UPDATE: Sussex Man Who Murdered Women And Abused Bodies In Morgues Charged With More Sex Offences

David Fuller was given a whole life sentence for the murders of Wendy Knell and Caroline Pierce in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, and filmed himself abusing dead bodies.

A hospital worker who murdered two women and abused dead bodies in mortuaries has been charged with 16 further offences, police have said.

Warning: This story contains graphic content

David Fuller was given a whole life sentence last year for the murders of Wendy Knell and Caroline Pierce in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, in 1987.

The electrician also filmed himself abusing corpses, including a nine-year-old girl and a 100-year-old woman, in hospital morgues over 12 years before his arrest in December 2020, a court heard.

Fuller, 67, had pleaded guilty to sexual offences against 78 deceased females at mortuaries in Tunbridge Wells Hospital and at the former Kent and Sussex Hospital between 2008 and 2020.

After an investigation led to evidence of 101 victims in the mortuaries, Fuller has been charged with further offences related to the 23 remaining victims, Kent Police said.

Thirteen of the 23 further victims - who were all adult women - have been formally identified but police have been unable to identity 10 women, the force added.

Fuller will appear via video link before Medway Magistrates' Court on Thursday.

He faces:

• 10 charges under the Sexual Offences Act relating to 10 identified victims

• Two further charges under the Sexual Offences Act relating to three unidentified victims

• Two charges relating to the possession of extreme pornography in connection with 13 identified victims

• Two further charges relating to the possession of extreme pornography in connection with 10 unidentified victims

An independent inquiry, led by Sir Jonathan Michael, is set to take place into Fuller's crimes.

Fuller's wife Mala, who lived with him for 20 years in Heathfield, East Sussex, left him after his arrest.

The killings of Ms Knell, 25, and 20-year-old Ms Pierce - known as "the bedsit murders" - had remained unsolved for more than three decades until advanced DNA techniques identified Fuller as the killer.

He had also sexually abused the two murder victims after their deaths.

Fuller, who has a son and daughter, had initially admitted the hospital attacks and denied both murders - but he pleaded guilty to the killings on the sixth day of his trial at Maidstone Crown Court.

He also pleaded guilty to 51 other offences, including 44 charges relating to 78 victims in mortuaries between 2008 and November 2020.

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.

Fuller was handed a whole life sentence for the murders with a concurrent 12-year term for his other crimes.

During sentencing, Judge Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb QC told Fuller:

"You became a vulture, picking your victims from among the dead from the hidden world of hospital mortuaries, which you were left free to inhabit simply because you had a swipe card."

Kent Police had to enlist more than 300 family liaison officers from more than half of the UK's forces to break the news to the relatives of the deceased.

(c) Sky News 2022: David Fuller: Hospital worker who murdered women and abused bodies in morgues charged with mor

UPDATE:

After further investigation, Kent Police has charged him with another 12 more counts of sexual penetration of a corpse, and four counts of possession of extreme pornography.

Fuller appeared at Medway Magistrates' Court this morning (Oct 6) via video link from HMP Frankland.

He entered no pleas and spoke only to confirm his name, date of birth and current residence.

He will remain in prison and will appear at Maidstone Crown Court on 3 November.