Nurse jailed for life over Sydney nursing home fire deaths

Blaze started by Roger Dean killed 11 elderly residents

Police officers outside Quakers Hill Nursing Home in Sydney, Australia following a fatal fire on November 18th, 2011. Photograph: Daniel Munoz/Reuters
Police officers outside Quakers Hill Nursing Home in Sydney, Australia following a fatal fire on November 18th, 2011. Photograph: Daniel Munoz/Reuters

nurse has been sentenced to life in prison for starting fires that killed 11 residents at a nursing home in Australia.

New South Wales Supreme Court Justice Megan Latham gave Roger Dean the maximum sentence for two fires that engulfed the nursing home in the Sydney suburb of Quakers Hill in 2011.

Dean pleaded guilty in May to 11 counts of murder and eight counts of grievous bodily harm.

Police said Dean lit the fires after discovering he was under investigation for stealing more than 200 prescription pills from the home.

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The fire was an apparent attempt to destroy evidence.

Dean told police the devil made him do it.