‘I couldn’t carry on in that relationship, I’m distraught’
THE wife of a double killer who sexually abused at least 100 corpses in a hospital said she ended their marriage after learning of his sick crimes.
David Fuller, 67, violated the bodies while working in two Kent hospitals over 12 years. MPs want a public inquiry to discover how he accessed morgues to abuse the remains of people aged between nine and 100.
Fuller has admitted murdering Wendy Knell, 25, and Caroline Pierce, 20, in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, in 1987.
For 20 years he shared a home in Heathfield, East Sussex with third wife Mala Fuller, who has revealed she left him four months ago.
Ms Fuller, 50, wept as she said yesterday: “I’m not with him. I couldn’t carry on in that relationship.
“I’m too upset to even think about what was going on, I couldn’t live with it. You can’t imagine how distraught I am. I could not stay in that house knowing what he did and what went on in there.”
Numb
Gemma Keena, 39, whose mother Gill Palmer was Fuller’s first wife, said his crimes had had a devastating effect on her family: “They are in such shock, the details are unbearable. I’d say they are numb.
“They knew absolutely nothing about those other offences and I think someone could surely have prepared them. It was only when they went down to a pre-trial hearing that they learned about what he’d done.”
Kent Police fear they will never know how many dead women and girls NHS electrician Fuller violated – but admit it could be hundreds more.
Officers set up a hotline, anticipating a deluge of calls from distressed and grieving relatives of people who have died close to the hospitals, and took 100 calls in its first 24 hours.The force said it is aimed at “people who feel they may have information about the investigation”, known as Operation Sandpiper.
Fuller, who had worked in the hospitals since 1989, did late shifts as a technical supervisor. He would wait for the mortuary team to finish their shifts before committing his vile attacks under the guise of checking fridge temperatures.
Police raiding his home found computer hard drives with 14 million images of sex offences, included footage of Fuller sexually assaulting bodies in two morgues. Detectives also discovered diaries in which he had written details of his abuse of corpses.
One known victim was Azra Kemal, 24, whose body was abused by Fuller at Tunbridge Wells Hospital after she fell from a bridge in July 2020.
Her mother Nevres said: “No one checked. It was so simple. He would actually abuse women while porters were bringing in bodies.”
Greg Clark, Tory MP for Tunbridge Wells – joining calls for a public inquiry – said that he considered a current investigation by the local NHS trust was “not sufficient”. Kent detectives have identified 81 of Fuller’s morgue victims – but their investigation is continuing.
Fuller killed Ms Knell and Ms Pierce in what became known as the Bedsit Murders – one of Britain’s longest unsolved murders.
He was still working for the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust when revolutionary DNA profiling led cold case police officers to him.
Miles Scott, the trust chief executive, said: “I am confident our mortuary today is safe and secure. But I’m determined to see if there are any lessons to be learned.”
DS Ivan Beasley, who headed Kent Police’s investigation, said the scale of Fuller’s offending is “likely to be unprecedented in the UK”.
Fuller will be sentenced in court at a later date.