Sydney, August 1 (IANS): Former nurse Roger Dean was sentenced Thursday to life in jail without parole after being convicted of mass murder for deliberately lighting a deadly fire at a Sydney nursing home, the media reported Thursday.

The 37-year-old man pleaded guilty to the murder of 11 nursing home residents in the fire at Quakers Hill in 2011, Xinhua reported.

He also admitted to causing grievous bodily harm to a further eight residents who were seriously injured in the blaze.

Justice Megan Latham handed down the sentence in the New South Wales Supreme Court on Thursday. "The pain and terror suffered by all of the victims must have been horrific," Latham said.

"For those who were unable to move independently and who faced the prospect of being burnt alive or suffocated by smoke, a worse fate is hard to imagine."

Dean suffered from a self-obsessed personality disorder with a history of narcissism, but the court heard there was no evidence he was suffering from a significant mental illness at the time.