Police have set up a helpline to assist grieving relatives who believe that their loved ones were abused after their deaths by a double-murderer who sexually abused at most 100 corpses in the 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 contact centre details in anticipation of an avalanche of calls from family members.
Ministers and relatives of Fuller’s victims, aged 67, have demanded information about how Fuller was allowed continue his sickening acts over decades of work 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.
Nevres Kemal, the mother of Fuller, expressed concern about how many bodies he may have abused. She said to Sky News, in an emotional interview, that Fuller had entered the morgue area and autopsy area thousands of time, not hundreds, not thousands.
Today, police set up a contact center number of 0800 051527 to reveal the horrors of Fuller’s crimes. He dramatically changed his pleas yesterday in which he admitted to killing two young women.
MailOnline was informed by the force that it had spoken to all the families of the victims and that the public could not assist with further identification at this stage. However, support services are available through the number.
Kent Police detectives have so far identified 81 victims in the mortuary. However, the investigation is ongoing and anyone with any information is asked to call the number or complete the online form by clicking here.
David Fuller pleaded guilty for murdering Wendy Knell (25) and Caroline Pierce (20), in two separate attacks on July 27, 1987
Kent Police officers discover a notebook listing mortuary victims during a search of David Fuller’s office
The pervert kept a detailed record of his sex assaults in his own handwriting, which he kept secretly in the home he shared in with his wife.
Azra Kemal (left), 24 years old, was one of his victims. She was abused at Tunbridge Wells hospital by Fuller after she died in July 2020 from a fall from a bridge. Fears about how many bodies he may’ve abused have been raised by her mother Nevres (right).
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
Kent Police released CCTV footage of David Fuller, who was questioned before he pleaded guilty for murdering Wendy Knell, 25, & Caroline Pierce, 20, in Tunbridge Wells (Kent) in 1987.
Police say they will never know how many women and girls David Fuller (pictured) violated – but admit it could be hundreds more
Fuller was brought to justice after he was convicted of murdering two women and was a corpse defiler.
Police searched Fuller’s home and found a diary containing corpses that he had abused. As they realize its significance, a yellow-gloved forensic officer holds the notebook.
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.
Horrifying detectives discovered a hidden cache containing printed photos and thousands of digital images that revealed one of Britain’s most scandalous healthcare practices.
Fuller had spent at most 12 years abusing corpses at the Kent, Sussex, and Tunbridge Wells mortuaries.
The hoarder kept meticulous handwritten diaries about his abuse, as well as thousands of videos and photos of him having sex with corpses.
Police have confirmed that he had sex with at least 100 women, 81 of which have been identified by police, but they suspect there were many more victims.
Another shocking development:
- Fuller’s oldest victim, 100-year-old, was his youngest victim, nine-years-old.
- A mother whose daughter was raped by Fuller in a hospital moruary stated that this must never happen again.
- Sir Jonathan Michael is a fellow at The Royal College of Physicians and will lead an investigation into Fuller’s crimes, and what could have been done in order to prevent them.
- NHS England wrote to trusts to request that they urgently review mortuary security.
- Sajid Javid, Health Secretary said he was ‘profoundly shaken’ by the unspeakable nature these offences.
Kent Police’s investigation in Fuller was led DCI Ian Beasley. We have never seen anything like it.
After Fuller’s plead guilty to 51 charges including 44 relating the necrophilia at an October 8 hearing, more than 150 family liaison officials informed the families of the victims simultaneously.
Libby Clark, Crown Prosecution Service, stated that no British court had ever witnessed abuse on this scale against the deceased before. I have no doubt that he would still be committing offences to this day if it wasn’t for this thorough investigation and prosecution.
Pictured: David Fuller’s NHS security ID badge
Police found several pieces of evidence that led to Fuller’s arrest, including a bloody shoe print.
David Fuller is pictured wearing the shoes later linked by detectives to one murder in 1987
Twice-married Fuller, aged 67, was regarded by locals to be a harmless oddball. However, Fuller hid a double-life that included deviant abuse of corpses.
Ms. Knell, who was the manager of Supasnaps’ Camden Road photography shop, was dropped off by her boyfriend at her Guildford Road ground floor flat (pictured) at 11:22 on June 22, 1987.
Ms. Pierce was found dead by a farmer who drove a tractor in the field’s edge on December 15th, some 40 miles away in an unfilled dyke close to St Mary in the Marsh. She was naked, except for a pair if tights.
A mum’s grief, revulsion and grief
Yesterday, a woman whose daughter’s body had been defiled by David Fuller complained that it should never happen again.
The twisted hospital electrician sneaked into Tunbridge Wells, Kent, three times to sexually assault Azra Kemal (24), who had fallen from a bridge.
Horribly, the attacks occurred just hours before and right after Nevres Kemal (her grief-stricken mother) had visited her daughter. She stroked her hair to bid her farewell and then went on to attack her second and third attackers.
She said that she had spent two hours with her in the mortuary. That provided some comfort. I didn’t know my daughter had been sexually assaulted before that day and in the evening. As I was stroking my daughter’s locks and sleeping on her head, a man… crawled all over her body. I kissed, cuddled, and said my last goodbyes.
