The multiplicity of criminal acts," judged during an exceptional three-and-a-half-month trial at the Doubs Assize Court, ‘leads one to evoke the modus operandi of a serial killer," wrote the court in a statement published five days after the verdict on 18 December.
The 57-page document, signed by the president of the court, Delphine Thibierge, and the chief juror, discusses at length the personality of the accused, marked by "a personality divided between a self that was well-adjusted to his family environment and a self that was wounded in his professional environment."
The text goes into detail about the 30 cases of poisoning, 12 of which were fatal, attributed to the anaesthetist, who is accused of contaminating transfusion bags of patients.
"Frédéric Péchier thus used his medical and anaesthetic knowledge both to settle professional disputes with his colleagues and to respond to internal tensions caused by his own unhappiness, as evidenced in particular by a suicide attempt (in 2014) and occasional consultations with a psychologist," the judges said.
The anaesthetist then sometimes intervened to try to resuscitate the victims, but 12 of them died.
"The accused was able to find within the Saint-Vincent clinic [in Besançon, where most of the poisonings took place] a playground that allowed him to obtain the professional recognition he expected from his father, thereby enjoying a certain aura within the operating theatre," the court noted.
Frédéric Péchier's defence team has appealed.
