Police today set up a helpline for distraught relatives who believe their loved ones could have been violated after their death by a double murderer who sexually abused at least 100 corpses in hospitals where he worked.
Kent Police say they will never know how many women and girls David Fuller violated – but admit it could be hundreds more, and released a helpline number in anticipation of an avalanche of calls from family members.
Ministers and relatives of those 67-year-old Fuller abused have demanded to know how the electrician was allowed to continue his sickening offences over decades of working for the NHS.
But officers say they may reach a stage when they cannot identify all of his victims – one of whom was Azra Kemal, 24, who was abused by Fuller at Tunbridge Wells Hospital after she died following a fall from a bridge in July 2020.
Her mother Nevres Kemal has raised fears over how many bodies Fuller may have abused, telling Sky News in an emotional interview: 'He had entered the morgue and autopsy area thousands of times, not hundreds, thousands.'
Kent Police set up a helpline number today of 0800 051527 as the horrifying scale of Fuller's depraved crimes was revealed after he dramatically changed his pleas yesterday to confess to murdering two young women.
Police say they will never know how many women and girls David Fuller (pictured) violated – but admit it could be hundreds more
Fuller, 67, admitted killing Wendy Knell, 25, (left) and Caroline Pierce, 20, (right) in 1987 in what became known as the 'Bedsit Murders' – one of Britain's longest unsolved murder cases
The pervert kept a detailed diary of his sex assaults, penned in his own handwriting and secreted in the home he shared with his wife
Brought to justice: The moment corpse defiler and murderer Fuller arrived at the police station more than 30 years after murdering two women
CCTV issued by Kent Police of David Fuller being questioned, before he pleaded guilty to murdering Wendy Knell, 25, and Caroline Pierce, 20, in two separate attacks in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, in 1987
One of his victims was Azra Kemal (left), 24, who was abused by Fuller at Tunbridge Wells Hospital after she died following a fall from a bridge in July 2020. Her mother Nevres Kemal (right) has raised fears over how many bodies he may have abused
The horrific moment police searching his home found Fuller's diary of corpses he had abused. A forensic officer in yellow gloves holds the notebook as they realise its siginificance
Fuller admitted killing Wendy Knell, 25, and Caroline Pierce, 20, in 1987 in what became known as the 'Bedsit Murders' – one of Britain's longest unsolved murder cases.
He was still working for the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust when revolutionary DNA profiling techniques led police investigating the historic murders to his home in Heathfield, East Sussex, on December 3 last year.
Horrified detectives found a hidden cache of printed photos along with thousands of digital images and videos that exposed one of Britain's biggest healthcare scandals.
Fuller had spent at least 12 years abusing corpses in the mortuaries of Kent and Sussex and Tunbridge Wells hospitals.
The hoarder kept detailed handwritten diaries of his abuse, along with thousands of videos and images of himself having sex with the corpses organised into folders.
Police have established he had sexual activity with at least 100 deceased women, 81 of whom have been identified, but say there may have been many more victims.
In other shocking developments:
Fuller's oldest victim was 100 and his youngest was aged just nine; A mother whose daughter's body was defiled by Fuller in a hospital mortuary said: 'This must never happen again'; Sir Jonathan Michael, a fellow at the Royal College of Physicians, will lead an investigation into Fuller's crimes and what could have been done to prevent them; NHS England has written to trusts to ask them to urgently review mortuary security; Health Secretary Sajid Javid said he was 'profoundly shaken by the unspeakable nature of these offences'.DCI Ian Beasley, who led Kent Police's investigation into Fuller, said: 'It quickly became clear that the extent and scale of offending was likely to be unprecedented in the UK. We have never seen anything like this.'
More than 150 family liaison officers informed the families of the dead women simultaneously after Fuller pleaded guilty to 51 charges, including 44 relating to the necrophilia, at a hearing on October 8.
Libby Clark, of the Crown Prosecution Service, said: '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.'
