As things stand, Sutcliffe will spend the rest of his life in Broadmoor Hospital without hope of release. His lawyers have one final option – to appeal to the Criminal Cases Review Commission arguing that the original trial amounted to a miscarriage of justice. The issue of diminished responsibility would again be central.
FREDERICK AND ROSEMARY WEST
Frederick West was born into a poor family of farm workers in 1941. He left school at the age of 15 and began work as a casual labourer. He was a prolific petty criminal as a teenager. He moved from his parents’ rural home to live with an aunt until he moved with his family to Gloucester, where he took a job in an abattoir. In April 1961, he was fined for the theft of watches and in October the same year he was also fined for stealing tools from a building site; these were his first convictions. A few months later, he was accused of impregnating a 13-year-old girl who was a friend of the West family. Fred West was surprisingly uncooperative and didn’t see that there was anything wrong with molesting girls. ‘Well, doesn’t everyone do it?’ he was heard to say.
This attitude and the ensuing scandal caused a serious rift with his family. West was ordered to find somewhere else to live. Distanced now from his family, he went to work on construction projects. It wasn’t long before he was caught having sex with young girls. At his trial for having sex with the 13-year-old girl, his doctor claimed that he was suffering from epileptic fits. Consequently, he got off without a jail sentence. At the age of 20, Fred West was already a convicted child molester and petty thief and a disgrace to his family.
In November 1962, he married Catherine (Rena) Costello, a prostitute, and they moved to Glasgow. She gave birth to a girl, Charmaine, in March 1963. Charmaine’s father, however, was a Pakistani bus driver. A second child, Anne-Marie, was born to the couple on 6 July 1964. She was West’s child. Soon after this, they separated.
When his wife returned to the area in 1966, Fred was living with another woman, Ann McFall. In early 1967, Ann McFall became pregnant with West’s child. She was trying unsuccessfully to get West to divorce Costello and marry her. West responded to the stress of her demands by killing her and burying her near a caravan park sometime in July. Not only did he kill his mistress and their unborn child, he slowly and methodically dismembered her body and buried her along with the foetus. He cut off her fingers and toes, which were missing from the gravesite. This was to be his ritualistic signature in future crimes. West’s wife Catherine returned to live with him and their children for a short time before leaving again for an unknown destination.
In late 1968, West met 16-year-old Rosemary Letts (b. 1953). She became pregnant by him, something she concealed from her parents until West was serving a short prison sentence for unpaid fines. She left her family home and moved in with West in Midland Road, Gloucester. She gave birth to a girl, Heather, on 17 October 1970 and, as a result, often neglected the older children. West’s daughter Charmaine died in mid-1971 while West was still in prison, apparently murdered by Rose. Since West was in jail when Charmaine was murdered, when he came out he had to bury her body under the kitchen floor of their home in Midland Road where it would remain undiscovered for the next 20 years. Before he buried Charmaine, he cut off her fingers, toes and kneecaps. Fred would hold this murder over Rose for the rest of her life.
Rose used to invite many West Indian men over to their house on Midland Road to have sex with her, either for cash or fun. Fred, a voyeur, encouraged this behaviour and watched through a peephole. As over-sexed as he was, Fred was not at all interested in ordinary sex. It had to involve bondage, vibrators and acts of sadism or lesbianism to get him going. Fred took erotic photos of Rose and ran them as ads in magazines for swingers.
When Rose murdered Charmaine, she created both a problem and an opportunity for Fred regarding his first wife, Rena. It was just a matter of time before Rena would come round looking for Charmaine. In fact, in August 1971, Fred saw that he had no choice but to kill Rena. He got her drunk and then strangled her at the house in Midland Road. He then dismembered her body and mutilated it in the same way that he had Ann McFall’s body: he cut off her fingers and toes. Then he put her remains into bags and buried her in the same location where he had buried Ann McFall.
He later married Rose on 29 January 1972. She gave birth to a girl, Mae, in June 1972 and they moved to a new home at 25 Cromwell Street. Fred had plans for the cellar and said that he was either going to make it into a place for Rose to entertain her clients or he would soundproof it and use it as his ‘torture chamber’.
The first occupant was to be his eight-year-old daughter, Anne-Marie. He and Rose undressed her and told her that she was lucky that she had such caring parents who were making sure that when she got married she would be able to satisfy her husband. Anne-Marie’s hands were tied behind her and a gag put in her mouth. Then, while Rose held the girl down, her father raped her. The pain was so severe that the girl could not go to school for several days. She was warned that she would be beaten if she ever told anyone about the rape. On another occasion, Anne-Marie was strapped down while her father raped her in what he called a ‘quickie’ during his lunch hour.
