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The Daily Mirror of the Great Britain

Morgue killer’s horrified mistress tells of their two year affair and how he was ‘perfect gentleman’

A mistress of warped morgue killer David Fuller has told of her two-year affair with the perverted double murderer and how he was ‘the perfect gentleman’.

Fuller, 67, had already killed two women when he began a relationship with the unsuspecting nurse behind the back of his second wife in 1990.

The hospital electrician admitted the 1987 sexual assaults and murders of Wendy Knell, 25, and Caroline Pierce, 20, in at Maidstone Crown Court this week.

Both women lived alone in ground-floor flats just a mile apart in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. 

Fuller also sexually abused at least 100 corpses in the hospital, while police found hard drives, floppy discs and CDs with 14 million images of sex offences – including Fuller filming himself committing the heinous acts.

His oldest victim was 100 and his youngest aged just nine. 

The custody picture of David Fuller, 67, who has admitted the murders of Wendy Knell, 25, and Caroline Pierce, 20, in two separate attacks in Tunbridge Wells in 1987

The custody picture of David Fuller, 67, who has admitted the murders of Wendy Knell, 25, and Caroline Pierce, 20, in two separate attacks in Tunbridge Wells in 1987

The custody picture of David Fuller, 67, who has admitted the murders of Wendy Knell, 25, and Caroline Pierce, 20, in two separate attacks in Tunbridge Wells in 1987

Wendy Knell

Wendy Knell

Caroline Pierce

Caroline Pierce

Fuller, 67, admitted killing Wendy Knell, 25, (left) and Caroline Pierce, 20, (right) in 1987 in what became known as the ‘Bedsit Murders’ – one of Britain’s longest unsolved murder cases

Fuller acted surprised when officers arrived at his home to arrest him on suspicion of murder. He replied 'oh blimey' when he was informed of why officers were in attendance

Fuller acted surprised when officers arrived at his home to arrest him on suspicion of murder. He replied 'oh blimey' when he was informed of why officers were in attendance

Fuller acted surprised when officers arrived at his home to arrest him on suspicion of murder. He replied ‘oh blimey’ when he was informed of why officers were in attendance

Fuller pictured out on a bicycle ride. He sexually abused more than 100 bodies while working as a hospital electrician

Fuller pictured out on a bicycle ride. He sexually abused more than 100 bodies while working as a hospital electrician

Fuller pictured out on a bicycle ride. He sexually abused more than 100 bodies while working as a hospital electrician

The mistress, who has not been named, told The Sunday Mirror that he seemed a ‘perfectly ordinary person’ who wooed her with cocktails and tickets to a pop concert.

They were together for two years from 1990, three years after Fuller’s gruesome offences, before he dumped her for another nurse. 

She said: ‘To think I’m associated with someone who did something so terrible is awful. I’m very lucky he didn’t kill me.’

The nurse added that she lived in a studio flat just around the corner from the two victims and met Fuller at a hospital social club.

The pair attended a Beverley Craven concert together, but she believed him to be ice cool and described how he would ‘never get angry’.

She said: ‘I was 27 when I began seeing him and I was with him for just over two years.

‘I was a district nurse and some of us used to go up to the canteen in Kent and Sussex Hospital [in Tunbridge Wells]. 

‘I was at a loose end and trying to make new friends, so I started going to the social club. I remember thinking he was quite odd for a man because he drank Archers and lemonade.

‘He wasn’t a beer man. He was quite a quiet man, but he was quite friendly. He just seemed like a perfectly ordinary person.’

Despite her impression of Fuller being ‘a quiet man’, he was in fact a despicable man who had affairs with at least two colleagues during three marriages.

The woman continued: ‘I was quite aware of the Bedsit Murders and I was very nervous about them. The murders were in my mind and a lot of young women’s minds.

‘Little did I know I was actually dating the person responsible. In the back of my mind I do still think, ‘Why was I spared?’

‘I was in the right criteria in that I lived in the roads near where the girls worked, I had a bedsit and I was in my 20s.’

Kent Police has set up a helpline for distraught relatives who believe their loved ones could have been violated.

Local Conservative MP Greg Clark, for Tunbridge Wells, has also said a public inquiry into how Fuller carried out hundreds of sex attacks is required, adding that the investigation launched by the local NHS trust was ‘not sufficient’.

Fuller’s ex-lover only became aware of his offending when he admitted the murders and sex offences in court earlier this week.

She said: ‘He was a perfect gentleman with me. I didn’t see a bad side to him at all. 

