Elizabeth Wettlaufer is escorted by police from the courthouse in Woodstock, Ont, Monday, June 26, 2017. Wettlaufer, a former Ontario nurse who murdered eight seniors in her care, was sentenced Monday to life in prison with no eligibility for parole for 25 years.

Elizabeth Wettlaufer is escorted by police from the courthouse in Woodstock, Ont, Monday, June 26, 2017. Wettlaufer, a former Ontario nurse who murdered eight seniors in her care, was sentenced Monday to life in prison with no eligibility for parole for 25 years.
Photo Credit: PC / Dave Chidley

Former nurse sentenced to life in prison for deaths of 8 seniors

A former Canadian nurse has been sentenced to life in prison without eligibility for parole for 25 years for coldblooded murder of eight seniors in her care.

Elizabeth Wettlaufer had pleaded guilty earlier this month to killing James Silcox, 84, Maurice Granat, 84, Gladys Millard, 87, Helen Matheson, 95, Mary Zurawinski, 96, Helen Young, 90, Maureen Pickering, 79, and Arpad Horvath, 75, by injecting them with lethal doses of insulin.

The former Ontario nurse also attempted to murder Wayne Hedges, 57, Michael Priddle, 63, Sandra Towler, 77, and Beverly Bertram, 68.

She also pleaded guilty to aggravated assault against Clotilde Adriano, 87, and Albina Demedeiros, 90.

The judge handed down Wettlaufer’s sentence after hearing 19 victim impact statements, on the first day of her sentencing hearing in Woodstock, Ontario.

Many of the victims’ families expressed feeling rage and overwhelming guilt.

Family members lean on each other for support after reading their impact statements to the court at the sentencing of Elizabeth Wettlaufer, in Woodstock, Ont, Monday, June 26, 2017. (Dave Chidley/THE CANADIAN PRESS)

“I placed my mother in the care of a facility I researched, never thinking she would be the victim of a despicable crime,” the daughter of Helen Matheson, 95, said in her victim impact statement.

But Superior Court Justice Bruce Thomas said the families have nothing to blame themselves for.

“She was far from the angel of mercy, more the shadow of death who passed over them,” Thomas said.

Wettlaufer, 50, also briefly addressed the court to apologize for her actions.

“I caused tremendous pain and suffering and death…. Sorry is much too small a word. I am extremely sorry,” she told the court.

Wettlaufer will serve all her sentences concurrently but Thomas told her she will likely never be paroled.

“Hopefully her conscience becomes her prison, and hopefully she rots in it,” Arpad Horvath Jr., whose father was among the victims, told reporters.

With files from CBC News and The Canadian Press

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