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 man has been found guilty of murdering a mother as she attended Notting Hill Carnival with her three-year-old daughter.
Cher Maximen, 32, was at the event in west London on 25 August last year when she was stabbed in the groin after trying to intervene in a fight.
Shakeil Thibou, 20, was charged with her murder after she died in hospital on 31 August.
He was found guilty by a majority of 10 to two jurors and is due for sentencing on 16 May.
Cher Maximen
Read more:
Mother killed in Notting Hill Carnival attack was ‘beautiful soul
Moments before stabbing Ms Maximen, Thibou carried out an “equally horrifying attack” on a man who was backing away from him, the Old Bailey has heard.
He was also convicted of attempting to cause grievous bodily harm to 20-year-old Adjei Isaac with intent, and having an offensive weapon.
At the opening of the trial in February, prosecutor Ed Brown KC told the court Ms Maximen and the group she was with had got caught up in the middle of a “horrifying outbreak of violence”.
At the time, Ms Maximen had been crouched chatting to her friends as they sat on the ground with their children.
Cher Maximen
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She suffered a 12cm deep knife wound, which caused severe internal bleeding in her groin.
‘Pure anger’ in accused face
As jurors were shown police bodycam footage of the incident during a previous hearing at the Old Bailey, Mr Brown KC told them: “You will see pure anger in the face of Shakeil Thibou. This was right in front of her [Ms Maximen’s] three-year-old daughter.”
The “truly shocking” incident happened in just eight seconds.
How did it happen?
The Old Bailey previously heard how a crowd of hundreds splintered on Golborne Road in west London as Thibou and his two brothers, who were on trial alongside him facing separate charges, had an altercation with at least two other males.
Cher Maximen
Thibou produced a “huge” knife, described by one witness as a zombie knife, and lunged repeatedly at Mr Isaac in a “determined, thrusting movement”, the Old Bailey heard.
Mr Isaac recoiled and during the altercation the pair bumped into Ms Maximen who had been crouched chatting to her friends as they sat on the ground with their children.
The knife, the prosecutor said, missed Mr Isaac by “centimetres”.
Mr Brown KC told the court Ms Maximen struggled to regain her footing after being knocked to the ground.
He said: “Cher Maximen in those moments grabbed hold of Shakeil Thibou’s coat, pulled it and managed to get partially to her feet.
“She appeared to attempt to strike out with her hand at Shakeil who of course was still holding that knife in his hand. Cher Maximen took a step towards Shakeil Thibou and at the same time attempted to raise her right leg out towards him.
“It was at this moment, Shakeil Thibou raised the knife directly towards Cher Maximen and deliberately thrust it towards her, stabbing her in the groin.”
Sheldon Thibou was found guilty of violent disorder and guilty of assault on an emergency worker, PC Oliver Mort.
Shaeim Thibou was cleared of violent disorder but found guilty of assault on an emergency worker, PC Mort.
UK
Cher Maximen: Family’s ‘rage’ after mother fatally stubbed in front of daughter at Notting Hill Carnival
The family of a mother who was fatally stabbed as she attended Notting Hill Carnival with her three-year-old daughter has said “the feeling of loss is overwhelming, but so is the feeling of rage”.
Cher Maximen, 32, was stabbed at the west London carnival’s “Family Day” on 25 August last year.
Shakeil Thibou, 20, has now been found guilty of her murder, by a majority jury verdict of 10-2, after a trial at the Old Bailey.
“I’ve lost my parents. I’ve lost my brother. Nothing has felt like this ever,” Ms Maximen’s cousin Lawrence Hoo told Sky News.
“It is the cruellest thing, it truly is.”
Lawrence Hoo
Ms Maximen died at a carnival she had been to so many times – she barely missed one.
On the day, Ms Maximen and her three-year-old daughter arrived at Europe’s biggest street party with a group of friends and their children. They’d been sitting and chatting when she was knocked over by some men who had started fighting.
News of her stabbing came almost immediately. Mr Hoo remembers receiving the call. “When I first heard that she’d been stabbed, I know it sounds silly, but I thought Cher will be alright. Cher’s strong, she’ll get through this.”
Ms Maximen was taken to hospital and underwent a number of emergency procedures before being put on life support.
Mr Hoo immediately headed to London to be at her bedside.
