Necrophiliac murderer David Fuller pleads guilty to sexually abusing mortuary bodies

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Necrophiliac murderer David Fuller, 68, has pleaded guilty at Croydon Crown Court to 16 sexual offences relating to 23 dead women in mortuaries between 2007 and 2020.

Fuller beat and strangled Wendy Knell, 25, and Caroline Pierce, 20, to death before sexually assaulting them in two separate attacks in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, in 1987.

He also filmed himself abusing corpses, including a nine-year-old girl, two 16-year-olds, and a 100-year-old woman, over 12 years before his arrest in December 2020.

He was jailed for life in December 2021.

Fuller was charged with 12 more counts of sexual penetration of a corpse and four counts of possession of extreme pornography in October.

Fuller carried out the offences in mortuaries of the now-closed Kent and Sussex Hospital and the Tunbridge Wells Hospital, in Pembury, where he had worked as an electrician since 1989.

Ms Justice Cheema-Grubb said Fuller, who appeared in court by video-link from HMP Frankland, must appear in person when she sentences him in the week starting 5 December, likely at the Old Bailey.

Prosecutor Michael Bisgrove said victim impact statements were being prepared.

“There are many family members of the victims who would like to attend court in one way or another, some of whom would wish to read their victim personal statements to the court,” he said.

He also possessed an extreme pornographic image involving sexual interference with a corpse and taking indecent images of children.

In her sentencing remarks last year, judge Ms Justice Cheema-Grubb branded Fuller a “vulture” and added that he would “spend every day of the rest of your life in prison”.

The latest charges are connected to the 23 remaining victims, all of whom were deceased adult women, with the offences taking place between 2007 and 2020.

Kent Police, which handled the investigation, said: “An extensive and complex identification process has led to 13 of these 23 further victims being formally identified. It has not been possible to establish the identities of the other 10 victims; however, the charges reflect offending against all of them.

“No evidence has been found of any further victims.”

Ms Knell was found dead in her Guildford Road apartment on 23 June 1987, while Ms Pierce was snatched five months later on 24 November outside her home in Grosvenor Park. Her naked body was discovered in a water-filled dyke at St Mary in the Marsh on 15 December.

Police discovered a library of images of Fuller attacking corpses when officers searched his three-bedroom semi-detached home in the town of Heathfield, East Sussex, where he lived with his family.

An independent inquiry is set to take place into Fuller’s crimes and will be led by Sir Jonathan Michael.

The investigation will be in two separate parts, the first focusing on Fuller’s actions at the Kent and Sussex Hospital, and the second on the implications of his actions for the country as a whole.