Necrophiliac David Fuller, 68, is jailed another four years

Necrophiliac double murderer David Fuller is jailed for another four years on top of whole life sentence for defiling 101 women in hospital mortuaries including 92-year-old Bletchley Park WW2 hero

• Depraved David Fuller, 68, murdered Wendy Knell and Caroline Pierce in 1987 
• He then became a hospital electrician and defiled the bodies of over 100 women 
• At least one distraught relative took their own life after learning about the rapes 
• Fuller, of Heathfield, East Sussex, was jailed for life last year for double murder
• Today, he was jailed for another four years for the abuse of the women’s bodies

Double killer David Fuller, 68, has been handed a further four years in prison at the Old Bailey for the ‘systematic’ sexual abuse of women’s bodies at hospital mortuaries in Tunbridge Wells.

The families of women who were sexually abused in death have described their ‘disgust’ at the ‘sick and twisted’ acts of double killer David Fuller.

Fuller, 68, is already serving a whole life sentence for murdering Wendy Knell, 25, and Caroline Pierce, 20, in 1987 and been sentenced for the sexual abuse of the corpses of 78 women and girls at hospital mortuaries in Tunbridge Wells.

He appeared at the Old Bailey today to be sentenced for a second tranche of offences against a further 23 dead women.

David Fuller, 67, escaped justice for over 30 years after murdering Wendy Knell, 25, and Caroline Pierce, 20, in Tunbridge Wells in 1987. In December 2020, DNA advances at last led police to Fuller’s home in Heathfield, East Sussex, where they found horrific evidence he had raped over 100 women’s corpses in two hospital mortuaries he worked

Wendy Knell (left) and Caroline Pierce (right) were beaten and strangled by Fuller before being sexually assaulted in in Tunbridge Wells, Kent

Among those whose bodies were abused by Fuller was a 92-year-old World War Two hero who worked at Bletchley Park. Her daughter said he ‘has done the most heinous crimes, something our family must live with daily’, The Evening Standard reports.

She added: ‘David Fuller needs to be in the public eye for the true extent of his offending – he needs to appreciate the scale of what he has done.’

Opening the facts, prosecutor Michael Bisgrove said Fuller had abused the bodies of at least 101 girls and women, although 10 of the victims had not been identified and were unlikely ever to be.

Mr Bisgrove said: ‘The indictment reflects the course of conduct by Mr Fuller during his employment at two mortuaries during which he systematically and repeatedly abused the bodies of dead women and girls. He abused at least 101 women.’

The daughter of one of the victims described in court how she felt when she found out about the abuse of her mother, saying: ‘The pain and emotional upset seared through my body like a knife.

‘He took advantage of her helplessness in death where we were unable to protect her.’

Addressing the defendant in the dock, she said: ‘David, I want you to know how much damage you have caused, how your sick and twisted behaviour has damaged families like mine.

Detectives said Fuller did not look surprised when they arrested him, but he initially denied any involvement and said he had no knowledge of the case

Fuller (pictured) was part of a Kent cycling club in the 1980s. One of their routes travelled directly past where victim Caroline Pierce’s body was found in 1987

VICTIM’S MOTHER: ‘I GRABBED A KNIFE AND WENT OUT TO PLUNGE IT IN HIS HEART’ 

Azra Kemal, 24, died after falling from a motorway bridge in July 2020. Her body was raped by Fuller in the morgue of Tunbridge Wells Hospital

One of Fuller’s victims, 24-year-old Azra Kemal, died after slipping through a 10ft wide void between two carriageways on a road bridge of the A21 between Sevenoaks and Tonbridge on July 16, 2020.

Her body was taken to the morgue at Tunbridge Wells Hospital and was later identified as among those raped by Fuller. 

Upon learning the horrific news, Azra’s mother Nevres described how she grabbed a knife from her kitchen and went straight to Colindale Police Station where she believed he was.

‘The rage . . .’ she said. ‘My only thought was, “He is not going to get away this.” I’d just been told he’d raped her in hospital when she was dead. It was incomprehensible. I felt I had to take things into my own hands — find him, punish him. I’m her mother.

