A hospital electrician has suddenly pleaded guilty in 1987 to the murders Wendy Knell and Caroline Pierce.
David Fuller (67) was on trial for the deaths Wendy Knell, 25 and Caroline Pierce, 20 in separate attacks in TunbridgeWells, Kent in 1987.
The jury heard that Fuller had previously confessed to killing them, but was not guilty. However, he was found with a cache of hard drives as well as photos that showed he had ‘acts for sexual penetration of female corpses.
He admitted to assaulting almost 80 bodies, many of them he filmed. However, detectives believe there could have been hundreds of more victims during his 30-year career.
Maidstone Crown Court in Kent heard the agony of now-deceased bus driver Ian Plass this week who had discovered his intended fiancée Ms Knell dead in her bloodstained bed.
The horrific written testimony was a result of hearing 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 yelling her name and banging on her doors, Mr Plass moved to the rear of the ground floor bedsit in TunbridgeWells, Kent and climbed through an unsecure window.
Plass made the discovery, which was described by the prosecution to be ‘the stuff that causes nightmares’.
David Fuller is charged with murdering Wendy Knell (25-year-old) and Caroline Pierce (20-year-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 I was 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 the rest of her body.
“I moved closer to her and stroked her head. I pulled the duvet back to her shoulders. She was lying on her 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.
He said, “I ran in, I sat on the ground, I cried my eyes,”
Fuller, a Heathfield resident, East Sussex, is alleged that he beat Miss Knell with an object heavy, asphyxiated, and then sexually assaulted the victim in her home. This happened after Miss Knell had been dropped off at 11pm by Mr Plass.
Ms. Pierce (pictured) was shot and killed five months later, outside her Grosvenor Park home on November 24, the same year.
Miss Knell, who was a manager at SupaSnaps. Mr Plass lived with his mother in Rusthall. They had been dating since 1985.
The court was informed that she was married once before, but that she and Mr Plass were planning to get engaged during a 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 we stayed with her that night, she might still be alive today.”
The court was informed that Miss Knell’s colleague had been sent to her first 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 then reached out to Miss Knell’s mom, Pamela. Pamela raised the alarm at 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 had been celebrating Mrs Knell’s granddaughter’s birthday at a party for family.
Mother of three Mrs Knell stated that her daughter was ‘happy in itself’ and that they had ‘a very pleasant day’.
She said, “She seemed in good spirits and was laughing & joking,”
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 in November of the same year of sexually assaulting, asphyxiating and beating Miss Pierce.
Miss Knell and Miss Pierce died in a double homicide case that remained unsolved for many years.
The two women lived a mile apart and both worked on Camden Road. However, they did not know one another.
Miss Pierce, the manager of the popular Buster Browns restaurant, was shot to death on November 24, 1987. However, her body, naked except for a pair of tights, was discovered in a water-filled dyke in a remote field in Kent on Romney Marsh.
A farm worker in St Mary in Marsh, 38 miles from her home, made the grim discovery on December 15.
After being dropped off in a taxi after a night out, it is believed she was attacked at her Grosvenor Park bedsit.
Later, neighbours recalled hearing two high pitched’screams for terror’ from a woman.
The court heard that there were numerous reports of prowlers or peeping toms targeting women at the time of their murders, including former occupants of Miss Pierce’s flat.
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.
“The defendant’s clear sexual interests in such bizarrely repellant activity provides an unbroken link between him, the treatment of the bodies that were killed, and so with Wendy and Caroline’s deaths,” he stated to the court.
“The prosecution case is that all of the relevant evidence, including the relevant history, provides a clear explanation for defendant’s behavior given his personality characteristics, the circumstances at that time. He wanted sexual gratification through the observation of vulnerable women, gaining control over them, and then indulged his depraved sexual desires in relation to them.
“It follows that his actions in murdering these two women and in sexually abusing them after their deaths are entirely his fault.” We believe that his assertions to the contrary are a continuation of his efforts to avoid the consequences of his actions by any and all means.”
According to the court, there had been many reports that Peeping toms and prowlers were targeting women in the region at the time of the murders.
A neighbour saw a man looking through a window on his nearby property just hours before Miss Knell’s body had been found.
The court heard that the prowler was seen at least three times per week in the three previous weeks.
Miss Pierce herself reported similar activity just after she moved into her Grosvenor Park bedit on October 18th 1987. She had window locks fitted and window locks installed.
The previous occupants were burgled four more times in the summer of 1987. This led to police installing an alarm mat with pressure activation.
The two female residents were also alert to objects being moved and drawers left unlocked when they were not home. The mat, which was located by a bedside drawer, was also activated while they worked.
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 prosecutor had previously said that the man seen at Miss Knell’s murder scene was of a similar appearance as Fuller.
The jury was also informed that he has been convicted of burglary in the 1970s and has a history voyeurism.