Sickening: Azra Kmal was one Fuller’s victims
Miss Kemal was a Sky News researcher and was one of Fuller’s most recent victims. His sickening attacks were carried out in July 2013.
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. This must never happen again.
Fuller worked from 1989 to 2010, when he transferred to Tunbridge Wells Hospital.
As an electrician, he was granted unsupervised access to all hospital areas via a swipe card. Police said that Fuller’s shift was between 11am and 7pm. Mortuary staff typically finished their day at 4pm.
He carried his tools bag with him, making sure that his abuse could not have been picked up by CCTV cameras that only covered a small portion of the mortuary. Mr Beasley stated that although there was evidence of him moving around in the mortuary, there is no CCTV footage of him interfacing with any of the bodies. All evidence is his own footage.
Last night, victims’ families demanded answers from the NHS regarding how Fuller was allowed to access their loved ones’ bodies.
Fuller abused Azra Kemal’s body after she died in July from a fall from a bridge. Sky News spoke to Nevres, her mother. She said that Fuller had swipe cards and cameras because she was a good person. No one checked. It was so straightforward. He would abuse women while porters brought in bodies.
Miles Scott, the chief executive of Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust apologized last night to Fuller’s families and said that, while he was confident that Fuller’s mortuary is now safe, he was determined learn if there were any ways to improve.
After killing Miss Knell and sexually assaulting Miss Pierce within months of eachother, Fuller evaded prosecution for 33 years. DNA evidence from decades ago linked him to the murders after a relative was arrested and added it to the database.
Fuller seemed shocked to see officers at Fuller’s home when he was taken into custody and said, “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 also abducted from her home on the 24th of November that year.
Three weeks later, the body of Miss Knell, naked except for a pair a tights, was found in a water-filled ditch near Romney Marsh. Pam Knell, Miss Knell’s mother who lost her husband Bill in 2017, said that she hoped Fuller would be convicted to finally allow her family to grieve.
“For 34 years, our family, the police, and the press have been focusing upon what Wendy actually went through, wanting to find out who did it, and how she spent her final moments alive,” she stated.
“Sadly, it’s worse than we ever imagined.”
“Hopefully, we can now begin to grieve and move beyond the pain… although the timing of our loss has meant that our dad is not here for this moment. He died four years ago. It broke his heart, and he didn’t know it before he passed away.
Priti Patel, Home Secretary, expressed her deepest sympathies to all those who were affected by Fuller’s crimes.
Greg Clark, Tunbridge-Wells MP, wrote to Mr Javid (and Miss Patel) requesting a public investigation.
He stated that Fuller’s victims’ families deserve to know two things. One, how this could have happened and two, that it cannot happen again. Fuller will be sentenced at an unknown date.
A special place In hell for one of The most popular places in Britain Hideous criminals
By Barbara Davies for the Daily Mail
To celebrate the capture of her killer, Bill and Pamela Knell received a bottle champagne from a friend after Wendy’s murder in 1987. They had to throw it away after a few more years.
Pamela said that she didn’t want to die without knowing what happened or who did it, and she told a newspaper back then.
Bill Knell, a broken-hearted man, died in 2017 from cancer. He didn’t know who had strangled his daughter, 25, and then sexually assaulted her body. Pamela, a frail woman in her 80s, was at Maidstone Crown Court yesterday for David Fuller’s final statement that he had murdered Wendy Pierce and Caroline Pierce.
As Wendy, Caroline, 20, was also killed and sexually assaulted. Fuller then dumped her body in a field where he had just weeks earlier, with other members of his cycling group. The two women lived in separate ground-floor flats, one mile apart in Tunbridge wells, Kent. Their deaths were called the “Bedsit Murders” and became one the longest double homicide cases in the UK.
Police, who have sifted through millions of images on Fuller’s computers and hard drives, have not yet been able to identify all of his victims. Pictured by Fuller
It is only now, at 67, that Fuller’s murder trial has been brought to a dramatic halt by his guilty plea that the full story about one of the most vile killers in British History can begin to be told.
For having taken the lives of two young women in their prime, Fuller went on to commit further crimes of almost unimaginable evil – raping and sexually molesting the bodies of at least 100 women and girls in mortuaries to which he had access as a hospital electrician.
His oldest victim was 100 years old, and his youngest was only nine. He recorded his perverse acts and took photos of his victims’ mortuary log entries and identity bracelets. He recorded their names, and searched social media for additional information.
He kept meticulous files of those he violated in an upstairs room at his East Sussex home in Heathfield. This office was guarded by CCTV.
Police have searched through millions upon millions of images on Fuller’s computers, hard drives, but have not been able identify all his victims. Aside from the horror of all this – with the jury at Maidstone Crown Court being offered counselling – police believe Fuller’s crimes may go way beyond the 51 counts of necrophilia for which he pleaded guilty, stretching back to the pre-digital era before he was able to use digital cameras to record images of his crimes.
