Grieving families say they will never recover after their deceased loved ones were ‘violated and defiled’ by a man who broke into a hospital mortuary, a court heard.
Damon Tingay, 30, forced his way into the mortuary of the Diana, Princess of Wales Hospital in Grimsby and performed sex acts on two male bodies housed inside on March 17.
The father-of-three then spent four minutes in the mortuary before he was discovered by hospital staff and attempting to flee, leaving a ‘horrifying scene’ behind.
Tingay today pleaded guilty to the sexual penetration of a corpse and trespassing with intent to commit a sexual offence at Grimsby Crown Court.
He was jailed for six years and handed an extended licence period of four years by a judge who called his actions ‘perverted and utterly grotesque’.
The court heard Tingay cycled onto the hospital grounds at around 2.50am and spent about two hours on the site, trying to keep out of the way of security guards.
Sentencing the defendant, Judge John Thackray KC told him: ‘When you thought you had evaded them you entered the mortuary by forcing an external door. What happens thereafter is shown on CCTV.’
Footage played in court showed Tingay drinking from a bottle before opening the door to the mortuary, which had no lock and was only held closed by a magnet, the court heard.
The CCTV from inside the mortuary was shown to the judge in private.
Prosecutor Jeremy Evans said 10 bodies in total were disturbed by Tingay opening the fridges or removing their shrouds. Two male patients were interfered with for the sexual acts, he told the court.
At one point Tingay attempted to lift one patient out by their blanket, and appeared to strike another with his fist, the hearing was told.
He was eventually disturbed by hospital staff and detained by security guards after running out of the mortuary, before being arrested when police arrived on the scene.
In a statement, one member of hospital staff described walking into a ‘horrifying scene’ with fridges open and bodies pulled from shelves.
She said: ‘I have seen a lot in my career. This was one of the worst things I have seen in my life. It was the indignity, the lack of respect. I couldn’t stop crying.’
Mr Evans said when Tingay was described as volatile when arrested, shouting and screaming that he had done nothing wrong, and at one point claiming he had been blamed for a friend’s suicide and was seeking answers.
He later told police he had no memory of the incident.
In statements submitted to the court, the mother and aunt of one of the patients who was the victim of a sex act described the ‘incredible pain when they discovered what had happened to a dear and precious loved member of their family’.
Mr Evans said it was ‘something they will remember for the rest of their lives’ and that the man’s aunt had suffered a flare-up of multiple sclerosis due to the stress ‘caused by discovering a family member had been violated in such a manner’.
A statement from the brother of a man who was disturbed when his drawer was opened said he suffered nightmares and had been ‘traumatised’ by the fact his brother’s body ‘had been disturbed in a place where he trusted he would be safe and at peace’.
Craig Lowe, defending, said Tingay wanted to ‘offer a wholehearted apology to all friends and family of those he subjected to degradation and humiliation through his obviously totally appalling behaviour’.
Mr Lowe said Tingay had been unable to work since 2022 after suffering a spinal injury and had mental health difficulties.
He told the court that the offending was ‘clearly out of character for this friendly, kind, considerate man’ and said he currently had a role in custody looking after elderly prisoners.
Judge Thackray told Tingay: ‘You violated and defiled loved ones, causing immeasurable harm to numerous victims.’
The judge said if Tingay had not been disturbed there would have been even more victims, and told him: ‘There is undoubtedly a very, very dark side to you.’
As well as the prison sentence, Tingay was made the subject of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for life.
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