Timea FALUDI
A.K.A: "Black Angel"
Classification: Homicide
Characteristics: Nurse - Murders "for mercy"
Number of victims: 30 +
Date of murder: May 2000 - February 2001
Date of arrest: February 19, 2001
Date of birth: 1977
Victim profile: Terminally ill patients
Method of murder: Poisoning (lethal injections)
Location: Budapest, Hungary
Status: Sentenced to 9 years in prison on December 2, 2002
In early 2001 the Hungarian nurse Timea Faludi (then 24) confessed on killing appr. 40 elderly patients "for mercy". The case was uncovered when the medical director of the Gyala Nviro Hospital in Budapest noticed, that the death toll was unusually high, when sister Timea was on night-shift. Controls of the drug usage showed a shortage of tranquilizer. Anyway Timea Faludi withdrew her confessions during trial and as all the victims had been cremated there was no evidence left.
Faludi was sentenced to 9 years in prison for repeated attempts of murder and a lifelong prohibition to work as nurse.
Hungarian "Black Angel" Nurse Gets Nine Years' Jail
France Presse
December 2, 2002
BUDAPEST, Dec 2 (AFP) - A Hungarian court Monday sentenced a nurse dubbed the "Black Angel" to nine years in jail after she pleaded guilty to killing patients by lethal injection in a Budapest hospital in 2000 and 2001.
Budapest Municipal Court also banned Time Faludi, 25, from ever working as a nurse again in a verdict that may be appealed, a court spokesman said.
During a police investigation, Faludi admitted killing at least 40 terminally ill patients, but later withrew that testimony.
The court established that she arbitrarily gave intravenous injections to seven seriously ill patients between May 2000 and February 2001, and found that all seven patients died shortly afterwards.
But the court found her directly responsible for only three of the deaths, saying it "could not see a direct, proven link between the injections and the deaths" in the remaining cases.
Faludi admitted killing eight people during the trial, but denied that she wanted to kill them, saying she only wanted to ease the patients' suffering.
Euthanasia is illegal in Hungary.
She was convicted on multiple counts of attempted murder and intentionally endangering lives.
After the killings became public, colleagues dubbed the nurse the "Black Angel" because of her long black hair and habitual black clothing.
Faludi administered deadly injections to several terminally ill patients while she thought she was alone on her night shifts, according to the prosecution.
Nurses in Hungary are not allowed to administer intravenous injections without a doctor's order, the court heard.
She was arrested in February 2001 after colleagues became suspicious when patient deaths coincided with her shifts.
Police were called in and found she had illegally administered tranquilisers and pain killers to patients.
According to a court psychiatrist, Faludi had a "well-developed ability to empathise, while internally she felt she was God".
"She alternately put herself in the place of the doctor or in that of the patient and took decisions instead of them," the court said in its verdict.
It also said Faludi's actions could not be viewed as euthanasia.
"The term euthanasia can only be used at all if a patient expresses a wish to have his or her life terminated. In Faludi's cases, this did not happen," the verdict said.
'Black Angel' nurse jailed over killings
BBC News
December 2, 2002
A court in Hungary has sentenced a nurse dubbed the "Black Angel" to nine years in prison after she pleaded guilty to killing patients by lethal injection in a Budapest hospital.
During her trial, she had admitted carrying out some of the killings, but said she had only wanted to end her patients' suffering.
The court in Budapest rejected the prosecution's request that the nurse, Timea Faludi, be convicted of murder and instead found her guilty of the lesser charge of attempted murder.
The 25-year-old nurse, who was arrested in February last year, became known as the "Black Angel" among her colleagues because of her long black hair and her habit of dressing in black.
Colleagues became suspicious when patient deaths coincided with her shifts, and turned to police.
Police had no material evidence against the nurse as all her alleged victims had since been cremated.
The court said no causal link could be ascertained between the administration of the medication and death in these cases.
'Tacitly acknowledged'
However, during the investigation Faludi confessed to giving lethal injections to some 40 elderly patients at the Gyula Nyiro hospital between May 2000 and February 2001.
She later retracted this confession, and police were only able to find eight cases in which she was strongly suspected of having helped them die.
Her lawyer had told the court that she had lied about the killings to make herself seem more interesting.
Euthanasia is illegal in Hungary.
The revelations about Faludi's activities sparked a review of procedures in hospitals across the country when they were made.
