Friday, 29 March, 2024
HomeMedico-LegalSexual violation of corpses scandal triggers regulatory review of UK mortuaries

Sexual violation of corpses scandal triggers regulatory review of UK mortuaries

An electrician who admitted murdering two women in 1987, also sexually attacked scores of corpses in hospital mortuaries in the worst offending of its kind in British legal history, prosecutors say. The UK Human Tissue Authority has been asked for advice on whether rules need to be changed.

The Guardian reports that David Fuller pleaded guilty to murdering Wendy Knell and Caroline Pierce in separate attacks in Tunbridge Wells, according to Kent police.

Sajid Javid, the UK Health Scretary, said the NHS had written to all health trusts asking for mortuary access and postmortem activities to be reviewed. An independent review has started at the trust where Fuller worked.

Fuller changed his pleas last week partway through his trial at Maidstone Crown Court, which heard that he sexually assaulted the two women after killing them. He had admitted killing both women but originally pleaded not guilty to murder on the grounds of diminished responsibility. His trial heard that he also sexually assaulted women’s corpses in the mortuaries at Kent and Sussex hospital and Tunbridge Wells hospital while working there. Police have detected at least 99 potential victims of Fuller.

The Crown Prosecution Service said Fuller’s necrophilia was unprecedented in British legal history: “Searches of Fuller’s home following his arrest uncovered hard drives concealed in a hide in his home, revealing evidence of prolific sexual offending of a kind no British court has seen before.

“Between 2008 and 2020, Fuller had filmed and photographed himself sexually abusing the bodies of dozens of women and girls at two Tunbridge Wells hospital mortuaries he was able to access through his job as the maintenance supervisor.”

Before his murder trial, he pleaded guilty to 51 other offences, including 44 charges relating to 78 victims identified who were attacked in mortuaries, to which he had access through his work as an electrician. The attacks on the corpses are believed to have been committed between 2008 and November 2020. When Fuller’s home was raided police discovered 4m images of sexual abuse.

In a police interview, Fuller admitted to using Facebook to search for photos of the people he abused in the mortuary. In relation to identifying and naming the files containing images of his offending against dead people, he said he had gone back to name them at a later stage, using the ledgers from the mortuary and identification tags on the bodies, Atkinson said.

Prosecutor Duncan Atkinson said these images provided evidence that Fuller committed the acts out of “sexual gratification” and not mental illness.

 

The Guardian article – David Fuller: man admits two murders and sexual abuse of multiple corpses (Open access)

 

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