David Fuller: A man confesses to killing two women and sexually assaulting dozens of bodies | UK news

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An electrician who thought he got away with the murders of two girls 34 years ago faces the rest of his life in prison after new DNA technologies finally identify him.

David Fuller, 67, pleaded guilty to the murders of Wendy Knell, 25, and Caroline Pierce, 20, in two separate attacks in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, in 1987, the Crown Prosecution Service said.

Fuller changed his pleas on Thursday, four days after his trial at Maidstone Crown Court heard he sexually assaulted the two women after killing them.

In a shocking discovery after his arrest last December, police discovered that Fuller had sexually assaulted dozens of female corpses in the hospital mortuary where he worked for many years.

He admitted assaulting nearly 80 bodies, many of which he photographed, but investigators believe there may have been hundreds of other victims in the three decades he worked at the hospital.

Hospital victims ranged from a nine-year-old girl to a 100-year-old woman.

Fuller was described in court as a “censored sexual pervert who exploits young women and derives sexual gratification from the abuse of their corpses”.

Photo: Wendy Knell was murdered in Tunbridge Wells, Kent in 1987

After the judge lifted the reporting ban, it is now possible to identify Fuller, who is married with a son, as one of Britain’s most common sex offenders.

“The scale and scope of his crimes is likely to be unprecedented in this country,” a police source said.

Police spent £2m mobilizing an army of 317 family liaison officers, drawn from 27 British soldiers, to track down relatives of hospital victims and pass the news on to them.

Mala, Fuller’s second wife, a hospital nurse, was in court last month with his son, brother and others when full details of his crimes were revealed.

One of the women was trembling and crying, and another left the courtroom looking sad.

At that hearing, he pleaded guilty to 32 counts of sexually assaulting corpses, taking indecent photographs of a child, possessing severe pornography and voyeurism.

At first, he denied killing the two young women, but later told his lawyer that he confessed to it but with fewer responsibilities.

Photo: The apartment on Guildford Road where Mrs. Neal was murdered

Today he changed the murder admissions to a guilt.

The first murder victim was Mrs. Knell, director of Supa Snaps where Fuller took his photos to be developed in Tunbridge Wells, Kent.

Her boyfriend found her naked body in a bed in the city in June 1987. It was her father Bill’s birthday. She was sexually assaulted and strangled.

Her widowed mother, Pam Knell, 84, told Sky News: “I remember the phone call from the police. Then I had to tell my husband to go, to sort things out. It was crazy. I don’t know.”

Photo: Wendy Knell was the director of Supa Snaps where Fuller took his photo to be developed in Tunbridge Wells, Kent

She added, “I don’t remember for a long time. I would find myself at the bottom of the garden in the middle of the night, alone, crying my eyes out.”

“Wendy was a beautiful, lively girl and a good daughter. She had just started a new life, living far away from us, but she didn’t have much, did she?”

“I never thought they would arrest him and I was afraid any man would come close to me. I hope he will be locked up for a long time. At least he won’t be able to do it again if he is in prison, will he?”

Photo: Caroline Pierce was killed by Fuller five months after Wendy Knell’s murder

In a statement after Fuller made his guilty plea, M.’s family said. It causes more pain.”

Five months after Wendy’s murder, Fuller abducts Mrs. Pierce outside her home in bed. She was a waitress at the Buster Brown restaurant he visited.

Her body, naked apart from a pair of socks, was discovered by a farm worker in a flooded drain 40 miles away in Romney, an area Fuller knew from biking trips.

Kent investigators investigated for several weeks, but forensic samples were poor and there was no consistent DNA database to help identify the killer, the process was scaled back.

Photo: Mrs. Pierce was kidnapped by Fuller outside her home at 27 Grosvenor Street

What became known as the “bed murders” remained unsolved, although a DNA sample from Wendy’s body was improved by forensic scientists in 1999.

In 2019, re-investigation was bolstered by an improved DNA sample from Caroline’s tights, although the hack came from a sample of Wendy’s body.

Image: Fuller has been linked to the crimes through a DNA sample

Tests on the national DNA base, established in 1995, showed a close match with 90 people and investigators gradually managed to reduce the numbers and identify a relative of Fuller – and then Fuller himself.

When called by police at his home in Heathfield, East Sussex, he denied knowing the two women, but was arrested and his DNA matched to the killer. One of his fingerprints matched up in blood on a plastic bag found in Wendy’s bed.

Investigators at Fuller’s home discovered hidden computer hard drives, 1,300 video clips and CDs, 34,000 photos and hundreds of hard and floppy disks, containing what they described as the painful images of sexual crimes. In all, there were 14 million photos.

Photo: Fuller had a swipe card to enter the hospital morgue which he used to access when the staff went home

It included footage of Fuller sexually abusing corpses in the mortuary at the now-closed Kent and Sussex Hospital and the new 500-bed Tunbridge Wells Hospital in Pembury, which it replaced in 2011.

The Maidstone Trust and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust have launched an independent investigation into his hospital crimes to discover why he was not found out.

His job as an electrician and maintenance engineer enabled him to access all areas of the buildings.

He had a swipe card to enter the mortuary, where the staff had stopped three hours before the end of his regular shift.

One CCTV image showed him in the part of the mortuary looking through the refrigerators where the bodies were stored. The room in which the autopsy was carried out was not equipped with a security camera, in order to preserve the dignity of the bodies.

The stored photos only date back to 2008, but since Fuller has been working at the hospital since 1989, investigators believe there could be hundreds of other victims.

Photo: The hospital room in which the autopsy was carried out did not have a security camera

Fuller, who had a previous and previous conviction for burglary, will learn about his fate later.

He faces a mandatory life sentence, but because he killed two victims, sexually assaulted them and tried to hide his crimes, he could be imprisoned for the rest of his life with no chance of parole.

Home Secretary Priti Patel: “This is a horrific situation and my deepest condolences go to the families of all those affected.

“The disgusting nature of the crimes committed will cause understandable disgust and anxiety in the public.

“As Kent Police made clear, anyone potentially affected has been contacted directly by specialist officers.”

Libby Clark, Prosecutor’s Office, said: “David Fuller’s deeply tragic crimes are unlike any other I have faced in my career and are unprecedented in British legal history.

“This extremely dangerous man has caused unimaginable suffering to countless families, and he only confessed his ancient secrets when faced with irrefutable evidence.”

She added: “No British court has ever witnessed abuses of this magnitude against the dead before and I have no doubt that it would have continued to offend to this day had it not been for this painstaking investigation and prosecution.”

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