David Fuller has admitted murdering and sexually assaulting two women and sexually attacking dozens of dead bodies
An independent inquiry has been launched into the David Fuller case as Sajid Javid on Monday apologised to the families of the victims the hospital electrician attacked.
Fuller last week admitted murdering, then sexually assaulting two women over 30 years ago, and to carrying out sex attacks on dozens of dead bodies in the morgue of the hospitals where he worked in Kent.
As an NHS maintenance worker, the 67-year-old gained access to his victims who were aged from nine to a 100-years-old.
The health secretary said the inquiry will examine the circumstances surrounding Fuller’s crimes to help the government understand how they took place without being detected.
“We must act to make sure that nothing like this can ever happen again,” Javid said in the House of Commons.
He said the inquiry, which will be led by experienced NHS executive Sir Jonathan Michael, “will look into the circumstances surrounding the offences committed at the hospital and their national implications”.
Families of the victims will be asked for input into the process.
“We have a responsibility to everyone affected by these shocking crimes to do right by those we’ve lost and those still left behind in their shock and their grief,” Javid said.
“Nothing we can say in this place will undo the damage that has been done, but we must act to make sure that nothing like this can ever happen again.”
Javid apologised to the friends and families of all the victims saying the case was “profoundly upsetting”.
“The victims are not just those family members and friends who have been abused in this most horrific of ways. They are also those that are left behind,” he said.
The report will be split in two, with an interim report expected to be published early next year. The second part will look at “the broader national picture” and the wider lessons for the NHS and other settings.
The NHS last week ordered all health trusts to review mortuary access and post-mortem activities.
Fuller worked in electrical maintenance at hospitals since 1989 and was at the Kent and Sussex Hospital until it closed in September 2011 before being transferred to the Tunbridge Wells Hospital at Pembury, where the offences continued until his arrest.
Fuller sexually assaulted and murdered Wendy Knell and Caroline Pierce in Tunbridge Wells in 1987.
Ahead of his murder trial, Fuller admitted 51 mortuary offences, including 44 charges relating to 78 identified victims in the two hospitals where he worked as an electrician.
Four days into the murder trial, he changed his plea to guilty.
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