A former police officer who wants to see a change in the law relating to sexual offences against the dead is looking to revitalise his campaign after it was scuppered by the general election.

David Shipley was given the unenviable year-long task of cataloging all of David Fuller’s depraved acts involving corpses in the mortuaries of the now-closed Kent and Sussex Hospital and of the Tunbridge Wells Hospital, in Pembury.

Fuller, a maintenance electrician with the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust, was convicted in 2021 after it was discovered he had sexually abused the bodies of at least 102 women and girls, aged between nine and 100, between 2005 and 2020.

Fuller, who is now 70, formerly of Heathfield, East Sussex, was sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment for his necrophilia.

He is also serving two whole-life sentences after being convicted of the murders of two young women, Caroline Pierce, and Wendy Knell, in separate attacks in 1987, when he had been 32.

Fuller had filmed himself abusing 102 corpses - and these films were later discovered by the police on three hard-drives hidden behind a wardrobe, which between them also contained 14 million indecent images.

Mr Shipley, from Sittingbourne, had been a police officer for 30 years.

He said reviewing the footage as part of his job, had left him traumatised.

He added: “My mental health suffered and I had hallucinations, seeing dead people everywhere.”

But it also left him with a burning sense of anger over the inadequacies of the present UK laws regarding sexual offences against the dead.

As it stands, only sexual penetration is an offence - any other form of abuse is not a crime.

In Fuller’s case, it meant that for almost a third of his victims, police could only prosecute him for the indecent images he kept of himself abusing them, rather than the acts themselves.

Mr Shipley, 57, said: “You can do awful things to a dead body which - as it stands - are actually not against the law.”

On retiring from the police, he launched a campaign to have the law changed.

With help from the then MPs for Sittingbourne and Sheppey and Tunbridge Wells, Gordon Henderson (Con) and Greg Clark (Con), he secured an amendment to the Criminal Justice Bill which was then progressing through Parliament.

It would have replaced the offence of sexual penetration with a corpse to one of “sexual activity with a corpse” - a much broader definition.

The maximum sentence for the new offence would have been five years, while the maximum sentence for penetration would have increased from the current two years to seven years.

However, when Rishi Sunak called a snap election, the Criminal Justice Bill was one of many that fell by the wayside and it has not been picked up by the incoming Labour government.

Mr Shipley said: “Naturally it was very disappointing.

“It was just about to be voted into law and then I find I’m back to square one, but I’m not going to give up.

“I’m going to batter on every single door that I can until the law is changed.”

Mr Henderson, the former MP for Mr Shipley’s own constituency of Sittingbourne and Sheppey, retired at the general election, as did Mr Clark.

They were replaced by Kevin McKenna (Labour) and Mike Martin (Lib Dem) respectively.

Mr Shipley says he has written to both MPs asking that they take up the cudgel to lobby for a change to the law in the House of Commons.

But, he said, neither had so far proved helpful.

He said: “For two months, Mr McKenna did not respond to my emails at all, while Mr Martin said he can’t help me because I am not his constituent, but Fuller’s crimes took place in his constituency.”

Since KentOnline contacted Mr McKenna for comment, his office has now offered Mr Shipley an appointment at the MP’s coming surgery this Sunday.

Mr McKenna’s assistant said the MP would not be able to comment until he had met him.

In an emailed response this month, Mr Martin told Mr Shipley: “This is of course a very important issue for our area, and one that I’ve been actively looking at since my election.

”Unfortunately, however, in this case, I wouldn’t be able to take up your campaign directly.

“This is because there is a strict parliamentary rule which states that MPs can only take up issues raised by their own constituents. Therefore, it would be best for you to work with your local MP, who can take action on your behalf.“

Mr Martin later told Kent Online: "David Fuller's crimes were abhorrent and I am supportive of everything Mr Shipley is doing to seek changes to legislation.

“As the local MP to where the crimes were committed, I am working with local NHS leaders to make sure that the local-level recommendations from the Fuller Inquiry are implemented, as well as calling on the government to implement the interim national-level recommendations.

“However, if Mr Shipley wishes to effect different changes to legislation then he should talk to his MP. I am simply not allowed to get involved on his behalf as he is not one of my constituents. I wish him the very best in his endeavours - he is clearly a dedicated public servant"

Mr Shipley retired from the police force in 2021 but he still works with the police.

He is an instructor engaged by the Anglia Ruskin University to deliver lectures on the law to police officers at the Kent Police College in Maidstone.

He said: “I am delighted Mr McKenna has finally taken the first step but it is disappointing that such a long time after Fuller’s offences came to light, we still have no change in the law.”

Fuller’s crimes were revealed after DNA evidence identified him as a suspect in the 1987 murders of 25-year-old Wendy Knell and Caroline Pierce, 20, which had gone unsolved for 33 years.

After his arrest in 2020, police discovered the hospital worker’s collection of videos and pictures chronicling more than 15 years of mortuary sex offending.

In November last year, a two-year independent inquiry into the Fuller case set up by the then government, found that Fuller had been able to get away with the offences because of serious failings at the two hospitals.

He had been able to “offend undetected amid failures in management and governance, and because standard procedures were not followed”.

There was “little regard” given to who was accessing the mortuary, which Fuller visited 444 times in one year – something that went “unnoticed and unchecked.”

Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust’s chief executive, Miles Scott, later said he was “deeply sorry for the pain and anguish” suffered by the families of Fuller’s victims.