Aino Nykopp-Koski is a Finnish

Finland

Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...

 serial killer

Serial killer

A serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification...

. 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.

Activities

Between 2004 and 2009 Nykopp-Koski worked at a range of hospitals, care homes and patients' homes. There she killed five elderly patients using sedative

Sedative

A sedative or tranquilizer is a substance that induces sedation by reducing irritability or excitement....

s and opiate

Opiate

In medicine, the term opiate describes any of the narcotic opioid alkaloids found as natural products in the opium poppy plant.-Overview:Opiates are so named because they are constituents or derivatives of constituents found in opium, which is processed from the latex sap of the opium poppy,...

s. 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

Personality disorder

Personality disorders, formerly referred to as character disorders, are a class of personality types and behaviors. Personality disorders are noted on Axis II of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders or DSM-IV-TR of the American Psychiatric Association.Personality disorders are...

 she was deemed culpable for her actions.

Her lawyer has said an appeal against the conviction will be lodged.

Similar cases in Finland

In March 2010 Katariina Pantila

Katariina Pantila

Katariina Meri-Tuulia Pantila was a Finnish murderer and nurse....

, 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.

See also

Other nurses convicted of murdering patients:

• Stephan Letter
  Stephan Letter
  Stephan Letter is a German serial killer known to be responsible for the killings of at least 29 elderly patients while he was working at a hospital as a nurse in Sonthofen, Bavaria. In December 2006, Stephan Letter was found guilty for at least 29 murders and was sentenced to life...
  
  
• Marianne Nölle
  Marianne Nölle
  Marianne Nölle is a German serial killer from Cologne. She was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1993 for seven murders.-Crimes:Nölle was a nurse and between 1984 and 1992 killed patients in her care using Truxal. Police think she killed a total of 17 and attempted 18 other murders, but she was...
  
  
• Abraão José Bueno
  Abraão José Bueno
  Abraão José Bueno is a Brazilian nurse and serial killer. In 2005 he was sentenced to 110 years imprisonment for the murder of four children and the attempted murder of another four.-Crimes:...
  
  
• Edson Isidoro Guimarães
  Edson Isidoro Guimarães
  Edson Isidoro Guimarães is a Brazillian nursing assistant and convicted serial killer. He confessed to five murders of which he was convicted of four, but is suspected of committing up to 131 in total...
  
  
• Catherine Wilson
  Catherine Wilson
  Catherine Wilson was a British woman who was hanged for one murder, but was generally thought at the time to have committed six others. She worked as a nurse and poisoned her victims after encouraging them to leave her money in their wills...