David Fuller (Kent Police /PA)
(Picture: PA Media)A notorious double murderer dubbed the ‘morgue monster’ has admitted sexually abusing 23 dead women in hospital mortuaries.
David Fuller, 68, was jailed for the rest of his life last year after admitting killing Wendy Knell, 25, and Caroline Pierce, 20 in separate attacks in Tunbridge Wells, Kent in 1987.
He also admitted 44 charges relating to the abuse of 78 victims in mortuaries between 2008 and November 2020.
Appearing at Croydon crown court on Thursday, Fuller pleaded guilty to more abuse - 12 counts of sexual penetration of a corpse and four counts of possession of extreme pornography between 2007 and 2020.
Fuller, appearing in court today via videolink from prison, is set to be sentenced by Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb in December.
The father-of-four spent much of his adult life as an electrician in hospitals serving the residents of Kent and Sussex, and was living out his retirement in a quiet cul-de-sac in Heathfield, East Sussex when his horrific offending first came to light.
Fresh analysis of DNA evidence in the so-called ‘bedsit murders’ of Ms Knell and Ms Pierce led police to Fuller, who was identified as the prime suspect in the unsolved murders. A trawl of electronic devices at his home then revealed millions of images showing sexual offences, including Fuller himself interfering with bodies in hospital morgues.
Victims aged from a nine-year-old girl to a 100-year-old woman.
In December last year, Fuller was handed a whole life prison sentence for the crimes he had admitted. But the police investigation continued, to identify further victims and their families.
Fuller filmed himself abusing corpses in the now-closed Kent and Sussex Hospital and the Tunbridge Wells Hospital, in Pembury, where he had worked as an electrician since 1989.
He used his position and knowledge of hospital working practices to let himself into the morgues late at night.
Kent Police said an investigation had led to evidence relating to a total of 101 victims and the latest charges relate to the 23 remaining victims, all of whom were deceased adult women – 10 have not been identified.
Following the guilty pleas, Libby Clark of the CPS said: “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.”
Fuller was convicted in 1973 and 1977 for a series of ‘creeper’ home burglaries, involving break-ins through rear windows, and was spared a jail sentence by a judge at Portsmouth crown court.
Within the space of five months in 1987, he carried out the murders of Ms Knell and Ms Pierce in the streets of Tunbridge Wells that he knew well.
Fuller had met Ms Knell at the SupaSnaps store in the town where she was the manager and he often took in his photographs to be developed.
Her body was discovered at her bedsit in Guildford Road on June 23, 1987, with tests revealing her naked body had been sexually assaulted after the attack and possibly once she was already dead.
On November 24, 1987, Ms Pierce was attacked by Fuller outside her bedsit in Grosvenor Park, and the killer dumped her body around 40 miles away in a country lane ditch.
At court on Thursday, prosecutor Michael Bisgrove said victim personal statements are being prepared for the sentencing hearing, to take place at the Old Bailey in the week starting December 5.
“There are many family members of the victims who would like to attend court in one way or another, some of whom who would wish to read their victim personal statements to the court,” he said.
The Government has announced an independent inquiry into how Fuller went undetected until his arrest in December 2020.
