Grimsby man jailed for sexually assaulting dead bodies in mortuary

A Grimsby man who went on a rampage in a hospital mortuary, violently and sexually attacking bodies, was told by a judge there was a “very, very dark side” to him as he was sentenced to six years in prison.

Damon Tingay, 30, broke into the Diana, Princess of Wales hospital in Grimsby in the early hours of 17 March and was caught on CCTV opening a number of fridges and interfering with the bodies.

He had spent two hours cycling around the hospital grounds evading security guards.

Passing sentence, the 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 held closed only by a magnet, the court heard.

The CCTV footage of the “depraved” incident was shown to the judge in private during the hearing at Grimsby crown court on Friday. Tingay punched the body of one man twice and performed sex acts on two male bodies.

A total of 10 bodies were disturbed by Tingay opening the fridges or removing their shrouds, the prosecutor Jeremy Evans said. The footage showed that four minutes into the attack, hospital staff caught Tingay and he was detained by security.

Evans said that when Tingay was arrested he was described as volatile, 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.

In an interview with police, he said he had no memory of the incident.

At an earlier hearing, the father of three pleaded guilty to the sexual penetration of a corpse.

In statements submitted to the court, the mother and aunt of one of the people 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”.

A statement from the brother of a man whose body was disturbed when his drawer was opened said he had had nightmares and had been “traumatised” by the fact that his brother’s body “had been disturbed in a place where he trusted he would be safe and at peace”.

Thackray told Tingay: “Your actions were depraved, perverted, indeed utterly grotesque. You violated and defiled loved ones, causing immeasurable harm to numerous victims. You caused incredible pain and turmoil. The families may never recover.

“It only came to an end because you were disturbed by security staff. Had you not been disturbed, inevitably there would have been more victims. There is undoubtedly a very, very dark side to you.”

In a statement read in court, one staff member described walking into a “horrifying scene” with bodies strewn from their shelves and fridges open. 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.”

Craig Lowe, for the defence, said Tingay apologised to the families of “those he subjected to degradation and humiliation through his obviously totally appalling behaviour”.

He said it was “clearly out of character for this friendly, kind, considerate man” and that Tingay had been having mental health problems at the time of the offending.

Tingay will serve six years in prison, a further four on licence and has been given a lifetime sexual harm prevention order.