‘If I’d found him, I’m 99.99 per cent sure I’d have put that knife straight through his heart because he’d put a knife through mine. The thought of him violating her — of touching her hair, touching her skin…

‘But as I walked towards the police station, all hell broke loose. Police officers seemed to spring from everywhere. I was handcuffed and thrown to the floor by eight or nine of them.

Nevres Kemal (pictured) was ‘consumed by rage’ upon learning what Fuller had done to her daughter’s body

‘The two officers who had come to the house had telephoned in and said I was running around with a knife. But the police who arrested me didn’t know what had happened. 

‘I was crying: ‘My daughter was raped in hospital and she’s dead.’ They were looking at me, going, ‘Does this woman need psychiatric help?’

‘They read me my rights but I had this rage. I was shouting, ‘What are you doing? I need to put an end to this. No one is violating my child. I am her mother. I’m here because I’m looking for Dave. He needs to be punished.’

As it was, Ms Kemal herself was thrown into a cell and kept there for 34 hours.

‘I’m pleased you are now being held accountable for what you did only seven hours after she died.’

Two years ago, Fuller admitted murdering Wendy Knell, 25, and Caroline Pierce, 20, in 1987 after he brutally bludgeoned and strangled them to death.

Both women, who lived alone in bedsits in Tunbridge Wells in Kent, were then sexually assaulted by the former hospital electrician as they were either dying or post-death.

Miss Knell’s body was discovered in her bed on June 23, 1987 while Miss Pierce, who was attacked just feet from her front door on November 24, was found three weeks later on December 15 wearing just a pair of tights, in a field 38 miles away in Romney, Kent.

Their horrific deaths – dubbed the ‘Bedsit Murders’ – became one of the UK’s longest unsolved double homicide cases.

Three-times wed Fuller was finally arrested on December 3, 2020 after a major breakthrough in DNA science identified a familial link to a relative on the national database.

But detectives only realised the true extent of his crimes when they uncovered what was described by prosecutor Duncan Atkinson KC as ‘a library of unimaginable sexual depravity’ concealed in a hide at his home.

Stored on hard drives were videos and photos Fuller had recorded of himself abusing dozens of women and girls over a 13-year period in mortuaries of the hospitals, where he worked as a technical supervisor.

Married Fuller, who had been employed by Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust since 1989, would wait for mortuary staff to finish their shifts before accessing fridges where the bodies were stored.

The victims, some of whom the 68-year-old violated more than once, included three who were under 18 at the time of death. Several others were said to be over 85 years old.

He then used mortuary records to log their details in his own notebooks, and even looked up some of his victims on Facebook.

He was still working for the NHS trust when arrested and had had access to all areas in both hospitals via a swipeable identity card.

Also on the hard drives were a staggering four million indecent images of children – mostly downloaded from the internet.

Fuller, from Heathfield, East Sussex initially denied the historic murders on the grounds of diminished responsibility before unexpectedly changing his pleas to guilty amid dramatic scenes on the fourth day of his trial.

The depraved killer was subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment with no possibility of parole.

At the time of the sentencing, 81 of the mortuary victims had been identified.

However, due to difficulties in identifying all the corpses he abused and fearing there may have been hundreds of others going back to when Fuller’s hospital employment record began, Kent Police set up a call centre at the conclusion of the trial to deal with any public concerns.

The government also announced an independent public inquiry would be held, while NHS England ordered all hospitals to review their security.

Following Fuller’s conviction, the Kent and Essex Serious Crime Directorate were able to identify a total of 101 victims.

The latest charges are connected to the 23 remaining victims – all deceased adult females – whose corpses were abused between 2007 and 2020.

An extensive and complex identification process led officers to formally identify 13 of these 23 further victims.

Police were unable 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. 

• Any of the families want to speak to the Trust or access the victim support services which have been put in place, should contact Victim Support online at: www.victimsupport.org.uk or by calling the Supportline: 0808 1689111.

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