An Australian man this week pleaded guilty to murdering 11 elderly residents of a nursing home where he worked briefly in 2011.
According to an Australian Associated Press report, 37-year-old Roger Dean admitted during his Australian Supreme Court trial to setting a fire that killed 11 residents of the Quakers Hill nursing home in Sydney. Dean started the fire in the early morning hours of November 18, 2011 by lighting an empty bed in the nursing home.
Some of the eleven residents who died were unable to move without assistance. In addition to the murder charges, Dean also pleaded guilty to injuring eight other nursing home residents in the fire.
The AAP report also states that Dean admitted taking prescription drugs from the nursing home. He had apparently been caught on a security camera entering a medication a storage room multiple times. The incident was reported, but police were not able to arrive immediately. Dean started the fire soon after, and then played the part of rescuer by helping some residents escape the flames. During the chaos, Dean managed to steal the facility’s drug logs, which he later destroyed.
