A Canadian nurse who used insulin to kill eight elderly patients in long-term care facilities has been sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years.

Elizabeth Wettlaufer pleaded guilty this month to killing five women and three men in the Ontario towns of Woodstock and London between 2007 and 2014. The dead ranged in age from 75 to 96.

The 49-year-old then admitted in court in Woodstock, about 87 miles west of Toronto, that she fatally injected the victims with insulin for no medical reasons, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp (CBC) reported on Monday.

CBC reported that she apologized in court to her victims' families on Monday.

The victims were identified as 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.

Elizabeth Wettlaufer (pictured Monday leaving court) pleaded guilty this month to killing five women and three men in the Ontario towns of Woodstock and London between 2007 and 2014

The 49-year-old nurse (pictured left before her arrest and right during her arrest) was sentenced to life in prison on Monday after admitting to killing the eight elderly patients

The Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

All the incidents allegedly occurred between 2007 and 2014 in three Ontario long-term care facilities where Wettlaufer worked as a registered nurse, and at a private home.

During an earlier court appearance in June, the prosecution read from an agreed statement of facts, saying that Wettlaufer told police she knew that 'if your blood sugar goes low enough, you can die.'

She also told police she had refrained from logging her use of insulin in order to avoid detection, the court heard on June 1.

In at least one case, Wettlaufer was spurred to act by growing rage over her job and her life, which built up inside her until she felt an 'urge to kill,' the prosecution told the court on June 1.

Maurice Granat, 84, and Mary Zurawinski, 96, were injected with insulin that ended their lives

Among the eight victims were Arpad Horvath, 75; Maureen Pickering, 79, and James Silcox, 84

Helen Matheson, 95, and Gladys Millard, 87, were killed as a result of the nurse's actions

Wettlaufer deliberately injected Silcox, an 84-year-old man with diabetes and Alzheimer's disease, with insulin the night of August 11, 2007, 'hoping he would die,' the prosecution said during that June 1 court session.

'It was his time to go because of the way he acted,' the former nurse told police, according to the agreed statement of facts.

She also told investigators that afterwards, she felt, 'like a pressure had been relieved from me, like pressure had been relieved from my emotions'.

Wettlaufer told police that dissatisfaction with her life led her to inject Clotilde Adriano, 87, with insulin, though Adriano survived.

The Caressant Care Woodstock Long Term Care Home is pictured above in a file photo. Police say Wettlaufer worked at the facility as a nurse where she killed seven of her victims

Arpad Horvath, 75, was killed at the Meadow Park Nursing Home in London, Ontario (file above)

The attempted murder victims have been identified as Wayne Hedges, 57, Michael Priddle, 63, Sandra Towler, 77, and Beverly Bertram, 68. Wettlaufer was also charged with aggravated assault against Adriano and 90-year-old Albina Demedeiros.

The police investigation into Wettlaufer began last September after Toronto police became aware of information she had given to a psychiatric hospital in Toronto that caused them concern.

Homicide cases with multiple victims are uncommon in Canada.

The Wettlaufer case is the largest in Ontario province since 2006, when five men were charged with murdering eight members of a biker gang.

They were convicted and sentenced to life in prison.