David Fuller: Mother's anguish at discovery daughter's body abused by morgue sex attacker and killer

Nevres Kemal with her daughter, Azra, who died last year and was one of David Fuller's morgue victims. Credit: CWJ/PA

A mother has told of her anguish at learning morgue sex attacker David Fuller preyed upon her daughter's body after the young woman's tragic death.

The Centre for Women’s Justice (CWJ) said it is supporting Nevres Kemal, who has publicly confirmed that her daughter was among the serial necrophiliac's mortuary victims.

She has raised concerns that Fuller had accessed the mortuary where her daughter and dozens of other victims were abused potentially 'thousands' of times, as detectives confirm a surge of special hotline calls.

Her daughter Azra Kemal, a London social worker, died last year after falling through a gap on a dual carriageway bridge in Tonbridge, Kent, while trying to find help after her car burst into flames.

Her mother described her horror at learning her daughter’s body had been raped by Fuller during the day she had been visiting Azra in the morgue to embrace her in grief.

The scale of Fuller's crimes emerged after he interrupted his trial to admit to the 1987 'bedsit' murders of Caroline Pierce, 20, and Wendy Knell, 25, who were both from Tunbridge Wells. 

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In the years after the 67-year-old murdered then sexually assaulting the two women he carried out dozens of sex attacks on corpses at Kent mortuaries.

His crimes were only discovered after he was arrested over the killings in December last year following a DNA breakthrough.

Fuller admitted using his position as an electrician at the hospitals to carry out what investigators described as 'heinous' acts on the bodies of women and girls.

  • ITV News Meridian's John Ryall reports on David Fuller's appalling crimes

The scale of his crimes have been labelled 'unprecedented' in British legal history.

She criticised the hospital trust where Fuller had preyed for years.

Ms Kemal told Sky News: "I've tried to protect Azra all my life and when she was really helpless, lying there still being raped and abused - she couldn't scream out, couldn't call me, she couldn't call the police.

"But I will ensure her voice is heard and that will be my mission."

The CWJ joined calls for a public inquiry into how Fuller was able to access her body, along with dozens of other victims.

“The pain and the fury that all the families of his victims must be feeling, cannot be imagined,” the charity's statement said.

David Fuller, 67, pleaded guilty to the murders while on trial at Maidstone Crown Court Credit: Kent Police

Police say they have received 80 calls to a helpline set up as Fuller's crimes became public.

Ahead of his murder trial, Fuller, formerly of East Sussex, had pleaded guilty to 51 offences, including 44 charges relating to 78 identified victims in mortuaries where he was working as an electrician.

He filmed himself carrying out the attacks at mortuaries inside the now closed Kent and Sussex Hospital and the Tunbridge Wells Hospital, in Pembury, where he had worked in electrical maintenance roles since 1989.

Investigators had formally identified 81 of Fuller's mortuary victims so far, Kent Police said.

A helpline set up by Kent Police in the wake of the case has received around 80 calls from the public, the force confirmed on Friday.

The helpline is for people who feel they have information about the investigation, after it emerged detectives had not identified all of Fuller's potential morgue sexual abuse victims, the force added.

Following Fuller's guilty plea on Thursday, detectives laid bare the scale of his offending - adding they feared it may never be known how many bodies he abused.

Fuller had also previously pleaded guilty to 51 further charges relating to sexual offences, including making and taking indecent images of children relating to three victims, possession of extreme pornographic images, making or possessing indecent images of children, and possession of prohibited images of children and voyeurism.

  • Watch footage of the police raid at David Fuller's home:

Detective Chief Superintendent Paul Fotheringham said of Fuller yesterday: "Not only did he kill and assault two young innocent women in 1987, who should have had their whole lives in front of them, he then found another way to continue his horrific offending by assaulting and defiling multiple victims and traumatising their already grieving families in a way that is clearly beyond comprehension."

He added that police would be making 'sensitive' approaches to families of loved ones in the mortuary during the period Fuller was known to have been preying on bodies.

It was likely that not all of Fuller's victims would be able to be identified, he added.

Specialist police staff are already in contact with dozens of affected families, and are providing welfare support, police confirmed.

MP David Clark speaks to ITV News Meridian about growing calls for an inquiry:

Downing Street today did not rule out a public inquiry after calls from MPs to investigate how Fuller was able to access bodies to carry out his offending.

Health Secretary Sajid Javed has asked all NHS Trusts to write to hospitals asking for mortuary access and post-mortem activities to be reviewed in the wake of the case.

An independent review is already under way at the trust where Fuller worked and the Human Tissue Authority has also been asked for advice on whether rules need to be changed.

Kent Police say the Operation Sandpiper team are working to identify any further Fuller victims and specialist officers will contact families who may be directly affected by the case privately.