I love the dead...

[Gob]

An electrician who admitted murdering two women in 1987 also sexually attacked scores of corpses in a hospital mortuary in the worst offending of its kind in British legal history, prosecutors say.

David Fuller pleaded guilty to murdering Wendy Knell, 25, and Caroline Pierce, 20, in separate attacks in Tunbridge Wells, Kent police said.

The 67-year-old changed his pleas on Thursday 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, in what is believed to be the worst case of necrophilia in British legal history.

Before his murder trial, he pleaded guilty to 51 other offences, including 44 charges relating to 78 victims identified who were attacked in mortuaries, which he had access to through his work as an electrician. The attacks on the corpses are believed to have been committed between 2008 and November 2020.

In footage released by Kent police of Fuller’s interview with detectives, he says: “I want to admit … I am admitting the offences but I don’t really want to go into detail.”

When Fuller’s home was raided police discovered 4m images of sexual abuse. Most were downloaded from the internet, but Fuller had also recorded himself abusing bodies.

The CPS 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.”

Knell was found dead in her apartment with severe injuries in Guildford Road on 23 June 1987. Pierce was killed five months later, on 24 November, outside her home in Grosvenor Park. Neighbours described hearing screams from her flat on the night in question, the court heard on Monday. She was reported missing, and her body was later discovered in a water-filled dyke at St Mary-in-the-Marsh on 15 December 1987. DNA evidence from both women’s bodies linked Fuller to their killings.

There were reports of “prowler activity” in the lead-up to both women’s deaths, with local people reporting a voyeur looking through their windows.

Fuller was arrested for murder on 3 December last year after new analysis of decades-old DNA evidence, and officers searched his home. There they found images of dead women at the two hospital mortuaries being abused by Fuller, the prosecutor, Duncan Atkinson QC, said on Monday.

Officers then found four hard drives with 5TB of data storage in total attached to the back of a cupboard. “When these hard drives were examined, they were found to contain a library of unimaginable sexual depravity,” Atkinson said.

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.

He added: “He admitted to searching for them on the internet, including on Facebook. He claimed that this would be after the offending, rather than research before offending.”

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

The home secretary, Priti Patel, said she hoped the victims’ families could “find some solace in seeing justice finally done”. Describing the case as shocking, she added: “The sickening nature of the crimes committed will understandably cause public revulsion and concern.”

Libby Clark, of the CPS, said: “This highly dangerous man has inflicted unimaginable suffering on countless families and he has only admitted his long-held secrets when confronted with overwhelming evidence.

“I have no doubt he would still be offending to this day had it not been for this painstaking investigation and prosecution.”

Sajid Javid, the health secretary, 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 and the Human Tissue Authority has been asked for advice on whether rules need to be changed.

A date for Fuller’s sentencing has not yet been set.

[Bicycle Bill]

This reminds me of an incident here in the states — specifically, in Wisconsin — about fifteen years ago in which three men dug up a grave and attempted to exhume the corpse of a 20-year-old nursing assistant killed the week before in a motorcycle crash.  According to reports, one of them had seen an obituary photo of the attractive woman and asked the others for help digging up her corpse so he could have sexual intercourse with it.  They used shovels to reach her grave but were unable to pry the concrete vault open, and fled after a car drove into the cemetery.

interestingly. according to an article published at the time, they did have the forethought to purchase condoms, apparently intending to engage in "safe sex".

However, at first they could only be charged with desecrating the grave, as there was no law in Wisconsin specifically prohibiting necrophilia (of course, my first reaction upon hearing of this was "who in the hell would have thought that such a law would be needed?"), and sexual assault charges based on this were originally dismissed in a lower court and upheld at a state appeals court level.  That situation was addressed and clarified when the state Supreme Court ruled that Wisconsin's sexual assault laws could be applied to sex with a corpse, since the deceased person was unable to grant permission (!!).  Charges of "attempted sexual assault" were reinstated and the three were all subsequently found guilty on the charges, as well as the charges of criminal damage to a cemetery.

-"BB"-

 

[BoSoxGal]

Even in death women aren’t safe from the twisted adherents to extreme patriarchy.

[Big RR]

I don't get that; they're dead, they are no longer victimized (nor can they be). Perhaps their families are, but not the women. Not that I condone using dead bodies for asexual pleasure, but the body is hardly a victim.

[BoSoxGal]

I don't get that; they're dead, they are no longer victimized (nor can they be). Perhaps their families are, but not the women. Not that I condone using dead bodies for asexual pleasure, but the body is hardly a victim.

Are you replying to me? And if so, are you fucking serious?! If you are there is no sense in a further discussion, if you really don’t get it.

[Big RR]

As you wish; if you believe a dead body can be victimized, I agree there is no reason in discussing it.

FWIW, would an autopsy not agreed to by the body be an assault?

[Gob]

If the dead person didn't agree to it, it was rape, (by the patriarchy.)

[BoSoxGal]

As you wish; if you believe a dead body can be victimized, I agree there is no reason in discussing it.

FWIW, would an autopsy not agreed to by the body be an assault?

It’s a fucking crime against society and is illegal in pretty nearly every US jurisdiction. Beyond that yes, it victimizes women in a larger sense. I’m surprised to be having this conversation with you of all people as I thought you were one of the more enlightened men on this board. What do you think it’s like for your daughters to know how much misogyny surrounds them in this world that women’s bodies aren’t left alone even in death?

Forget I bothered to express any outrage. Of course our bodies are yours for the raping from cradle to grave, and even after a little rot has set in.

[Big RR]

It’s a fucking crime against society and is illegal in pretty nearly every US jurisdiction.

