David Fuller, a hospital worker, has admitted to killing two women in 1987, and sexually abusing at least 100 female corpses, including children.
Gatekeepers News reports that Fuller of Heathfield, East Sussex, attacked Wendy Knell and Caroline Pierce in Tunbridge Wells.
He changed his plea to guilty on the fourth day of his murder trial at Maidstone Crown Court. Fuller, who had previously denied murder, admitted sexually abusing bodies in two Kent hospital morgues over 12 years.
Justice Cheema-Grubb directed the jury to find him guilty on both counts of murder after he was re-arraigned.
Home Secretary Priti Patel said: “This is a shocking case. The sickening nature of the crimes committed will understandably cause public revulsion and concern.
“I would also like… to remember Wendy Knell and Caroline Pierce, two young women who had their lives brutally taken away from them over 30 years ago. I hope their families can find some solace in seeing justice finally done.”
Ahead of the trial, he had pleaded guilty to 51 offences, including 44 charges relating to 78 identified victims in the two mortuaries where he worked as an electrician.
The case came together following recent advances in DNA testing – and a huge police operation costing £2.5m – which linked Fuller to the double killings, dubbed “the Bedsit Murders”, investigators explained.
It was gathered that his saliva and other DNA was found on Ms Knell’s bedding, towel and intimate samples. Evidence indicated that she was raped during or after her death. Knell was killed in her home in Guildford Road on 23 June 1987. She was found in her bed by her boyfriend the following day, after concerns were raised when she failed to turn up to work.
Similarly, Fuller’s semen was also found on Ms Pierce’s tights, the only item of clothing she was reportedly wearing when her body was found in a water-filled dyke three weeks after her abduction.
After Fuller was arrested for murders, his house was searched and millions of indecent images and videos of children and extreme pornography on hard drives, floppy discs, DVDs and memory cards were found in his loft and spare room.
According to reports, two of the drives were hidden in a box, which was screwed to the back of a chest of drawers and placed inside a wardrobe. On these drives, officers found footage Fuller had recorded of himself abusing corpses in the morgues
Some of the folders which were labelled with the names of the victims, contained images and videos of him molesting female bodies, including three children, between 2008 and November 2020.
Police were unable to identify 20 of the victims.
Det Ch Supt Paul Fotheringham: “Sadly, it is likely to be the case that some of the victims will never be identified.
“In these cases there is such limited information available to help us with establishing their identities, and there are no lines of enquiry outside of the investigation that can assist us.”
Fuller worked in electrical maintenance at hospitals since 1989 and was at the Kent and Sussex Hospital, until it closed in September 2011.
He was transferred to the Tunbridge Wells Hospital at Pembury, where the offences continued until his arrest.
According to investigators, Fuller would work late shifts and go into the morgue when other staff had left, often “visiting the same bodies repeatedly”.
A date is yet to be set for Fuller’s sentencing.
Knell’s family, in a written statement released after Fuller changed his plea, said for 34 years they had wanted to know who killed her, and “how she spent her last moments alive”.
“We now know, and sadly it’s much worse than we could ever have imagined.
“Hopefully, we can now start to grieve and move past the pain and start to remember her as the beautiful, kind, generous, caring, funny girl she was.
“Although the guilty plea won’t change anything deep down, as the pain and loss will always be there, it’s good knowing he will not be in a position to hurt or cause any more pain.”
