‘Depraved’ Bedsit Killer to be sentenced for necrophilia
A double killer who misused his position at a hospital to sexually abuse female corpses will be sentenced later after admitting more “depraved” acts.
David Fuller, 68, is already serving a whole life sentence for beating and strangling Wendy Knell, 25, and Caroline Pierce, 20, to death before sexually assaulting them in two separate attacks in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, in 1987.
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.
He pleaded guilty to the two murders and 44 charges relating to 78 victims in mortuaries at Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust between 2008 and November 2020.
Last month, he admitted sexually abusing an additional 23 dead women.
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.”
On Wednesday, Fuller will appear at the Old Bailey to be sentenced for the latest charges by Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb
They include 12 counts of sexual penetration of a corpse and four counts of possession of extreme pornography between 2007 and 2020.
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.
