The chairman of the inquiry into double murderer and necrophiliac David Fuller's crimes has said he had 'some reservations' before taking on the role.

Sir Jonathan Michael, a former chief of three NHS hospital trusts, was hesitant to work with crimes of such a nature but felt an obligation to help the victims' families and put them "at the heart" of the process.

Inquiry chair Sir Jonathan Michael shares his reaction to David Fuller's crimes

Fuller, 67, and of Heathfield, East Sussex, was jailed for life last year for the murders of Wendy Knell and Caroline Pierce in Tunbridge Wells in 1987.

The former hospital electrician used his position to abuse more than 100 corpses in mortuaries while working at two sites in Kent, filming himself and keeping a detailed log of his offences.

Sir Jonathan, a nephrologist and medical executive at hospitals in London, Oxford, and Birmingham, has never led an inquiry before but believes his expertise in clinical care and hospital management could aid the investigation.

He said: "I certainly had some reservations, partly because of the sort of offences and the topic, if I put it that way. I haven’t done this sort of thing before.

"I’m not an expert in running inquiries, but I know about clinical care and hospital management. I know about process, I know what good looks like and I also know what bad looks like.

"So I felt quite an obligation because of my experience that they needed somebody like me to actually chair the inquiry."

The independent review will look into Fuller's crimes and how he was able to commit them.

The terms of reference for the inquiry, which will be divided into two parts, have now been published.

Sir Jonathan and his team sought the views of the families of some of the people Fuller abused.

The first phase will look at matters relating to Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells. It is set to be completed by the middle of this year but could take longer.

Sir Jonathan explained he is reluctant to give an exact deadline as he does not yet know the extent of the work ahead.

He said: "We want to do a very thorough job. To me, the most important thing is we get to the bottom of what happened, we understand how he got away with it, and then we can make some very clear recommendations to the trust and to the wider NHS about what needs to be put in place to make sure there's no possibility of such things happening again.

"As we talk to more people, we’re discovering more people that we need to talk to and potentially other things we need to look at.

"So I'm keen that we do the job properly rather than just do it quickly."

And families of the victims have also been left with a "huge dilemma" after the High Court rejected their calls for a public inquiry.

Any families affected by the actions of David Fuller and past and present colleagues can get in touch with the inquiry here or email contact@fuller.independent-inquiry.uk or phone 0207 9721444.