Sussex electrician admits 1987 murders

An electrician from East Sussex has been convicted of murdering two women in the 1980s.

David Fuller sexually assaulted and killed Wendy Knell, 25, and Caroline Pierce, 20, after breaking into their homes in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, in 1987.

Fuller, 67, of Heathfield, was arrested by Kent Police after a DNA breakthrough in December 2020.

Today at Maidstone Crown Court, he admitted two counts of murder and had previously pleaded guilty to other sexual offences.

Libby Clark, of the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “David Fuller’s deeply distressing crimes are unlike any other I have encountered in my career and unprecedented in British legal history.

“This highly dangerous man has inflicted unimaginable suffering on countless families and he has only admitted his long-held secrets when confronted with overwhelming evidence.

“Fuller, with his uncontrolled sense of sexual entitlement, treated Wendy Knell and Caroline Pierce with extreme depravity. Both women were simply at home or returning from work when he ambushed them.

“Their families never gave up on achieving justice even when all hope seemed lost. My thoughts are with them today and all the families of women and girls whose lives have been cut short by senseless violence."

Hear all the latest news from across the UK on the hour, every hour, on Greatest Hits Radio on DAB, smartspeaker, at greatesthitsradio.co.uk, and on the Rayo app.

• david fuller
• wendy knell
• caroline pierce