Hospital worker admits murdering two women and sexually assaulting nearly 80 corpses
An electrician who thought he had got away with the murders of two young women 34 years ago is facing the rest of his life in jail after new DNA techniques finally identified him.
David Fuller, 67, pleaded guilty to murdering Wendy Knell, 25, and Caroline Pierce, 20, in two separate attacks in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, in 1987, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said.
Fuller changed his pleas on Thursday, four days into his trial at Maidstone Crown Court which heard he had sexually assaulted the two women after killing them.
Wendy Knell was murdered in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, in 1987
And in a shocking discovery after his arrest last December, police found that Fuller had for many years been sexually assaulting dozens of female corpses in the morgue of the hospital where he was employed.
He admitted assaulting nearly 80 dead bodies, many of which he filmed, but detectives believe there may have been hundreds more victims in the three decades he worked at the hospital.
The hospital victims ranged from a girl aged nine to a 100-year-old woman.
Fuller was described in court as a “controlled sexual deviant who preyed on young women and derived sexual gratification from the violation of their dead bodies”.
After a judge lifted a reporting ban Fuller, married with a son, can now be revealed as one of Britain’s most prolific sex offenders.
A police source said: “The extent and scale of his offending is likely to be unprecedented in this country.”
Police have spent £2 million marshalling an army of 317 family liaison officers, drawn from 27 UK forces, to track down the relatives of his hospital victims and break the news to them.
Fuller’s second wife Mala, who was a nurse at the hospital, was in court last month with his son and brother and others when the full details of his crimes were revealed.
One woman was shaking and in tears, another left the courtroom and appeared visibly distressed.
In that hearing, he admitted 32 charges of sexually assaulting dead bodies, taking indecent photographs of a child, possessing extreme pornographic images and voyeurism.
Initially, he had denied killing the two young women but later told his lawyers he admitted it but with diminished responsibility.
The flat on Guildford Road where Ms Knell was killed
Today he changed his murder pleas to guilty.
His first murder victim was Ms Knell, the manager of Supa Snaps where Fuller took his photographs to be developed in Tunbridge Wells, Kent.
Her boyfriend found her naked body in a bedsit in the town in June 1987. It was her father Bill’s birthday. She had been sexually assaulted and strangled.
Her widowed mother Pam Knell, 84, told Sky News: “I remember the phone call from the police. And then I had to tell my husband to go over, to sort it out. It was mad. I don’t know.”
Wendy Knell was the manager of Supa Snaps where Fuller took his photographs to be developed in Tunbridge Wells, Kent
She added: “I didn’t remember for a long time. I used to find myself at the bottom of the garden in the middle of the night, by myself, crying my eyes out.
“Wendy was a lovely, spirited girl and a good daughter. She had just started a new life, living away from us, but she didn’t have much of one, did she?
“I never thought they would catch him and I was frightened of any man coming close to me. I hope he is locked up for a long time. At least he won’t be able to do it again if he’s in prison, will he?”
Caroline Pierce was murdered by Fuller five months after he killed Wendy Knell
In a statement after Fuller entered his guilty plea, MS Knell’s family said: “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.”
Five months after killing Wendy, Fuller abducted Ms Pierce outside her bedsit home. She was a waitress at Buster Brown’s restaurant which he had visited.
Her body, naked apart from a pair of tights, was discovered by a farm worker in a flooded drain 40 miles away in Romney, an area Fuller knew from cycling trips.
Kent detectives investigated for many weeks, but forensic samples were poor and with no established DNA database to help identify the killer, the operation was scaled back.
Ms Pierce was abducted by Fuller outside her home at 27 Grosvenor Road
What became known as “the bedsit murders” remained unsolved, even though a DNA sample from Wendy’s body was enhanced by forensic scientists in 1999.
In 2019, a re-investigation was boosted by an enhanced DNA sample from Caroline’s tights, though the breakthrough came from the sample from Wendy’s body.
Fuller was linked to the crimes through a DNA sample
Checks on the national DNA base, which was set up in 1995, showed a close match to 90 people and gradually detectives were able to whittle down the numbers and identify a relative of Fuller – and then Fuller himself.
When police called on him at his home in Heathfield, East Sussex, he denied knowing the two women, but he was arrested and his DNA matched the killer’s. His fingerprint matched one in blood on a plastic bag found in Wendy’s bedsit.
In a search of Fuller’s house detectives discovered hidden computer hard drives, 1,300 videos and CDs, 34,000 photographs and hundreds of hard and floppy discs, containing what they described as distressing images of sex offences. In all, there were 14 million images.
Fuller had a swipe-card for entry to the hospital mortuary which he used to gain access when staff went home
They included footage of Fuller sexually assaulting dead bodies in the morgue at the now-closed Kent and Sussex Hospital and the new 500-bed Tunbridge Wells hospital in Pembury, which replaced it in 2011.
The Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust has launched an independent investigation into his hospital crimes to discover why he wasn’t detected.
His job as an electrician and maintenance engineer gave him access to all areas of the buildings.
He had a swipe-card for entry to the mortuary, where staff clocked off three hours before his own regular shift ended.
One CCTV image showed him in part of the morgue looking at refrigerators where bodies were stored. The room where autopsies were carried out did not have a security camera, to maintain the dignity of the bodies.
The stored images go back only to 2008, but as Fuller had worked at the hospital since 1989 detectives believe there could be hundreds more victims.
The hospital room where autopsies were carried out did not have a security camera
Fuller, who had a previous and old conviction for burglary, will learn his fate at a later date.
He faces a mandatory life sentence, but because he killed two victims, sexually attacked them and tried to conceal his crimes, he could be jailed for the rest of his life without the chance of parole.
