A convicted killer has admitted sexually abusing 23 women’s corpses in hospital mortuaries.

Double murderer David Fuller pleaded guilty at Croydon Crown Court on Thursday to 12 counts of sexual penetration of a corpse and four counts of possession of extreme pornography between 2007 and 2020.

The former hospital worker, who beat and strangled Wendy Knell, 25, and Caroline Pierce, 20, to death before sexually assaulting them in two separate attacks in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, in 1987, was sentenced to a whole-life term last year.

He pleaded guilty to murdering Ms Knell and Ms Pierce, as well as 51 other offences, including 44 charges relating to 78 victims in mortuaries between 2008 and November 2020.

The 68-year-old filmed himself abusing corpses in the now-closed Kent and Sussex Hospital and the Tunbridge Wells Hospital, in Pembury, where he had worked as an electrician since 1989.

Kent Police said an investigation had uncovered evidence relating to a total of 101 victims and the latest charges relate to the 23 remaining victims, all deceased adult women – 10 have not been identified.

Officers discovered a library of images of Fuller attacking corpses when they searched his three-bedroom semi-detached home in the town of Heathfield, East Sussex, where he lived with his family.

His victims included a nine-year-old girl, two 16-year-olds and a 100-year-old woman.

Fuller today pleaded guilty to:

The ‘vulture’ who appeared normal but caused ‘unnatural sick pain’ to his victims’ families

Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said Fuller, who appeared in court by video-link from HMP Frankland, must appear in person when she sentences him in the week starting 5 December, likely at the Old Bailey.

Prosecutor Michael Bisgrove said victim personal statements are being prepared.

“There are many family members of the victims who would like to attend court in one way or another, some of whom who would wish to read their victim personal statements to the court,” he said.

How David Fuller was caught – and how he got away with his crimes for so long

The government has announced an independent inquiry into how Fuller went undetected until being arrested for what have been dubbed the “bedsit murders” on 3 December 2020 following new analysis of decades-old DNA evidence.

Ms Knell was found dead in her Guildford Road apartment on 23 June 1987, while Ms Pierce was snatched five months later on 24 November outside her home in Grosvenor Park, with her naked body discovered in a water-filled dyke at St Mary in the Marsh on 15 December.

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