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Aino Nykopp-Koski is a Finnish serial killer. She worked as a nurse and was found guilty of killing five patients and the attempted murder of five more. No motive was established for the murders.

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Between 2004 and 2009 Nykopp-Koski worked at a range of hospitals, care homes and patients' homes. There she killed five elderly patients using sedatives and opiates. She was apprehended in March 2009.

Nykopp-Koski was tried in Helsinki District Court in December 2010 and pleaded not-guilty, though the court convicted her. She was sentenced to life in prison (minimum of 12 years before likely pardon). Despite having a personality disorder she was deemed culpable for her actions. The sentence was upheld by Helsinki Court of Appeals in March 2012.

Similar cases in Finland

In March 2010 Katariina Pantila, another Finnish nurse, was found dead in her prison cell. She had been convicted of the murder of a patient and the attempted murder of a baby in 2007.

Killer nurse's life sentence upheld

The Helsinki Appeals Court has confirmed a life sentence in Finland's largest-ever serial murder case

Yle.fi

March 29, 2012

The court upheld the earlier ruling by the Helsinki District Court.

Aino Nykopp-Koski was convicted of five murders and five attempted murders committed between 2004 and 2009.

The victims included her colleague and elderly patients in facilities where she worked as a practical nurse.

Nykopp-Koski has consistently denied all charges brought against her. While in prison, she married a man 20 years her junior, resulting in a change of surname.

The accused is to seek the right of appeal to the Supreme Court.

Serial killer appeals conviction

Yle.fi

July 11, 2011

Despite her conviction, she denies any involvement in the deaths.

Nykopp-Koski, a nurse from Helsinki, was convicted and handed a life sentence for the murders of five people and the attempted murders of another five between 2004 and 2009. All of the victims were elderly bed-ridden patients in facilities where she was employed. Most had been given high doses of sedatives.

At the opening of her appeal on Monday, Nykopp-Koski was reported as listening calmly as the prosecutor read out the charges she was found guilty of by the Helsinki District Court.

"Nykopp-Koski gave her patients medication with the intent of killing. She had a pattern according to which she acted. First, she gave the fatal medications. When the symptoms of poisoning began to appear, she phoned the emergency centre and often their relatives. She tried to use these calls to ensure that no one would suspect her," State Prosecutor Leena Metsäpelto read out to the court.

According to Metsäpelto, for years Nykopp-Koski successfully murdered her defenceless patients. She added that Nykopp-Koski has shown no regret for her actions.

Claims innocence

During police investigations and her first trial, Nykopp-Koski denied all charges. She repeated her denial when the Appeals Court convened on Monday, asking the court to overturn her conviction and to release her.

"I met with my client a few days ago. She is still certain of her innocence. For this reason she wants these charges to be handled by the Appeals Court," Nykopp-Koski's lawyer, Heikki Lampela, told YLE.

The Appeals Court will hear 90 witnesses, with a decision expected after the end of the year.

Lampela was unwilling to give his own evaluation of the need for a new trial.

"My client believes that the verdict will change. My truth is my client's truth," said Lampela.

Finnish nurse gets life for murdering five patients

Telegraph.co.uk

December 22, 2010

A Finnish nurse was on Wednesday sentenced to life in prison for murdering five elderly patients and attempting to murder five more, in an apparently motiveless killing spree.

Aino Nykopp-Koski, 60, killed the patients, aged between 70 and 91, with drugs they had not been prescribed, including sedatives and opiates.

The murders took place at various hospitals, care homes and patients' homes between 2004 and 2009, the Helsinki court heard.

Media reported that the court had not been able to determine any motive for the crimes.

Nykopp-Koksi, who has been in police custody since March 2009, was also found guilty of other offences including aggravated assault on a colleague and theft.

Psychiatric examinations concluded in November the nurse fully understood the consequences of her actions even though she suffered from a personality disorder, and could thus be deemed responsible for the murders.

She pleaded not guilty, claiming the deaths were from natural causes or because the patients had accidentally or intentionally taken an overdose.

Defence lawyer Heikki Lampela told the STT news agency an appeal would be lodged.

In March, Katariina Pantila, a Finnish nurse dubbed the "angel of death" after she was sentenced to life in prison for murdering a patient and trying to kill a baby with insulin, was found dead in her jail cell.