Sex attacks on dead bodies: Depraved undertaker encouraged man to have sex with corpse and posed with dead bodies

Nigel Robinson‑Wright, from Blackpool - and who worked in Preston - was jailed for 17 years in May 2022 after pleading guilty to an array of sickening sex crimes.  

They included making indecent images and arranging or encouraging the commission of sexual offences against a child, a dog and a dead body, via social media apps. The then 42-year-old was told by Judge Graham Knowles QC - who sentenced him at Preston Crown Court - that he had committed “abhorrent" acts which had required him to “cast off your own humanity”.

Now, his litany of depravity has been referenced in a report published by the independent inquiry into the crimes of David Fuller, who sexually abused the bodies of more than a hundred women and girls aged between nine and 100 while employed as a maintenance worker at the now-closed Kent and Sussex Hospital and the Tunbridge Wells Hospital.  The necrophiliac also murdered two young women in the 1980s.

The inquiry into how Fuller got away with abusing corpses over a 15-year period between 2005 and 2020 initially focused on caring for the deceased in hospital settings, but has now turned its attention to the “security and dignity” of those being looked after in the funeral sector.

That is where Robinson-Wright’s case comes in, with an interim report from the inquiry - published this week - flagging it up in a section dedicated to recent allegations and convictions connected to funeral homes. 

The document states that the undertaker was sent down for “sharing indecent images of children, extreme pornographic images and images taken at Martin’s Funeral Directors in Preston where he worked”.

It added:  “Nigel Robinson‑Wright posed for photographs next to open coffins and naked deceased people and offered to supply a man with crystal meth to facilitate sexual activity in the chapel of rest at the funeral home. The two also shared sexual fantasies about the deceased people at the funeral home.”

The report said the inquiry had written to Martin’s Funeral Directors “to ask the company to describe the security measures and access controls it had in place at the time of the offences and what if anything it changed as a result”, but that the firm “did not provide this information”.

However, Wendy Sisson, speaking on behalf of the business, has rubbished the suggestion that it did not engage with the request - and provided the Lancashire Post and Blackpool Gazette with a letter addressed to the Fuller Inquiry, which she said had been sent by Martin’s Funeral Directors in response to the questions asked of it.

The correspondence offered reassurance over the security in place for the people in its care and said the company’s actions in the wake of Robinson‑Wright’s crimes coming to light had shown it to be “open, honest and trustworthy to our clients and their families”. 

The letter said the firm's security measures were in place “before most of this ‘hit the headlines’” and offered any further assistance to the inquiry that the company could provide.

Separately, Ms. Sisson claimed to the Post and Gazette that “none of the offences were specifically said to have taken place at our funeral home or in a particular timeframe”.

The Post and Gazette approached the David Fuller Inquiry team for comment on the response of Martin’s Funeral Directors to its interim phase 2 report and was told it had “nothing to add” to the contents.

'Dead bodies in garages'

Sir Jonathan Michael, the inquiry’s chair, said people are “shocked” to find that funeral services are unchecked and that anyone can set themselves up as a funeral director.

They could work at home and keep bodies of dead people in their garages, Sir Jonathan warned as he called for an independent statutory regulator to be set up to oversee the sector and safeguard the dead.

He said: “We need a regulatory regime that will not tolerate any form of abuse or any practices that compromise the security and dignity of the deceased.

“The funeral directors I have met in conducting this inquiry have been caring and professional. However, sadly, there are exceptions.”

He added: “The fact is that anyone can set themselves up as a funeral director. They could do it from their home and keep the bodies of the deceased in their garage without anybody being able to stop them.

“That cannot be right.”

Sir Jonathan also reflected on the fact that while people “take comfort and meaning from the ceremonial aspects of the funeral service for their loved ones...we often pay no regard to what happens prior to this point, to what happens in the ‘back room’.”

He said his new report comes following the “distressing” claims of neglect in the funeral care sector, as police are investigating allegations against a funeral directors in Hull.

Humberside Police said detectives had been working “around the clock” since concerns were raised at Legacy Independent Funeral Directors on March 8 “about the storage and management processes relating to care of the deceased at the funeral directors”.