Laws strengthened after mortuary sex abuse case

Criminals who sexually abuse dead people will face tougher sentences under reforms in the wake of killer David Fuller's mortuary abuse.

Justice minister Laura Farris said the government will amend existing 2003 legislation to increase the maximum prison sentence from two to seven years.

MPs heard the changes would also create a new offence of "sexual activity with a corpse" with a maximum prison sentence of five years to cover non-penetrative offences.

Fuller, from Heathfield, East Sussex, worked at Kent and Sussex Hospital and the Tunbridge Wells Hospital in Pembury, Kent, from 1989 and sexually abused the bodies of 101 women and girls in the hospital mortuaries between 2005 to 2020.

He is serving two whole-life terms after being convicted in 2021 of the murders of two young women in Tunbridge Wells in 1987.

The government will implement the change by supporting a Criminal Justice Bill amendment initially brought forward by former Conservative ministers Greg Clark, MP for Tunbridge Wells, and Dame Tracey Crouch, MP for Chatham and Aylesford.

Mr Clark, speaking during report stage of the bill, told the Commons: "All of Fuller's crimes are, frankly, unspeakable, but as well as the current sentencing limit being absurdly inadequate... it does not cover at all any form of sexual assault that is non-penetrative."

Mr Clark said there was "clearly a gap" in the law which needs to be closed, adding: "That's what this new clause aims to do."

He said the police and families of the victims will never have restored to them the "peace of mind that Fuller destroyed".

He added: "We can't correct that, very sadly. But what we can do is to ensure these offences are recognised for having the gravity they do."

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