By James Simons-
A depraved electrician who admitted killing two women in 1987 abused female corpses in two hospital morgues, a court has been told.
An electrician accused of murdering two women more than 30 years ago sexually assaulted dead bodies in the mortuaries of hospitals he worked at, a court has heard.
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David Fuller is standing trial at Maidstone Crown Court in Kent accused of the murders of Wendy Knell and Caroline Pierce in 1987.
The two women were found naked and had been struck on the head, asphyxiated and sexually assaulted after their deaths, the jury was told.
David Fuller, 67, of Heathfield, East Sussex, attacked Wendy Knell and Caroline Pierce in Tunbridge Wells.
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A jury at Maidstone Crown Court heard Mr Fuller had “depraved sexual predilections”, after he admitted the killing claiming diminished responsibility.
Mr Fuller worked as an electrician at the Kent and Sussex Hospital from 1989, before moving to the Tunbridge Wells Hospital in 2010.
His “clear sexual interest in such bizarre and grossly repellent activity provides a unique and terrible link between him” and the deaths of the two women, Mr Atkinson said.
Both Ms Knell and Ms Pierce were sexually abused at the time of, or after their deaths, the jury heard.
Miss Knell, 25, was killed in her home in Guildford Road on 23 June 1987 after being dropped off by her boyfriend.
She was found the following day, after concerns were raised when she failed to turn up to work.
She had been struck to the head with a blunt heavy object and strangled, possibly “by an arm lock”, the court heard.
Miss Pierce, 20 was abducted from outside her home in Grosvenor Park on 24 November.
Neighbours reported hearing screaming, but it was three weeks before her almost naked body was found more than 40 miles away in Romney Marsh.
It was not until 2021, when the techniques of forensic science had improved, that it was possible to compare the DNA found on and around the women with the DNA profile of Mr Fuller.
His saliva and other DNA was found on Ms Knell’s bedding, a towel and intimate samples.
His semen was also found on Miss Pierce’s tights, the only item of clothing she was wearing when her body was found in a water-filled dyke.
A shoeprint in Ms Knell’s blood is also a match for a pair of Clarks Sportstrek trainers Mr Fuller owned.
The evidence “irrefutably links David Fuller, his fingerprints and his DNA, to the bodies”, Mr Atkinson said.
Addressing the jury, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said they should focus “not on whether he did what is alleged, but if he should be held responsible for it”.
At the time of the women’s deaths, there had been numerous reports of “prowlers and voyeurs” in the area, with a similar description to Mr Fuller, the jury was told.
One report was made on the night Ms Knell died, and Ms Pierce also reported a prowler outside her home in October.
Mr Fuller had “a history of such behaviour, looking through people’s windows”, Mr Atkinson said, and had entered people’s homes through insecure windows before, which saw him convicted for burglary in the 1970s.
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