Pictured: David Fuller's NHS security badge
Fuller had spent at least 12 years abusing corpses in the mortuaries of Kent and Sussex and Tunbridge Wells hospitals (stock image)
Fuller was caught after police found a number of pieces of evidence, including a distinctive shoe print in blood
David Fuller, pictured wearing the shoes which were later linked by detectives to one of the murders in 1987
Twice-married Fuller, 67, was seen by locals as a harmless oddball, but hid a double-life of deviant abuse of corpses
Ms Knell, the manager of a Supasnaps photography shop in Camden Road, was dropped off at her ground floor flat in Guildford Road (pictured) by her boyfriend at around 11pm on June 22, 1987
Ms Pierce's body was found by a farm worker driving a tractor around the edge of a field on December 15, some 40 miles away in a water-filled dyke near St Mary in the Marsh, close to Romney Marsh. She was naked apart from a pair of tights
A woman whose daughter's body was defiled by David Fuller pleaded yesterday: 'This must never happen again.'
The warped hospital electrician sneaked into the mortuary at Tunbridge Wells Hospital in Kent three times to sexually abuse Azra Kemal, 24, who died after plunging from a bridge.
Horrifically, the first two attacks happened just hours before and after her grief-stricken mother, Nevres Kemal, had visited her daughter and stroked her hair to say farewell.
She said: 'I had spent two hours in the mortuary sleeping with her. And that gave me some sort of comfort. Little did I know that my daughter had been violated prior to that day and the evening of that day. So, while I'm stroking my daughter's hair, sleeping on her hair, a man had... crawled all over her skin. And there's me kissing and cuddling and saying my last goodbyes.'
Sickening: Azra Kemal was one of Fuller's victims
Miss Kemal, who worked as a researcher for Sky News, was one of Fuller's most recent victims. He carried out his sickening assaults in July last year.
Her mother – a London social worker – told Sky News: 'Men and women up and down the country will be appalled by what they are reading.
'And I remind them that if this was your loved one you would roar with rage – and I am silently roaring. We need to respect the dead and this must never happen again.'
Advertisement
Fuller worked at the now-closed Kent and Sussex Hospital from 1989 until 2010, when he moved to Tunbridge Wells Hospital.
In his role as electrician, he had a swipe card that allowed him unsupervised access to all parts of the hospital. Mortuary staff usually finished for the day at 4pm, while Fuller's shift was from 11am to 7pm, police said.
He would carry his bag of tools with him and ensured his abuse could not be picked up by CCTV, which covered only part of the mortuary. Mr Beasley said: 'We have evidence of him moving around the mortuary but no CCTV of him interacting with any of the bodies. All the evidence is from his own filming.'
Families of the victims were last night demanding answers from the NHS about how Fuller was able to access the dead bodies of their loved ones.
Azra Kemal's body was abused by Fuller after the 24-year-old died following a fall from a bridge in July last year. Her mother, Nevres, told Sky News: 'We have swipe cards and cameras for a reason. No one checked. It was so simple. He would actually abuse women while porters were bringing in bodies.'
Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust chief executive Miles Scott last night apologised to the families of Fuller's victims and said, while he was confident the mortuary was now safe, he was determined to learn if there were ways to improve.
Fuller evaded justice for 33 years after killing and sexually assaulting Miss Knell and Miss Pierce within months of each other, before decades-old DNA evidence linked him to the murders when a family member was arrested and added to the database.
When he was arrested, Fuller seemed surprised to see officers at his home, saying: 'Oh blimey.'
Fuller had previously admitted responsibility for the deaths with 'diminished responsibility' at Maidstone Crown Court – but until yesterday he had denied murder. Miss Knell's bloodstained body was found in her flat on June 23, 1987, after Fuller – a convicted burglar – had climbed in through the window, before beating and strangling her to death.
Miss Pierce was abducted from outside her home on November 24 the same year.
Her body, naked apart from a pair of tights, was found in a water-filled dyke