While I haven't checked where it is illegal, I'd bet you're right.

I just disagree that it victimizes the dead women; people who have sex with dead bodies are a pretty small subset of the population, male or female (and yes, there are female necrophiles as well), but I can think of a lot more that is done to dead bodies that is far more widespread and done for profit. For example, the Chinese had made an industry of shippping out dead, skinned bodies for traveling exhibits which people line up to see, and I recently read some people in Switzerland are doing the same things with the bodies posed in sexual positions, again for entertainment purposes. While I find these disgusting and wouldn't attend, I hardly see anyone victimized. These are dead bodies, inanimate objects that are not harmed by it. Yes, the next of kin have some rights in the disposition of the bodies, and yes, the way we treat dead bodies may say something about us as a society, but I hardly see it as a victimization.

Indeed, as I recall, most, if not all of our laws governing dealing with dead bodies are founded in either religion or health codes. The public health consequences of properly preparing and burying, etc. bodies are obvious; the religious ones (at least in the primaril were done to assure the bodies were not left intact an deny the resurrection (although why a god who could resurrect the dead couldn't just make a new complete bodycy christian west, although I think it applies to judaism as well), is with an eye toward keeping the bodes intact for the ultimate resurrection (indeed, punishments like drawing and quartering or the burning of witches were done to scatter the body and prevent resurrection, although why a god who could resurrect the dead couldn't just conjure up a new body is beyond me).

I can't speak for my daughters, but personally I am more concerned about how we treat the living than the dead; and I would hope they'd agree. We have so many examples of violence against liivng women, that I devote my efforts (such as they are) to minimizing that.

I am just ignoring your last statement, as I have never even suggested that.

[Bicycle Bill]

Even in death women aren’t safe from the twisted adherents to extreme patriarchy.

She was supposed to be a satirical caricature of radical feminism, BSG, not a role model....

-"BB"-

[Scooter]

It's pretty much the ultimate statement that women are nothing but slabs of meat to be abused by men as they wish.

[Big RR]

So Scooter, are you actually equating the bodies with living, breathing women? That's the part I don't get. The bodies are just slabs of meat. One need only look at what an embalmer does to a body to realize that. I just don't see bodies as people; there are reasons we treat them with some modicum of respect, be they religious or the view of the bodies as the property of the heirs who can control what is done with them, but they are dead slabs of meat, they are not the person.

I recall a while after Charlie Chaplin died some thieves stole his body and tried to extort money from his widow, she responded something like, do what you want, it's not him. They eventually let it somewhere to be found and reburied.

[BoSoxGal]

Maybe you should read the current headline story about one of these women’s mothers and how she felt learning her daughter’s body had been raped 3 times. How would it be if your daughter died and some guy raped her corpse a few times? No big deal, your daughter’s body is just a slab of meat. Maybe he should sauté some of her as an after sex snack while he’s at it.

[Joe Guy]

I don't understand how anyone can equate performing a sexual act on a corpse to the sexual rape of a woman (or man). Anyone who has sex with a dead body isn't raping it. The Dept of Justice here defines rape as “The penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim.”

A dead person is a blob of flesh and bones.

Abuse of a corpse - absolutely.

Rape - not in any sense of the term. A dead person doesn't have the ability to be a victim.

[Scooter]

So Scooter, are you actually equating the bodies with living, breathing women?

I'm saying that a man who fucks a corpse is making a statement about what he wishes living, breathing women were like - devoid of any will, ability to withhold consent, or really anything that makes her a person.

[Big RR]

Maybe you should read the current headline story about one of these women’s mothers and how she felt learning her daughter’s body had been raped 3 times. How would it be if your daughter died and some guy raped her corpse a few times? No big deal, your daughter’s body is just a slab of meat. Maybe he should sauté some of her as an after sex snack while he’s at it.

Needless to say I disagree; I am not saying it is not a crime (nor that it should not be one), but it is not rape. And the reaction of a parent to such an act, even if that parent was me, does not make it rape or anything near rape. For example, a father of a young girl (say 14) on learning a boy fondled his daughter's breasts or genitals, even if it was consensual, might well scream he raped his little girl; but that doesn't make it so.

I'm saying that a man who fucks a corpse is making a statement about what he wishes living, breathing women were like - devoid of any will, ability to withhold consent, or really anything that makes her a person.

Or maybe he just likes to fuck dead bodies, because that's what he likes--nothing to do with consent at all. I don't think many rapists would have sex with a corpse, nor do I think most necrophiles would have sex (whether consensual or rape) with a living female. Apples and oranges.

[Scooter]

One uses force to overcome a woman's resistance, the other picks women who can't resist. The endgame is similar.

[Joe Guy]

I'm saying that a man who fucks a corpse is making a statement about what he wishes living, breathing women were like - devoid of any will, ability to withhold consent, or really anything that makes her a person.

The only statement a man is making by getting an orgasm from screwing a dead woman is that he's a pervert.

[Big RR]

One uses force to overcome a woman's resistance, the other picks women who can't resist. The endgame is similar.

No, one chooses to victimize women who are alive, the other gets excited by dead bodies. Just like pedophiles who vicitnmize children because they want to have sex with them (and not because they cannot have sex with a grown woman), the pedophile wants the deadperson because that's what excites him/her.

[Gob]

I'm saying that a man who fucks a corpse is making a statement about what he wishes living, breathing women were like - devoid of any will, ability to withhold consent, or really anything that makes her a person.

That may be one reason, but your argument falls down on one slight point... women are not "devoid of any will, ability to withhold consent". Whatever this ghoul wishes them to be is totally fucking irrelevant.