 

Police say they will never know how many women and girls David Fuller (pictured) violated – but admit it could be hundreds more

Police say they will never know how many women and girls David Fuller (pictured) violated – but admit it could be hundreds more

Police say they will never know how many women and girls David Fuller (pictured) violated – but admit it could be hundreds more

Pictured: David Fuller's NHS security badge

Pictured: David Fuller's NHS security badge

Pictured: David Fuller’s NHS security badge

‘There was nothing to lead me to believe he’s the person we’ve now found him out to be now.

‘He never showed any perversion in bed. He was totally ordinary and normal. There was nothing at all. I still can’t believe that he could be capable and part of me still doesn’t want to believe it, but equally I want him to pay for what he’s done.

“I didn’t know anything about the mortuary offences until it came out in court. I was really shocked. 

‘The police said to me, “be prepared for a nasty shock”, but I wasn’t expecting anything as horrific as this. 

‘I just thought it was going to be that there were other women like me, or multiple women that he was dating all at the same time. It’s been a traumatic time.’

She said their first date together was a trip to Folkestone Air Show, while Fuller would also regularly visit her at her flat.

A mother’s grief and revulsion after her daughter’s body was defiled by David Fuller

A woman whose daughter’s body was defiled by David Fuller pleaded yesterday: ‘This must never happen again.’

The warped hospital electrician sneaked into the mortuary at Tunbridge Wells Hospital in Kent three times to sexually abuse Azra Kemal, 24, who died after plunging from a bridge.

Horrifically, the first two attacks happened just hours before and after her grief-stricken mother, Nevres Kemal, had visited her daughter and stroked her hair to say farewell.

She said: ‘I had spent two hours in the mortuary sleeping with her. And that gave me some sort of comfort. Little did I know that my daughter had been violated prior to that day and the evening of that day. So, while I’m stroking my daughter’s hair, sleeping on her hair, a man had… crawled all over her skin. And there’s me kissing and cuddling and saying my last goodbyes.’

Sickening: Azra Kemal was one of Fuller’s victims

Sickening: Azra Kemal was one of Fuller’s victims

Sickening: Azra Kemal was one of Fuller’s victims

Miss Kemal, who worked as a researcher for Sky News, was one of Fuller’s most recent victims. He carried out his sickening assaults in July last year.

Her mother – a London social worker – told Sky News: ‘Men and women up and down the country will be appalled by what they are reading.

‘And I remind them that if this was your loved one you would roar with rage – and I am silently roaring. We need to respect the dead and this must never happen again.’

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The majority of the time, though, the pair spent time together at the hospital social club.

The nurse said Fuller was ‘always pleasant and friendly’ and she was aware he was unhappy with his wife, but the relationship ended ‘because he didn’t want what I wanted’.

Kent Police has formally identified 81 victims in the mortuary, but an investigation is still ongoing and anyone with information is urged to get in contact with the force.

Fuller was still working for the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust when revolutionary DNA profiling techniques led detectives investigating the historic murders to his home in Heathfield, East Sussex, on December 3 last year.

Police found a hidden cache of printed photos along with thousands of digital images and videos that exposed one of Britain’s biggest healthcare scandals.

Fuller had spent at least 12 years abusing corpses in the mortuaries of Kent and Sussex and Tunbridge Wells hospitals.

The hoarder kept detailed handwritten diaries of his abuse, along with thousands of videos and images of himself having sex with the corpses organised into folders. 

Libby Clark, of the Crown Prosecution Service, said: ‘No British court has ever seen abuse on this scale against the dead before and I have no doubt he would still be offending to this day had it not been for this painstaking investigation and prosecution.’   

In his role as electrician, he had a swipe card that allowed him unsupervised access to all parts of the hospital. Mortuary staff usually finished for the day at 4pm, while Fuller’s shift was from 11am to 7pm, police have said.

He would carry his bag of tools with him and ensured his abuse could not be picked up by CCTV, which covered only part of the mortuary.

It meant there was evidence of him moving around the mortuary, but no footage of him interactive with the bodies.

Instead, all the evidence came from his own filming.    

When he was arrested, Fuller seemed surprised to see officers at his home.

He was caught on an officer’s body worn camera saying: ‘Oh blimey.’

Fuller had previously admitted responsibility for the deaths with ‘diminished responsibility’ at Maidstone Crown Court, but initially denied murder. 

Ms Knell’s bloodstained body was found in her flat on June 23, 1987, after Fuller – a convicted burglar – had climbed in through the window, before beating and strangling her to death.

Ms Pierce was abducted from outside her home on November 24 the same year.

Her body, naked apart from a pair of tights, was found in a water-filled dyke near Romney Marsh three weeks later.

Fuller will be sentenced at a later date.