A French anesthetist is facing serious allegations of poisoning 30 patients, with one victim as young as four years old.
Frédéric Péchier, 53, practiced at two clinics in Besançon, France, where numerous patients experienced cardiac arrest under suspicious conditions.
It is suspected that these 30 patients were poisoned, resulting in heart attacks, and tragically, 12 of them did not survive.
The anesthetist is accused of deliberately causing these heart attacks to demonstrate his resuscitation abilities and undermine his colleagues.
The youngest alleged victim, a four-year-old named Teddy, endured two cardiac arrests during a routine tonsillectomy in 2016 but survived. The eldest alleged victim was 89 years old.
Péchier was initially charged with the poisonings in 2019, and after extensive investigations, his trial is now underway.
The method of poisoning allegedly involved tampering with the patients’ IV bags. If convicted, Péchier could face a life sentence.
Despite the charges, Péchier claims innocence, maintaining there is ‘no proof of any poisoning,’ according to BBC News. He alleges the accusations stem from envious colleagues.
The trial is anticipated to last over three months, involving more than 150 civil parties representing the supposed victims.
Around 170 witnesses and experts are expected to testify throughout the proceedings.
The trial follows an eight-year investigation. Péchier’s lawyer, Maître Randall Schwerdorffer, contends that the prosecution lacks clear evidence against him.
“If Frédéric Péchier has never been placed in detention, it is because the evidence being used against him is not that clear, far from it,” he stated, as reported by Radio France.
Schwerdorffer further argued: “There were all the means to place Frédéric Péchier in detention: the disturbance of public order, the risk of repetition… We have always had judges who, at one point, said: it’s not possible, there is a problem in the case.”
Prosecutors, however, assert that Péchier is the common link in the 30 suspicious incidents.
Prosecutor Etienne Manteaux told the court (via Metro Online): “What Péchier is accused of is poisoning healthy patients in order to harm colleagues with whom he was in conflict. He was the first responder when cardiac arrest occurred. He always had a solution.”