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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
National
Joe Middleton

Killer hospital worker who abused dead bodies charged with 16 more sex offences

Kent Police

Necrophiliac murderer David Fuller, who sexually abused the bodies of at least 102 women and girls, has been charged with 16 further sexual offences.

The 68-year-old hospital worker beat and strangled Wendy Knell, 25, and Caroline Pierce, 20, to death before sexually assaulting them in two separate attacks in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, in 1987.

He also filmed himself abusing corpses, including a nine-year-old girl, two 16-year-olds, and a 100-year-old woman, over 12 years before his arrest in December 2020.

Fuller, who was jailed for life in December 2021, will appear via video link at Medway Magistrates’ Court on Thursday to face 16 further charges relating to sexual offences committed in a mortuary setting.

He pleaded guilty to murdering Ms Knell and Ms Pierce, as well as 51 other offences, including 44 charges relating to 78 victims in mortuaries between 2008 and November 2020.

Fuller attacked his victims in the mortuaries of the now-closed Kent and Sussex Hospital and the Tunbridge Wells Hospital, in Pembury, where he had worked as an electrician since 1989.

They included the sexual penetration of a corpse, possessing an extreme pornographic image involving sexual interference with a corpse and taking indecent images of children.

In her sentencing remarks last year, judge Ms Justice Cheema-Grubb branded Fuller a “vulture” and added that he would “spend every day of the rest of your life in prison”.

The latest charges are connected to the 23 remaining victims, all of whom were deceased adult women, allegedly taking place between 2007 and 2020, the force said.

It added: “An extensive and complex identification process has led to 13 of these 23 further victims being formally identified. It has not been possible 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.”

An independent inquiry is set to take place into Fuller’s crimes and will be led by Sir Jonathan Michael.

The investigation will be in two separate parts, the first focusing on Fuller’s actions at the Kent and Sussex Hospital, and the second on the implications of his actions for the country as a whole.

Additional reporting by agencies

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