In late 1972, Fred and Rose picked up a 17-year-old girl named Caroline Owens and hired her as a nanny. They promised Caroline’s family that they would watch out for her while she lived with them. Caroline was very attractive, so much so that Rose and Fred competed with each other to seduce her. However, Caroline found the Wests repugnant and told them she was leaving. The couple abducted, stripped and raped her. Fred told her that if she didn’t do what he wanted, ‘I’ll keep you in the cellar and let my black friends have you and when they are finished, we’ll kill you and bury you under the paving stones of Gloucester.’ Terrified, she believed him. When her mother saw her bruises, she got the truth from her and called the police.
Charges were brought against the Wests and the hearing took place in January 1973. Fred was 31 and Rose a mere 19 and pregnant once again. Fred was able to convince the magistrate to believe that Caroline had been a willing partner. Despite Fred’s criminal record, the magistrate did not believe the Wests were capable of violence and let them both off with a fine.
For some time, the Wests had been carrying on a friendship with a seamstress, Lynda Gough. Eventually, Lynda moved into 25 Cromwell Street to take care of the children. Something went amiss in the relationship, though, and Lynda was murdered. Fred dismembered her and buried her in a pit in the garage. As before, he then removed her fingers, toes and kneecaps. When Lynda’s family came looking for her, they were told that she had stayed there but had since left. A hideous pattern was emerging. Young women would come to stay at 25 Cromwell either as lodgers or friends or nannies, but so few ever made it out with their lives. The house was slowly becoming a monument to the depravity of its inhabitants.
In August 1973, Rose gave birth to their son Stephen, but this did not stop their desires to kill. They abducted 15-year-old Carol Ann Cooper in November and kept her a prisoner, subjecting her to sexual abuse. When they tired of her, she was strangled, dismembered and buried with the other bodies at 25 Cromwell Street in the cellar, which Fred had by now made larger.
Almost one month later, university student Lucy Partington had gone home to her mother’s house to spend the Christmas holiday. On 27 December, she went to visit her friend and left to catch a bus shortly after 10pm. She had the misfortune to meet up with the Wests, who abducted her. Like Carol Ann Cooper, she was tortured and sexually abused for approximately a week and then murdered, dismembered and buried in the cellar. Also like Carol Ann Cooper, she was reported missing, but there was nothing to tie the two girls to the Wests.
Over the next 12 months, three more girls would meet the same fate at the hands of Rose and Fred West. Their next victim was Shirley Hubbard, aged 15, followed by Juanita Mott, aged 18. Bondage was becoming a major thrill for Fred and Rose. Shirley’s head had been wrapped entirely with tape and a plastic tube was inserted in her nos
e so that she could breathe. Juanita was subjected to even more extreme bondage; she was gagged with a ligature made from two long, white nylon socks, a brassiere and two pairs of tights, one within the other. She was then trussed up with lengths of plastic-covered rope of the type used for washing line. The rope was used in a complicated way, with loops tied around her arms and thighs, both wrists, both ankles and her skull, horizontally and vertically, backwards and forwards across her body until she could only wriggle like a trapped animal. The West’s produced a 2yd length of rope with a slip-knot end forming a noose. This was used to suspend Juanita’s body from the beams in the cellar.
In 1976, the Wests enticed a young woman to the house. Her real name was never made public and she would later appear in court as a prosecution witness against the Wests. She came from a home for wayward girls. At Cromwell Street, she was led into a room with two naked girls who were prisoners there. She witnessed the torture of the two girls and was raped by Fred and sexually assaulted by Rose. One of the girls that she saw was probably Anne-Marie, Fred’s daughter, who was a constant target for the couple’s sexual sadism. As if Fred’s rape and torture of his daughter were not enough, he brought home his friends to have sex with her.
In 1977, the upstairs of the house had been renovated to accommodate lodgers. One of them was Shirley Robinson, 18, a former prostitute with bisexual inclinations. She developed relationships with both Fred and Rose. Shirley became pregnant with Fred’s child after Rose became pregnant by one of her black clients. While Fred was pleased that Rose was carrying a mixed-race child, Rose was not comfortable with Shirley carrying Fred’s child. Shirley foolishly thought that she could displace Rose in Fred’s life and, in the process, jeopardised her own existence. Rose made it clear that Shirley had to go.
