http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...dmits-taking-selfies-dead-patients-wrong.html
Nurse nicknamed ‘Angel of Death’ admits ‘taking selfies with dead patients was wrong’ but denies multiple murder charges before Italian judge
By Hannah Roberts In Ravenna, Italy For Mailonline13:28 29 Jan 2015, updated 15:14 29 Jan 2015
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- Daniela Poggiali, 42, had pictures on her phone of her grinning and laughing next to the bodies of dead patients at a hospital in Lugo, Italy
- Has said the pictures were a 'mistake', but blamed a fellow medic for taking what were meant to be 'private' images between the pair
- Poggiali was present at 93 deaths in just two years - double that of any other colleague. Suspicious fellow health workers called in police
- Officers claim she drip-fed potassium chloride to patients - the chemical used in lethal injections in the U.S.
- Poggiali: 'I haven't killed anyone. Rather, I always lived to help others'
- Prosecutor said that she is a 'megalomaniac with a God complex'
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An Italian nurse branded the 'Angel of Death' has admitted she was 'wrong' to take selfies with dead patients, but has blamed a colleague for the sick images.
Alleged serial killer Daniele Poggiali, 42, has said the shocking pictures were a 'mistake' and were meant to be kept 'private' between her and the fellow female health worker she accuses of taking them.
She told the Corriere della Sera newspaper: 'I was wrong and I recognize that.
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When colleagues finally alerted police to Poggiali's suspicious behaviour, they found these appalling selfies of her laughing and joking next to the corpse of a woman on her mobile phone
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Power-mad: Police claim Poggiali had a 'God complex' and enjoyed the control she had over life and death
'It wasn't my idea but that of my colleague, who took the photos. Also, I never could have imagined they would be circulated.
'It was something private between me and her. Anyhow, it was a mistake.'
Speaking through her lawyer Stefano Dalla Valle, Poggiali said she was unable to explain the fact she was present for 93 deaths in two years, double that of any other colleague, except that she worked a lot of shifts.
She said: 'I haven't killed anyone. Rather, I always lived to help others.'
In one of the disgusting images, Poggliali can be seen grinning and giving thumbs up signs next to the body of an elderly woman.
In another she is leaning over a corpse with an index finger pointed like a pretend gun at her own cheek.
She was arrested in October on suspicion of poisoning her alleged victims with potassium at the Umberto I Hospital in Lugo, northern Italy, but denies being a murderer.
Described by judges as a 'public danger' and denied bail, she will remain in prison until the start of the trial, Corriere said.
Investigators previously suspected that she drip-fed as many as 38 patients with potassium chloride, the compound used in lethal injections in the United States.
But Italian prosecutors are now probing 93 deaths of patients in the nurse's care amid fears Poggiali may have murdered as many as three in a single day.
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Grisly grin: Poggiali was led into court smiling despite the horrific catalogue of crimes she is accused of
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Worst ever: Proescutors told police she was present at the death of 90 patients in just two years - double the number of any other colleague at the Umberto I hospital in Lugo, Italy
Meanwhile, the blonde is said to be receiving slews of fan mail and even marriage proposals in prison. Her case has also caught the attention of Amanda Knox 'groupies' who are said to have transferred their affections to the beautiful 'killer'.
Appallingly, colleagues were not oblivious to the 'coincidence' that she was present at many of the deaths at the hospital - the problem was openly gossiped about by her colleagues.
One nurse, Sara Pausini admitted to Italian Carabinieri: 'We had for some time been talking about Poggiali and about the strange number of dead patients, even three on the same day.'
According to the arrest warrant, she said: 'When I went to work with her I began to count the strange number of deaths to see if it was by bad luck or something else.'
Records show that Miss Poggaili was present at double the number of any other nurse and as many as four times the average during her last four months at the hospital.
There were three unexplained mortalities in Miss Poggiali's care in one 24-hour period over the night of March 31 and April 1. All three are now described by prosecutors as 'highly suspicious'.
She thought she was so clever, so cunning that she could kill in the day-time, right under everyone's noses - Prosecutor Alessandro Mancini
In the shocking case of victim Oriana Cricca, who died on March 31, an unnamed nurse was asked to tend to the older woman, after her nasal feeding tube began to leak onto the pillow.
The nurse was carrying out a complicated procedure on another patient, so Miss Poggiali said that she would take care of it. A few minutes later the patient had died 'in agony', according to the arrest warrant.
Two more patients lost their lives in Miss Poggiali's care on April 4 and 5. Doctors performed autopsies but found nothing unusual.
Detectives believe Poggiali believed she was immune from detection after this series of deaths - but there were already strong suspicions that she was responsible.
She was moved off the nightshift onto the morning shift where doctors could keep an eye on her. But she allegedly struck again.
The prosecutor in the case claims she saw the extra scrutiny put on her as 'a kind of challenge'.
Alessandro Mancini told MailOnline: 'We retain that she thought she was so clever, so cunning that she could kill in the day-time, right under everyone's noses.
'She had a sense of power which made her feel capable of doing whatever she wanted even in the sense of taking someone's life. She felt omnipotent like a God. This was her mistake.'
On one occasion she had even felt safe enough to joke about her murder method with colleagues, it is claimed.
Faced with a patient who had a bad prognosis, she joked to a doctor: 'Two phials of potassium and it would all be resolved,' the arrest warrant alleges.
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Arrogant: Police claim that she told a doctor treating a patient who had a bad prognosis: 'Two phials of potassium and it would all be resolved'
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Threats: One nurse who claims to have witnessed Poggiali stealing from a patient said she found a funeral bouquet on the bonnet of her car in a 'mafia-style' warning
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Eyes rolling: The daughter of Rosa Calderoni, 78, said she found her mother with a phial in her arm, arm 'twitching manically and her eyes started rolling back'