David Fuller given extra time in prison for mortuary attacks

He's already serving a whole-life sentence for two murders

Author: Chris MaskeryPublished 7th Dec 2022

A double killer has been sentenced to an extra four years in prison for attacks in mortuaries in Kent and Sussex.

68-year-old David Fuller is already serving a whole-life sentence for killing two women in 1987 but has now been sentenced after admitting further assaults.

Warning - this article contains disturbing reports of David Fuller's crimes.

The crimes David Fuller admitted

The 68-year-old has been sentenced to more time in prison after misusing his position at a hospital to sexually abuse female corpses between 2008 and November 2020.

David Fuller is already serving a whole life sentence for beating and strangling Wendy Knell and Caroline Pierce to death before sexually assaulting them in two separate attacks in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, in 1987.

He pleaded guilty to the two murders and 44 charges relating to 78 victims in mortuaries at Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust

The electrician filmed himself abusing corpses in the now-closed Kent and Sussex Hospital and the Tunbridge Wells Hospital, in Pembury, where he had worked since 1989.

Last month, he admitted sexually abusing an additional 23 dead women.

"Depraved, disgusting and dehumanising"

Libby Clark from the Crown Prosecution Service said previously: “Fuller’s actions were depraved, disgusting and dehumanising – on a scale that has never been encountered before in legal history.

“It was vital for us to bring these additional charges for the women we could identify, and those we sadly couldn’t, to reflect his offending and bring justice for the families that we can.

“The horrors of this case will no doubt remain with everyone who has worked so tirelessly to bring the case to a close.”

Independent inquiry launched

The Government has launched an independent inquiry into how Fuller went undetected until he was arrested for what have been dubbed the “bedsit murders” on December 3 2020 following new analysis of decades-old DNA evidence.

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

Police discovered a library of images of Fuller abusing corpses during a search his three-bedroom semi-detached home in Heathfield, East Sussex, where he lived with his family.

Victims included a nine-year-old girl, two 16-year-olds and a 100-year-old woman.

A report on the hospital trust is expected to be published next year.

Last month, it was announced that more than 90 family members whose loved ones were defiled by Fuller will receive compensation of up to £25,000.

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