Family photographs, DNA evidence and millions more depraved images led to murderer David Fuller receiving a life sentence .
Fuller pleaded guilty to his crimes and was sentenced after admitting to the murders of Wendy Knell, 25, and Caroline Pierce, 20, both from Tunbridge Wells in Kent. He will never be released from jail.
He admitted to murdering the women days into his trial, and had previously admitted manslaughter by diminished responsibility.
The victims were found beaten and strangled, in 1987, in horrific incidents that became known as the 'Bedsit Murders'.
Ms Knell's body was found at her flat in the June of that year. However, Ms Pierce was found 40 miles away in Romney Marsh, her naked corpse found in a field after going missing in November, 1987.
His crimes stretched over three decades, and the court revealed a history of abuse of corpses in mortuaries in a tidal wave of grim evidence and the revelation of shocking events.
The DNA evidence
The Bedsit Murders remained unsolved for over 33 years until DNA evidence led to Fuller.
Cold-case detectives carried out a review of the national DNA database, which showed a close match to 90 people.
This was eventually narrowed down to Fuller's brother, who partially matched samples taken from the crime scene in 1987.
Fuller, himself, was then revealed to be the killer, his DNA a billion-to-one match.
A prowler had been reported by victim Caroline Pierce one month before her disappearance. The prowler fitted the profile of Fuller.
The prosecutor said: "A male of a similar profile to Fuller had been seen looking through an address near to Wendy Knell on the same night."
Fingerprints and family photos
The trial didn't just rely on DNA evidence as, once Fuller was identified, he was swiftly matched to other pieces found at the scene of the crimes.
A bloodied Millets bag was found under victim Wendy's bed. It had a fingerprint on it that was a match to Fuller.
Clarks footwear archivists also helped police to track down the bloody shoe marks found that belonged to a 'Sportstrek' trainer.
These shoes were then seen being worn in a family photo album by Fuller during the 1970s and 1980s.
DS Ivan Beasley spoke about telling Wendy and Caroline's families of the arrest.
He said: "It was real, genuine shock. They had thought this day would never come.
"Clearly it has brought back a huge amount of emotion, trauma and grief."
Depraved content on hard drives
An unexpected, but utterly horrific, element of the case was the revelation of Fuller's other crimes.
As well as the guilty murder plea, he also pleaded guilty to 51 other offences.
This involves 44 charges relating to 78 identified victims, including three children, in mortuaries between 2008 and November 2020.
They include the sexual penetration of a corpse, possessing an extreme pornographic image involving sexual interference with a corpse and the taking of indecent images of children.
Investigators have, so far, detected roughly 100 potential victims but conceded that all their identities may never come to light.
Police raided his home in Heathfield, East Sussex, on December 3, 2020, where they discovered hard drives with more than 14 million images of distressing sexual offences. These included images of him sexually assaulting dead bodies.
Fuller had access to the bodies by working as a hospital electrician. He worked at the Kent and Sussex Hospital from 1989, before moving on to Tunbridge Wells Hospital in 2010.
A jury at Maidstone Crown Court heard on Monday, December 13, 2021, that Fuller had "depraved sexual predilections" and had attacked corpses for an "extended period of time" at the hospitals where he worked.
"You have proved that monsters exist"
The ages of the bodies abused ranged wide, with one victim aged just nine-years-old.
The child's mother said: "It makes my skin crawl and it really does break my heart. I feel sick. I can’t sleep. It will haunt me forever."
Ahead of sentencing, the daughter of a victim of the crimes was able to speak out.
She said: "You have proved that monsters exist. You were cocky, arrogant and despicable. You are the worst of humanity.
"My mother was a survivor of domestic violence. It is almost too much to know that a man abused her again when she died, just because he could, for his own sexual gratification."