Although nurses at the Budapest hospital were banned from giving intravenous injections, this happened and was tacitly accepted, said Faludi in her testimony.
The court banned her from working as a nurse again.
Nurse Tells Court She Killed 30
Los Angeles Times
May 28, 2002
BUDAPEST, Hungary — On the first day of her trial for murder, the nurse who became known as the "Black Angel" claimed Monday that she killed at least 30 patients in her care over a period of nine months.
Timea Faludi, 25, told the court in Budapest that she remembered administering lethal doses of drugs to 30 to 35 seriously ill elderly patients at the capital's Gyula Nyiro hospital from May 2000 to February 2001.
In her confession to the court, Faludi, who has been in custody since Feb. 19, 2001, said she considered herself guilty not only in the eight cases of killing patients by lethal injection for which she is charged, but in the other cases as well.
However, she claimed that she administered the drugs to relieve the patients' pain, not to intentionally kill them.
Faludi became known as the "Black Angel" because of the dark clothes she wore to work on her night shift at the hospital. Faludi joined the hospital staff in 1994.
After hearing her confession, the court retired to review videotapes of her often contradictory statements to police.
Police did not give a motive for the killings.
The trial was expected to continue next week.
'Black Angel' nurse admits killings
BBC News
May 27, 2002
A 25-year-old nurse dubbed the "Black Angel" has told a Hungarian court that she killed 30 seriously ill and elderly patients in her care over a period of nine months.
Timea Faludi appeared in court in Budapest for the first day of her trial, where she answered charges of killing eight terminally ill patients at the Gyula Nyiro hospital between May 2000 and February 2001.
Miss Faludi said she considered herself not only responsible for their deaths, but also those of a series of other patients - all of whom had died of overdoses of morphine and other painkillers.
But the nurse, who worked in a special unit for the terminally ill, insisted before the court that she had not intended to kill them, but merely to alleviate their pain.
'Tacitly acknowledged'
Miss Faludi has been in custody since February last year, when she admitted helping up to 40 seriously ill patients die.
She later retracted this confession, and police were only able to find eight cases in which she was strongly suspected of having helped them die.
Euthanasia is illegal in Hungary, and Miss Faludi faces life imprisonment if she is found guilty.
Correspondents say the fact that the alleged victims have now been cremated could make the prosecution's case very difficult.
The court is currently reviewing videotapes of her often contradictory confessions, and the case is expected to continue into next week.
The revelations about Miss Faludi's activities sparked a review of procedures in hospitals across the country when they were made.
Although nurses at the Budapest hospital were banned from giving intravenous injections, this happened and was tacitly accepted, said Miss Faludi in her testimony.
Killer Nurse Sparks Hungary Hospital Probe
BBC News
November 21, 2001
A major inquiry has been ordered in hospitals across Hungary after a nurse confessed to killing more than 40 patients in the capital, Budapest.
The nurse, in her early 20s, is said to have told police she killed the terminally-ill patients as an act of mercy.
The woman, identified only as Timea F, has been dubbed the Black Angel.
Hungary's health minister ordered the nationwide inquiry after claims that the nurse was free to kill because of gaps in procedures.
"I have ordered an investigation by the Public Health Officer at every Hungarian hospital to regain the confidence of the public in the health service," said the minister, Istvan Mikola.
"Whatever a hospital's procedures may be, you cannot have a situation whereby a nurse has the power of life and death."
The nurse, who apparently carried out the killings during night shifts, is undergoing psychiatric evaluation. The deaths are believed to be spread over the past year.
The Gyula Nyiroe hospital where the killings took place has said it is not to blame for the killings.
"In the current situation, I do not feel that even a limited responsibility of doctors could be established," said hospital director Gabor Takacs.
"If a psychopath, or a person with mental disorders or personality deviations - one who thinks to be master of life and death - gets into the system, the system cannot protect itself," he added.
The nurse worked in a special unit for the terminally ill, and has reportedly told police she wanted to spare the patients any further suffering.
Managers insist they had been given no cause for concern about her conduct.
"She had worked here for six years and was an experienced, professionally well-trained nurse. If you ask whether she had made any serious mistake that could have alerted us, the answer is no," department chief Mariann Vadnai told a press conference.
The alarm was raised when a colleague finally saw the nurse giving dying patients intravenous injections without a doctor's prescription.
Police spokesman Attila Petoefi said the case was "unprecedented" in Hungarian police and medical history.
