Roman Catholic Deacon Ivo Poppe Charged with Killing 40 Patients at Hospital in Belgium
By Nicole Goodrich
Police in Belgium have charged a Roman Catholic deacon in the deaths of at least 40 patients during a 20-year killing spree, allegedly to put them out of their misery. Ivo Poppe, 57, worked as a nurse and chaplain at the Hopital du Sacre Coeur in Menin, west of Brussels, from 1980 to 2002, when he was ordained a deacon — one step below becoming a priest. But prosecutors believe the killings continued up to 2011 as he went on visiting the hospital in his role of a part-time pastoral assistant. The married father of three kept records of his victims, whom he killed by smothering with a pillow or administering a lethal dose of insulin. The list apparently included several family members, the Antwerp Gazette reported. Euthanasia has been legal in Belgium since 2002, but only if the patient requests it and is given the go-ahead by several doctors. We sympathize with the families of the victims, who have been left with many questions and uncertainty The victims didn’t ask to be euthanized, said Tom Janssens, a spokesman for the prosecutors’ office in Courtrai. He added Mr. Poppe had confessed to the killings. “The accused’s statements are consistent with suspicions about him.” The man’s lawyers said he was acting out of compassion because he felt the patients’ sufferings were excessive. He is now being examined by psychiatrists to assess his mental condition. Jozef De Kesel, bishop of Bruges, Mr. Poppe’s diocese, said, “We can only condemn and deplore the matters with which he has been charged. We sympathize with the families of the victims, who have been left with many questions and uncertainty.” Added a spokesman for the diocese, “Euthanasia and deacon — these are two words that do not belong together in the same sentence.” Local police have been inundated by calls from people wanting to know if Mr. Poppe was responsible for their loved ones’ deaths — 20 were received last Friday alone. “We urgently need to get clarity whether he killed our parents,” said Rudy Pecheux, 60, whose father Jules died at the hospital in 1999. “My dad was sick but far from being terminally ill. I was suddenly told by doctors he had died. I never got to know the exact cause of death,” he told the newspaper Het Niewsblad. Kristien Beusenlinck, a spokeswoman for the hospital, said administrators were struggling to answer relatives’ questions. In many cases it would be hard to find out exactly what happened as some of the killings took place 30 years ago. My dad was sick but far from being terminally ill. I was suddenly told by doctors he had died. I never got to know the exact cause of death There was no question of Mr. Poppe being permitted to euthanize patients, she added. People in the suspect’s village of Wevelgem, near Menin, are stunned by the revelations. “We are deeply shocked by the news,” Father Jan Parmentier told the congregation at the church of Sint Hilarius. “We do not know any more than what has appeared in the newspapers. But we must think of the many families who lost loved ones at the Sacred Heart hospital in Menin and who are now living in great uncertainty and fear.” He pleaded for understanding for Mr. Poppe’s wife and family — the couple’s two daughters and a son, aged 20 to 30, live in the same house in the village.
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