Mass murdering acid killer jailed for 127 years

A NURSING home security guard has been jailed for more than 127 years for the murder of 11 elderly men and women.

The Supreme Court upheld a 127-and-a-half year prison sentence on the security guard of a nursing home in Olot, Girona, convicted of murdering 11 residents of the home between 2009 and 2010 using caustic acid, psychotropic drugs and other substances.

The court dismissed the appeal lodged by the defendant, Joan Vila, in which he maintained there was not enough proof that the deaths of eight of the 11 men and women had been brought about by high doses of the substances. While being questioned by police, the examining magistrate and during the trial, the man had admitted giving the substances to the victims.

According to the Supreme Court, the defendant’s lawyer conceded during the hearings that his client was the perpetrator, but requested that the sentence be suspended on the grounds of mental disorder.

After being sentenced, the man admitted to three of the murders, but appealed against the other eight  for violations of the presumption of innocence, claiming his confession was not enough to prove the crime.

Nevertheless, the Supreme Court concluded that the arguments put forward by Vila were contradictory and incoherent, since he confessed to giving the victims the toxic substances, but then maintained they could have died for reasons he had nothing to do with.

He is likely to serve 40 years of the sentence and has also been ordered to pay the victims’ families €369,000 in compensation.