Health Secretary Sajid Javid said the NHS had written to all health trusts asking for mortuary access and post-mortem activities to be reviewed in the wake of the case.
An independent review is already under way at the trust where Fuller worked and the Human Tissue Authority has also been asked for advice on whether rules need to be changed.
Home Secretary Priti Patel: “This is a shocking case and my heartfelt sympathies go out to the families of all those who may have been affected.
“The sickening nature of the crimes committed will understandably cause public revulsion and concern.
“As Kent Police have made clear, anyone potentially impacted has been contacted directly by specialist officers.”
Libby Clark, of the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “David Fuller’s deeply distressing crimes are unlike any other I have encountered in my career and unprecedented in British legal history.
“This highly dangerous man has inflicted unimaginable suffering on countless families and he has only admitted his long-held secrets when confronted with overwhelming evidence.”
She added: “No British court has ever seen abuse on this scale against the dead before and I have no doubt he would still be offending to this day had it not been for this painstaking investigation and prosecution.”
A workman saved a seven-year-old boy from a burning car in the aftermath of a deadly crash caused by a suicidal ex-pilot, an inquest has heard.
The schoolboy’s rescue came following the collision on the M6, which killed former RAF man Richard Woods and four others, in October last year.
Last week a coroner ruled that Woods, 40, took his own life by deliberately driving his Skoda the wrong way down the motorway while drunk and hitting a Toyota Yaris head-on.
The driver of the Toyota, Jaroslaw Rossa, 42, was also killed, along with his two sons, Filip, 15, and Dominic, seven, and his partner Jade McEnroe, 33.
Cockermouth Coroner’s Court heard on Thursday that Ms McEnroe’s son was also in the car but survived after workman Gavin Walsh came to his rescue at the scene, which was near Tebay services in Cumbria.
In a statement to the inquest, Mr Walsh said he was a passenger in a transit van travelling to Scotland when he witnessed the crash.
He jumped out of the vehicle and used a jack to smash the rear windscreen of the Toyota and pulled the boy out of the burning vehicle.
Mr Walsh said: “We really did try, I can assure everyone we did our best. We only had minimal time.
“I saved a life that day and I hope never to witness anything like that again.”
He added that he has never stopped thinking about the boy, and said: “I hope we will meet again one day and I will give you a massive hug.”
At the time, the family were returning to Glasgow from a trip to Legoland in Windsor, Berkshire.
The inquest heard that Wood, who was travelling at a speed of at least 65mph, would have been charged with manslaughter had he survived.
Recording conclusions of unlawful killing, Cumbria assistant coroner Margaret Taylor said: “I found that Jaroslaw, Jade, Filip and Dominic died as a consequence of the unlawful acts of another driver.”
The inquest heard how Mr Woods, from Cambridgeshire, had served a distinguished 14-year career in the RAF and was a flight instructor for BAE Systems at the time of his death.
Jade McEnroe. Pic: Cumbria Constabulary
Dominic and Filip. Pic: Cumbria Constabulary
In Ms Taylor’s record of inquest, Mr Woods was said to have been experiencing “a number of stressors in his life” and had a “history of harmful use of alcohol”.
Following the crash, he was found to be nearly four times over the legal drink-drive limit and a two-thirds empty bottle of gin was found in his car.
On the day of his death, concerns had been raised over his behaviour at a work conference near Preston in Lancashire.
Mr Woods failed to return to his seat after lunch and was later spotted driving erratically and swerving across three northbound carriageway lanes on the M6.
After pulling onto the hard shoulder, he then proceeded to U-turn and drove southward on lane three.
Filip, Dominic and Jaroslaw Rossa. Pic: Cumbria Constabulary
Detective Sergeant Deborah Story, from Cumbria Police, told the inquest that Mr Woods would have been prosecuted on four counts of manslaughter had he lived.
She said hypothetical charges of murder were considered by detectives but not thought appropriate because of a lack of information that Mr Woods knew the family or anything that provided a link between them.
Ms McEnroe’s parents, Marie McEnroe and George McNellis, told the coroner they thought it was “murder”.
Read more from Sky News:
Luton Airport expansion approved
Prince Harry responds to charity row
Appeal launched to help earthquake victims
A statement from the mother of Filip and Dominic, and the ex-wife of Mr Rossa, Kamila, was read out at the inquest.
She said Mr Rossa, known as Jarek, was born in Poland where they became a couple and went on to have three boys.
He loved playing computer games and had “lots of friends”, she said, and worked at the Wagamama restaurant in Silverburn, Glasgow.
She said she was “devastated” over the deaths, adding: “Our lives will never be the same.
“I am heartbroken at the passing of my beloved angels Filip and Dominic.”
Marie McEnroe said her daughter, a spa therapist, had been in a relationship with Mr Rossa for about two-and-a-half years.
She said Jade had been a “brilliant mother” to her only child, was “really happy” with Mr Rossa and it was “lovely chaos” when all the boys were playing together.
Ms McEnroe added: “Life changed forever that day”.
Ms Taylor praised the “selfless acts of bravery” from those in the aftermath of the collision, including Mr Walsh, who she said went towards the burning car “without hesitation for his own safety”.
The coroner added: “Without his swift response, Jade’s child would also have perished.”
Addressing the bereaved family members, she said: “Your loss is unimaginable but you have conducted yourself with dignity and I thank you for that. I wish you strength for the future.”
Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org in the UK. In the US, call the Samaritans branch in your area or 1 (800) 273-TALK.
-
Sports2 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports12 months agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports1 year agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business3 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway