THE daughter of a woman whose corpse was abused by a necrophiliac murderer has lost a High Court fight over arrangements for a public inquiry.

Amanda Miah, whose mother Sonia Miah died in 2018, asked a High Court judge at a hearing in London to give her the go-ahead for a legal challenge.

She claimed arrangements for the inquiry infringed her human right to protection from degrading treatment.

But Mr Justice Swift ruled she did not have an arguable case.

Fuller, from Heathfield, was a Kent hospital electrician when he killed two women before sexually assaulting them, he also filmed himself abusing more than 100 corpses.

Sonia Miah died the age of 54. Her body was taken to the mortuary at the hospital in Pembury. 

Detectives told her children that they were able to identify her as one of Fuller’s victims through videos he kept of his crimes. 

A barrister representing Ms Miah argued that arrangements for an inquiry, announced by Health Secretary Sajid Javid in November, did not "meet the needs" of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Jude Bunting QC told the judge the article stated no-one should be subjected to "inhuman or degrading" treatment.

"The circumstances of David Fuller's offending trigger the duty to investigate under Article 3," Mr Bunting told the judge in a written case outline.

He said: "The physical mutilation of a dead body by an agent of the state will give rise to an Article 3 breach in respect of family members.”

He also raised concerns about inquiry chairman Sir Jonathan Michael's inability to "compel witnesses" and about "evidence-gathering" taking place in private.

He said Sir Jonathan's conduct to date gave rise to an "appearance of a lack of practical independence".

A barrister representing Health Secretary Sajid Javid said complaints made were either “insignificant” or “simply complaints about the way (Sir Jonathan) had chosen to manage the inquiry”.

He argued there was an “overwhelming case” for blocking the claim in respect of the “attack on the independence” of Sir Jonathan.

The judge heard Sir Jonathan was a former clinical nephrologist, hospital health service manager, chief operating officer, and chief executive of three NHS hospital trusts.

He previously chaired an internal investigation into Fuller, commissioned by Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust in 2021.

But Mr Blake said Sir Jonathan had never been employed by the trust.