THE sickening crimes of morgue rapist David Fuller could be repeated unless bodies are better cared for, an inquiry has warned.
Fuller, 68, was jailed for life in 2021 for sexually assaulting 101 female corpses while working as a maintenance engineer at NHS hospitals.
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The inquiry has already ruled better management and security could have prevented his crimes at Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust in Kent.
Now it has concluded regulation of the care of people after death is “partial, ineffective and, in significant areas, completely absent”.
Chairman Sir Jonathan Michael said: “I have come to the conclusion that the current arrangements for the regulation and oversight of the care of people after death are partial, ineffective and, in significant areas, completely absent.
“I have concluded that it is entirely possible that such offences could be repeated, particularly in those sectors that lack any form of statutory regulation.”
More than half a million British people die every year, with 568,613 in England and Wales in 2024.
Sir Jonathan added he was concerned there are no industry standards for caring for dead people, and that anyone could become a funeral director without any qualifications.
He said there is a “cultural reluctance” to accept bodies can be abused.
He went on: “I am not confident arrangements currently in place satisfactorily protect the deceased from the risk of abuse.”
“I urge all those involved in the care of people after death to question whether they uphold the same standards as they would if that person were alive.
“The deceased are as vulnerable as the living and they are worthy of the same protection.
“The harm inflicted on David Fuller’s victims and the hurt and trauma experienced by their families must never be repeated.”
FULLER ‘FREE TO OFFEND’ DUE TO HOSPITAL FAILINGS
MORGUE monster David Fuller was free to assault dead women for 15 years due to “serious failings” at the hospitals where he worked, a report found.
The double killer abused at least 101 women while working at mortuaries in Tunbridge Wells Hospital and at the former Kent and Sussex Hospital.
A probe found there were “missed opportunities” to stop the necrophiliac’s 15-year rampage.
His youngest victim was a nine-year-old girl and the oldest was 100 years old, with Fuller sometimes violating the bodies more than once.
Inquiry chairman Sir Jonathan Michael said: “Failures of management, of governance, of regulation, failure to follow standard policies and procedures, together with a persistent lack of curiosity, all contributed to the creation of the environment in which he was able to offend, and to do so for 15 years without ever being suspected or caught.
“Over the years, there were missed opportunities to question Fuller’s working practices.
“Had his colleagues, managers and senior leaders been more curious, it is likely that he would have had less opportunity to offend.”