Many families who lost loved ones at the Tunbridge Wells Hospital and Kent and Sussex Hospitals where Fuller worked will be haunted by the idea that they might have been his victims.
Wendy Knell (left), and Caroline Pierce (right), whose deaths were nicknamed the ‘Bedsit Murders” and became one the UK’s longest double murder cases.
Fuller was able to get away with his crimes for almost 35 years by maintaining a facade of middle-class domesticity, respectability, and dignity. At least to those who knew him casually, Fuller was a family man, a father-of-4, a thrice-married man and a seemingly loving husband and dad.
He was a keen birdwatcher as well as a photographer. Before back problems forced him to give up on his favorite hobby, he was a good-humoured, keen cyclist.
He was living at Broomhill Bank School in Tunbridge Wells as a staff member when he murdered Wendy & Caroline. His second wife, Sally, was a house parent.
Today, we can show that Fuller’s criminality can be traced back to 1970s Hampshire when he was still living there. He pleaded guilty to three thefts at Portsmouth Crown Court in 1973 and requested that 23 similar offences be considered.
He was living in Kent at the time he murdered Wendy and Caroline. He used the same criminal tactics he used to burglarize his potential victims as he did when he was trying to find them.
Caroline and Wendy lived in Tunbridge Wells’s ground-floor bedsits. Reports of a prowler looking in downstairs windows at the time of their deaths were made.
Wendy was the store manager at Supasnaps, a town centre shop. On the evening she died – Monday, June 22 – she left work at 5.30pm and, after a visit to a laundrette, went to boyfriend Ian Plass’s house. He gave her a ride home on his motorbike at 11pm and they said their goodbyes on the front lawn.
Staff phoned Ian to inform them that she had failed to show up at work the next day. He then went to her flat. Wendy lay naked on her bed, bloodied, and battered.
The investigation’s detectives believed Wendy’s killer was lying in wait for Wendy. The killer had taken items from Wendy’s room, including her diary as well as her keys. These items were never recovered.
Ian Plass, who has since died, described in a witness statement that he gave police to police, which was read in court this week, the horror of finding his girlfriend’s body.
“I seem to recall that there was blood. I could see Wendy’s head sticking out of the top of her duvet. The duvet covered the rest of her body. I moved closer to her head and stroked it. I pulled the duvet back to her shoulders. She was lying on her left side, facing the wall.
Caroline Pierce was murdered on Tuesday, November 24, 1987. She was the manager of Buster Browns, a Tunbridge burger restaurant.
She went out with friends the night before her death and took a taxi to Grosvenor Road to get back to her bed in Grosvenor Road. Staff raised the alarm when she failed to show up for work the next day. Three weeks later, her body was found 40 miles away in a water-filled drainage ditch near Romney Marsh – naked apart from the black tights she’d been wearing. She had been raped, strangled, and battered just like Wendy.
The jumper she wore and the skirt she was wearing were never recovered. Her keys, which were also missing from her handbag, were also not recovered.
Scientific advances would have prevented Fuller from being caught. The clock was ticking from the moment a Fuller family member were arrested and a DNA specimen was added to the national databases.
A cold-case review of Wendy’s and Caroline’s murders revealed that the DNA of the killer was very close to the victim. Fuller, who was arrested in December 2013, said that he did not know about the case but that his DNA was a perfect match.
Fuller eventually admitted killing both Wendy and Caroline but, claiming he was of ‘abnormal mind’ at the time, refused to plead guilty to murder – until yesterday.
Although he blamed his obsession with having sexual contact with corpses on a childhood trauma, there is plenty to support the idea that he could have normal relationships with women.
A former lover described him to be a normal, loving man.
Fuller, who was 16 years old, left school to become an apprentice electrician at the Ministry of Defence in Portsmouth. He married Gillian in 1973 and they had 3 children. In court, he claimed that their relationship ended due to her having an affair. He then moved from Kent to Tonbridge and met Sally.
Fuller said that their 17-year marriage was ‘long-lasting’, ‘in-depth, and nice’. They were married in 1982. He claimed that the marriage ended when she became a member of his cycling club.
While working as an electrician at Kent & Sussex Hospital, he met Mala, his current wife. They were married in Barbados in 1999, and had a son together. He said that their relationship was a ‘pretty perfect,’ according to police interviews.
His wife was seen crying in the public gallery at a hearing held on October 8. She believed to have learned the full extent of her husband’s crimes that morning.
Fuller was apathetic in custody, sitting with his head down as officers interrogated him about his necrophilia crime. After a few pauses, Fuller finally spoke in a quiet voice. It was obvious that he couldn’t even describe what he had done. He replied, “I admit the offences, but I don’t really want to go into details,”
Justice has taken a long time for the families of Wendy Knell, Caroline Pierce and Caroline Pierce. Caroline’s family is believed to have moved to Spain many years ago. But yesterday Wendy’s family paid a moving tribute to Kent Police’s cold case team at Maidstone Crown Court.
Fuller is still awaiting sentencing. The maximum sentence for the offences Fuller committed in hospital mortuaries is only two years, despite their severity.
The worst possibility is that his true evil may yet be revealed.