David Fuller: Double murderer pleads guilty to mortuary sexual abuse

A former hospital mortuary worker has pleaded guilty to abusing the bodies of 23 women over a 13-year period.

David Fuller, previously from Heathfield in East Sussex, appeared at Croydon Crown Court on Thursday.

The 68-year-old admitted 12 counts of sexual penetration of a corpse and four counts of possession of extreme pornography between 2007 and 2020.

Fuller received two whole-life tariffs in December 2021 after murdering Wendy Knell and Caroline Pierce in 1987.

He beat and strangled the two women to death before sexually assaulting them in two separate attacks in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, his earlier trial was told.

He was also given concurrent sentences of 12 years after pleading guilty to sexual offences against 78 dead women and girls between 2008 and 2020.

Fuller has pleaded guilty at Croydon Crown Court to:

Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said Fuller, who appeared in court by video-link from HMP Frankland, must appear in person when she sentences him in the week starting 5 December.

He is likely to be sentenced at the Old Bailey, the judge said.

Prosecutor Michael Bisgrove said victim personal statements were being prepared.

“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.

Fuller had 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, his previous trial heard.

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.

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

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