The boyfriend of a woman killed by a hospital electrician – who is also accused of defiling corpses in a morgue – had revealed his agony at not being there to save her, a court heard today
David Fuller, aged 67, is being tried for the murders of Wendy Knell (25), and Caroline Pierce (20) in Tunbridge Wells, Kent in 1987.
Yesterday, the jury heard that Fuller, a police investigation into his murder, admitted that he had killed them but said he wasn’t guilty of murder. Police found a cache containing hard drives and photos showing that he performed ‘acts sexual penetration of female corpses’.
Today Maidstone Crown Court in Kent heard the agony of now-deceased bus driver Ian Plass who had discovered his intended fiancée Ms Knell dead in her bloodstained bed.
The horrific written testimony came after it was discovered that a prowlingvoyeur had been operating around Grosvenor park in the weeks prior to her death.
Ms Knell’s mother alerted Mr Plass when she failed to show up for work on June 23, 1987.
After no response to his banging on her door, shouting her name, Mr Plass climbed through an insecure window to the rear end of the ground-floor bedit in Tunbridge Wells.
The prosecution described Plass’s discovery as “the stuff of nightmares”.
David Fuller has been accused of killing Wendy Knell, 25 and Caroline Pierce, 20 years old.
Bus driver Ian Plass who had discovered his intended fiancée Ms Knell dead in her bed
In a statement read at Maidstone Crown Court Kent, Mr Plass said that he had called his girlfriend to wake up when he first noticed her in bed.
“There was no movement in the flat. He said that he then climbed into the flat through one of the fanlight windows ….. “I was driven by adrenalin, and concern for Wendy.”
“Once in, i just stood there. I seem to recall that there was blood somewhere, but I don’t know where. I could see Wendy’s head sticking out the top of the duvet. The duvet covered her entire body.
“I moved closer and stroked her forehead. I pulled the duvet down to her shoulders. She was lying on her left side, facing the wall.
“I lifted her right elbow and pulled one her eyelids. She didn’t move. She didn’t move.
Since Miss Knell had lost her flat keys, Mr Plass had to climb out of the window to raise the alarm at the nearby fire station.
“I rushed into, I sat down and I cried my eyes dry,” he said.
Fuller, a Heathfield resident, East Sussex, is accused to have beat Miss Knell with an object heavy, asphyxiated, and then sexually assaulted the victim in her home, after she had been dropped by Mr Plass at 11pm on the previous night.
Ms. Pierce (pictured was killed five more months later at her Grosvenor park home on November 24th of the sameyear
Miss Knell, a manager at SupaSnaps and Mr Plass, who lived in Rusthall with his mother, had been dating since 1985.
According to the court, she was previously married and she and Mr Plass had planned to get engaged on a future trip to Paris.
After dropping his girlfriend off at her flat in the cul de-sac on Guildford Road, he told police that he kissed goodnight to Miss Knell as he hooted from the porch.
He added, “Not a single day goes by that I don’t feel guilty over her death.” “Had she been with me that night, she would still be here today,” he said.
The court was informed that Miss Knell’s colleague had first been sent to her apartment at 11.15am after she failed to show up for work at SupaSnaps.
She rang the bell twice or three times, but no one answered.
Another colleague contacted Miss Knell’s mom, Pamela, and raised the alarm to Mr Plass and Bill Knell who were both employed by the Maidstone and District Bus Company.
Pamela Knell, Miss Knell’s mother, made a statement in court. She said that she last saw her daughter just two days before she died.
They were celebrating Mrs Knell’s granddaughters’ birthday at a family party.
Mother of three Mrs Knell said that her daughter was happy and had a great day.
“She seemed in good spirits, laughing and joking,” she said.
Miss Knell’s father was killed in 2017, but he gave his police statement in court, in which he described his daughter’s affections and happiness.
Fuller is also accused with assassinating, beating, and sexually assaulting Miss Pierce in November of that year.
Miss Knell’s and Miss Pierce’s deaths, also known as the ‘Bedsit Murders’ at that time, became one of the longest unsolved double murder cases in the UK.
They lived less than a mile apart and both worked on Camden Road. However, they did not know each others.
Miss Pierce was the manager at Buster Browns in the town. Her body was found naked in a dyke in a field on Romney Marsh in Kent three weeks later.
The shocking discovery was made by a farmer near St Mary in Marsh – 38 miles from her home – on December 15.
After being dropped off by a taxi, it is believed that she was attacked at her Grosvenor Park bed-room door.
Later, neighbors recalled hearing two high-pitched “screams of terror” from a female.
According to the court, there had been many reports of peeping and prowlers targeting women at the time they were killed, including the previous occupants Miss Pierce’s apartment.
Fuller denies two murder charges. He claims that he was suffering an abnormal mind at the time, and that his responsibility was’substantially diminished.
Yesterday’s trial began with Duncan Atkinson QC, the prosecution saying that they were beaten to death and then killed using pressure to their necks such as an armlock. They were also sexually abused during the process of the death or afterward.
Officers found what they described as a ‘library of unimaginable sexual depravity in his loft’ after the December arrest of the hospital electrician.
His collection of hard drive images and hard drives ‘carefully hidden and stored’ revealed that he had over a long period of time carried out ‘acts sexual penetration of female corpses, said Mr Atkinson. He was working in mortuaries at the Kent and Sussex Hospital and Tunbridge Wells Hospital.
He told the court that the defendant’s clear sexual interest and bizarre and repellent activity provided a unique link between him, the treatment of the bodies of the victims, and so with Wendy and Caroline’s deaths.”
“The prosecution case is that all of the relevant evidence, including the relevant history, provides a clear explanation for defendant’s behaviour given his personality characteristics, the circumstances at that time. This includes his desire to sexually gratify through the observation of vulnerable women, gaining control over them, and then indulged his depraved sexual desires in relation to them.
“It is clear that he is fully responsible for the murder of these two women, and for sexually abusing their bodies following their deaths.” We say that his claim to be able to assert otherwise is an extension of his attempts at avoiding the consequences of his actions using any and all means.”
The court heard that there were numerous reports of Peeping toms and prowlers targeting women in the region at the time of their murders.
A neighbour saw a man looking through a window on the property next to Miss Knell just hours before her body was discovered.
The court heard that the prowler was seen at least three times per week in the three previous weeks.
Miss Pierce reported similar activity shortly after she moved into her Grosvenor Park bedsit on October 18, 1987. She also had window locks installed.
The previous occupants were burgled four more times in late summer 1987. This led to police installing an alarm mat that is activated by pressure.
The two female residents were also alert to objects being moved and drawers left unlocked when they were not home. The mat was placed next to a bedside cupboard and was activated while they were working.
The court heard that one time they were disturbed by a prowler who was looking through the Venetian blind slats while they watched a video.
The prosecution previously stated that the man seen on Miss Knell’s alleged murder night was of a similar appearance to Fuller.
The jury was also told that he had been convicted of burglary in the 1970s as well as voyeurism.
Mr Atkinson stated that the circumstances surrounding the alleged killings were not accidental. He said that the murders occurred because neither woman was found to be at risk of being killed accidentally.
The jury will hear later the circumstances surrounding Miss Pierce’s disappearance, and her murder.
The trial continues.