Tory frontbencher Lord Wolfson of Tredegar told Parliament he did not rule out future changes to the existing penalty, which is currently only up to two years in jail.
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A maximum sentence for sexually assaulting a dead body is to be reviewed in the wake of the “depraved and horrifying offending” by David Fuller, a justice minister has said.
Tory frontbencher Lord Wolfson of Tredegar told Parliament he did not rule out future changes to the existing penalty, which is currently only up to two years in jail.
He was responding to calls in the House of Lords for the maximum prison term to be increased to 10 years, following the sentencing of Fuller.
The 67-year-old necrophiliac sexually abused at least 102 dead women and girls between 2008 and November 2020 in the mortuaries of two hospitals, where he worked as an electrician.
They included a nine-year-old girl, two 16-year-olds and a woman aged 100.
The double murderer will never be released from prison.
Speaking at Westminster, Lord Wolfson said: “I must first place on record my shock and horror at David Fuller’s horrifying offending. My thoughts are with the victims and their families.
“I would like to assure the House that the Government is committed to looking at what happened in this appalling circumstance in detail to ensure that simply it never happens again.”
Highlighting the investigation announced by Health Secretary Sajid Javid into the shocking case, Lord Wolfson said: “As well as that inquiry I would like to assure the House that the Ministry of Justice is reviewing the existing penalties available for the offence of sexual penetration of a corpse.
“The statutory maximum penalty for that offence is two years imprisonment.”
He added: “It’s therefore right in view of this depraved and horrifying offending… we review the current statutory maximum penalty for the offence.”
The minister told peers: “We are reviewing the maximum penalty in its context… in order to ensure that learning from the inquiry into events in hospitals can be taken into account in our review of the penalty.
“It’s therefore important that we await the findings of the inquiry before amending the current legislation.”
Pressing for an increase in the maximum jail term to 10 years at report stage of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, Tory peer Baroness Noakes said Fuller had recorded himself sexually abusing the dead bodies of women and girls.
She said: “There are no words to describe the depths of this kind of depravity.
“This case has shone a spotlight on the maximum sentence of only two years, which is available for the offence of sexual penetration of a corpse.”
She added: “The families of those victims are victims too. They feel a great sense of pain and outrage that their mothers, their daughters, their sisters have been desecrated and that has compounded their grief.”
She was supported by fellow Conservative peer Lord Sandhurst, a retired QC and former chairman of the Bar Council, who said: “This is a most unpleasant criminal offence. It must be reconsidered as a matter of priority. The current sentence for the standalone offence is simply too low.
“It’s not difficult. It simply needs a suitably steep maximum sentence to mark its gravity.”