“I can remember being in the hospital being sat there with her, with other family members and that’s the last time I saw her. It still doesn’t feel real. There’s still disbelief,” he said.
“It’s the most senseless act to someone who had so much life and so much to give.”
Ms Maximen died from her injuries six days after the incident.
She was a vivacious young woman who grew up in Bristol and then London, finding her feet working with people in music and entertainment.
Ms Maximen was described as a “people person”, which for Mr Hoo manifested in her being “a bright light” in the lives of her loved ones.
He said: “It’s just this energy she had, she lit up the room. If you walked into a space, you’d know that Cher was there. Her energy itself would fill the room. She was a very bright light.”
Her life changed three years before her death when she became a mother in her late 20s.
Her daughter became her life’s work, she poured her love and energy into creating a person her family describe as her mini-me, “she’s Cher 2.0” Mr Hoo said.
Cher Maximen pictured as a child with her uncle Ty
Ms Maximen was stabbed just metres from her daughter on that day.
Mr Hoo said the idea of the toddler witnessing her mother on the ground punctuates the sadness the family feel with anger.
“The feeling of loss is overwhelming, but so is the feeling of rage,” he said. “She [Ms Maximen’s daughter] is aware that on that day, something happened to her mother.
“She saw her mother drop to the floor, and then she saw her mother bleed. That’s the daughter’s last living memory of her mother. And to live with that, knowing that that’s happened, that somebody did that. That’s why it’s so hard and that’s where the rage comes from.”
The family is now rallying around the little girl who is growing up without her mother.
Mr Hoo said the attack “will be a memory that will recur” for Ms Maximen’s daughter, adding “that is why it is so painful and hard to try to live with”.
“I think the trauma is going to be there, and trauma will raise its head when it chooses to come up. But we’ll be there for her,” he said.
The family held Ms Maximen’s funeral in October, and dozens came to remember a woman who loved to spread joy.
Mr Hoo said their focus is now Cher’s daughter: “It’s difficult to say how do we celebrate this life that was taken so prematurely. But I think it goes into her daughter, and it’s to give her daughter the best life and love, and tell her who her mother was.
“I just wish that we had so much more time.”
A domestic abuser who murdered her “frail” husband and buried him in the garden has been jailed for at least 22 years.
Maureen Rickards caused her husband “unimaginable pain and suffering”, said the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).
She was found guilty at Canterbury Crown Court last month and today got a life sentence with a minimum of 22 years.
Jeremy Rickards, 65, was found wrapped in bin bags inside a hold-all at the couple’s property in St Martin’s Road, Canterbury, on 11 July last year.
He had five stab wounds to his chest – two of which pierced his heart.
There were also non-fatal injuries sustained about 10 days before his death, as well as other wounds thought to have been weeks old.
Grass cuttings were put over the body in an attempt to hide it, but the judge said police were alerted by an “overpowering odour” that “made them feel ill”.
Kent Police believe he was killed a month earlier and his corpse stored in an attic room cupboard before being moved.
Rickards, 50, told their daughter he had gone to Saudi Arabia for work, but police had no record of him leaving the UK.
The daughter became concerned by the style of messages she received and asked her mother if she’d taken over his phone.
She eventually reported him missing.
Jeremy Rickards: Pic: LinkedIn
The last record of Mr Rickards being alive was when he topped up his phone on 8 June.
CCTV showed his wife of 27 years using his bank card a few weeks later, with the judge saying the cleaning products she bought were probably to clean up the killing.
Rickards was initially arrested for fraud – but officers searched the property and found the body.
The murder weapon has never been found.
Police said the victim was also seen with bruising on his face a few weeks before his death, telling a pub staff member he had been in a car accident.
But video found on his wife’s phone showed her shouting at him and the sounds of her beating him.
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Mr Rickards briefly moved out of home in early June and was seen with numerous injuries at the property he stayed in.
His wife did not attend sentencing, but judge Mr Justice Kerr directed his comments towards her, saying: “Your videos also clearly show you threatening Jeremy, abusing him, using violence on him, and expressing an intention to kill him.
“He was in frail health and largely defenceless against you.”
Detectives said Rickards has never expressed remorse for the killing and tried to blame others.
“This was a horrific murder of a man who we believe had been a supportive husband to his wife, despite her violence towards him,” said Detective Inspector Colin McKeen.
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