Judge murder in US

A former nurse who claims to have killed more than 40 patients at United States hospitals in New Jersey and Pennsylvania has pleaded guilty to murdering a judge in 1988.

Charles Cullen, 44, admitted he killed Jersey City Municipal Judge John Yengo by putting lidocaine, a heart medicine, in his intravenous drip.

The drug made his heart stop.

Yesterday’s admission makes the judge Cullen’s earliest known victim. Cullen has now admitted killing 24 patients and trying to kill five others, mostly by injecting them with heart drugs.

His lawyer said Cullen believed that his victims were terminally ill and that it was dehumanising to prolong people’s lives by artificial means.