Law to be strengthened after sexual abuse case in Sussex
Tougher sentences under Government-backed reforms
Criminals who sexually abuse dead people will face tougher sentences under Government-backed reforms developed in the wake of Sussex killer David Fuller's mortuary abuse.
Justice minister Laura Farris said the Government will amend existing 2003 legislation to increase the maximum prison sentence for the sexual penetration of a body from two years to seven years.
MPs heard the changes will also create a new offence of "sexual activity with a corpse" with a maximum prison sentence of five years to cover non-penetrative offences.
Fuller, from Heathfield, East Sussex, worked in maintenance at Kent and Sussex Hospital and the Tunbridge Wells Hospital, in Pembury, Kent, from 1989, and sexually abused the bodies of 101 women and girls in the hospital mortuaries between 2005 to 2020.
He was also convicted in 2021 of the murder of two women in separate attacks in Tunbridge Wells in 1987.
The Government will implement the change by supporting a Criminal Justice Bill amendment initially brought forward by Conservative former ministers Greg Clark and Dame Tracey Crouch.
"Clearly a gap in the law"
Mr Clark, speaking during report stage of the Bill, told the Commons: "All of Fuller's crimes are, frankly, unspeakable, but as well as the current sentencing limit being absurdly inadequate...it does not cover at all any form of sexual assault that is non-penetrative."
He added there is "clearly a gap" in the law which needs to be closed, adding: "That's what this new clause aims to do."
Mr Clark said: "Victims of Fuller were robbed of their lives and then their dignity and then the victims' families have been robbed of adequate justice.
"The devastation of the families of Fuller's victims has been heart-breaking.
"For many they will never get over the shock and the disgust that they felt when that news was imparted to them on that evening and it stays with them even now."
Mr Clark said the police and families of the victims will never have restored to them the "peace of mind that Fuller destroyed", adding: "We can't correct that, very sadly, in this House.
"But what we can do is to ensure these offences are recognised for having the gravity they do."
Dame Tracey said the changes will ensure "greater protection" in future and offer "some comfort" to the families of Fuller's victims that "justice has been thought about".