BERLIN: A Polish healthcare worker was sentenced to life in prison in Germany on Tuesday for killing at least three people with insulin, in a case that recalls that of serial killer nurse Niels Hoegel.

The defendant, named by prosecutors as Grzegorz Stanislaw W., 38, was handed the highest possible sentence in Germany by a court in Munich and will likely spend the rest of his life behind bars.

He was initially accused of six murders, but the court could not find enough evidence to convict him for three of them.

He was however also found guilty of attempted murder in two cases, as well as dangerous bodily injury and stealing from his victims.

Judge Elisabeth Ehrl said many of Grzegorz Stanislaw W.'s patients and their families had been suspicious of him, with one elderly man threatening to jump out of the window if the man came near him. "Maria, he is the devil," one of the murder victims told his housekeeper shortly before his death.

But the court heard that although hesitant about keeping him in their employ, the families were forced to keep him on due to the urgency of their needs. Grzegorz Stanislaw W. had refused to speak during the trial, but apologised on Tuesday to the victims' relatives and expressed regret. "What I did was very brutal and remains brutal," he said.