Girona porter admits to killing three

Joan Vila Dilmé, the "Porter of Girona," yesterday confessed to ending the lives of three senior citizens at the residential home in which he worked in Olot in the northern province of Catalonia.

Vila Dilmé, 45, told the Mossos d'Esquadra that he carried out the killings on October 12, 16 and 17 because he could not bear to witness the victims' suffering. Two of the deceased - Paquita Gironès, 85, and Sabina Masllorens, 87 - were suffering from serious health problems. Yesterday afternoon, Vila Dilmé confessed to a third victim, who has not yet been named,

The porter, who had worked at the La Caritat residential home for five years, broke down in court while explaining that he suffers from manic depression. He told the magistrate that for a moment during the killings, which he carried out by giving the victims corrosive liquid to drink, he felt like God.

"I don't think he killed her - she died of a disease," said Lourdes Gironès, sister of Paquita, who also lives at La Caritat. "I don't believe there are people this evil."