The boss of the mortuary where necrophiliac David Fuller carried out his sick crimes has claimed his hospital cannot be turned into a "police state" in the wake of a critical report.

Miles Scott spoke as he updated Kent County Council (KCC) today (December 7) about progress in implementing 16 recommendations made after Fuller's crimes came to light.

Sir Jonathan Michael, who chaired the inquiry into how the morgue monster’s offences went undetected for at least 13 years, recommended the use of CCTV cameras in mortuaries, ensuring non-mortuary staff are always accompanied and that bodies are not left out of fridges overnight.

Sir Jonathan said "there were missed opportunities to question Fuller's working practices" and the abuse had caused "shock and horror" across the country and beyond.

Mr Scott, appointed chief executive of Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust in 2018, said most of the recommendations had already been implemented and all 16 he was responsible for would be in place in a matter of weeks.

But in answering a question from Cllr Nick Chard about integrating the many different "disjointed" parts of the hospital, Mr Scott warned: "We can't just live in a complete lockdown.

"We can't turn a hospital into a police state."

Mr Scott said the Trust had to develop professional curiosity as part of its culture as people with deviant urges will go to great lengths to pursue them.

Fuller was only the second person to be convicted of necrophilia in this country, he said.

"I think the big wake up call for everybody is that this is not just a word (necrophilia) that we should understand the dictionary definition of but that it is a real risk and it's a deviance," he added.

Mr Scott said later: "We clearly need to and have upgraded our security systems and improved our policies and procedures but those changes alone are not enough.

"What we need also to do is make sure we have got a culture of curiosity so that when things are out of the ordinary, people pick up on them and that questions are asked properly."

Fuller, from Heathfield, East Sussex, worked as a maintenance supervisor at hospitals in Tunbridge Wells over three decades.

He committed the offences at mortuaries at Pembury between 2007 until his arrest in 2020 for the "bedsit murders" of two young women in Tunbridge Wells in the 1980s.

Fuller accessed morgues using his employee swipe card and sexually abused more than 100 corpses, aged between nine and 100.

His crimes came to light when he was arrested and images he had filmed of his abuse were found stashed away in a collection of extreme pornography at his home.

A Trust statement said: "David Fuller’s depraved, calculated and devious criminal behaviour remains deeply shocking.

"That he murdered two young women in 1987 and went on to abuse his role in public service to pursue his criminal activities is equally shocking.

"At the time of his conviction two years ago the Trust offered its sincere apologies to the families of Fuller’s victims."

When Sir Jonathan filed his interim report on November 28, Mr Scott said: “On behalf of the Trust, and on behalf of the previous NHS organisations that Fuller worked for, I am deeply sorry for the pain and anguish the families have suffered.

"I know how devastating it has been for them to learn the extent of his crimes.”

Members of the KCC health overview and scrutiny committee agreed to note the inquiry's interim findings.