In December 1977, after Rose gave birth to Tara, Shirley met her fate and was murdered in Cromwell Street. By now, the cellar was full of bodies. Shirley was buried in the back garden along with her unborn child. This time, Fred dismembered Shirley and their unborn baby.
In November 1978, Rose and Fred had yet another daughter whom they named Louise, making a total of six children in this bizarre and unwholesome household. Fred also impregnated his daughter Anne-Marie, but the pregnancy was ectopic and had to be terminated.
Several months later, the Wests continued their murdering. Their victim this time was a troubled teenager named Alison Chambers; she was murdered after they had raped and tortured her. Like Shirley, Alison was buried in the ‘overflow’ cemetery in the back garden.
As the Wests’ children became older, they were aware of some of the goings-on in the home. They knew that Rose was a prostitute and that Anne-Marie was being raped by her father. When Anne-Marie moved out to live with her boyfriend, Fred instead focused his sexual advances on Heather and Mae. Heather resisted her father and was beaten for it. In June 1980, Rose gave birth to Barry, Fred’s second son. Then in April 1982, Rose gave birth to Rosemarie Junior, who was not Fred’s child. In July 1983, Rose gave birth to another daughter, whom they named Lucyanna. She was half-black, like Tara and Rosemarie Junior. Rose became increasingly irrational and beat the children without provocation. The stress of so many children in the household took its toll on Rose’s already bad temper.
In 1986, the wall of family silence that had protected the Wests was broken. Heather told her girlfriend about her father’s advances, her mother’s affairs and the beatings she had received. The girlfriend told her parents, who were friends of the Wests, and Heather’s parents soon murdered her. They told the rest of the children that she had left home. Fred asked his son Stephen to help him dig a hole in the back garden, where Fred later buried Heather’s dismembered body.
Rose built up her prostitution business by advertising in special magazines. She and Fred were on the lookout for women who they could get to participate in their various perversions as well as prostitute themselves under Rose’s direction. One such woman, Katherine Halliday, became a fixture in the West household and saw first-hand the black bondage suits and masks that they had collected, plus the whips and chains. With good reason, Katherine became alarmed and quickly broke off her relationship with them.
As time went on, Fred and Rosemary became increasingly concerned about creating a minimum façade of respectability, not because they cared what people thought of them, but because they were concerned that knowledge of what had gone on in their house would jeopardise their freedom.
The Wests’ long run of luck was coming to an end, though. One of the very young girls who Fred had raped with Rose’s assistance told her girlfriend what happened. The girlfriend went to the police and the case was assigned to a very talented and persistent detective constable named Hazel Savage. Hazel knew Fred from his days with his first wife and remembered the stories that she had told her about Fred’s sexual perversions.
Following up the complaint on 6 August 1992, police arrived at 25 Cromwell Street with a search warrant to look for pornography and evidence of child abuse. They found mountains of pornography and arrested Rose for assisting in the rape of a minor. Fred was arrested for rape and buggery.
Due to the nature of the charges they both now faced, their younger children were taken into care. Fred was remanded in custody and Rose took an overdose of pills but was saved by her son Stephen. Luck was again on their side when the trial collapsed due to the witnesses choosing not to give evidence. Still, the police had their doubts about the missing Heather and the rumour that she was buried under the patio. As a result, on 25 February 1994, police obtained a warrant to search the Cromwell Street house and garden. The nature of the search and the logistics of all the digging needed would be very expensive and was certain to attract attention from the media. The search would continue right up until March 1994.
Following the extensive search, bones were found buried in the garden but at that time the police could not identify who they belonged to. Fred and Rose West were questioned and confronted with the findings. Fred soon confessed to killing his daughter. When Rose was informed of Fred’s confession, she claimed that Fred had sent her out of the house the day Heather disappeared and had no knowledge of Heather’s death. The police set about the grim task of digging up the whole garden. Fred had been released on bail without charge and, back home, he watched the police dig up the garden. He knew it was a matter of time before they found Heather and the others he had buried in the garden.
Finally, the police found the remains of a young woman, dismembered and decapitated. Then another victim was found. Fred West was again taken back into custody and questioned. To protect Rose, he claimed responsibility for the murders himself. He was charged with the murders of Heather, Shirley Robinson and the as-yet-unidentified third woman. Furthermore, an investigation was opened into the disappearance of Rena and Charmaine. Fred decided to confess to the police about the bodies of the girls buried in his cellar. He admitted to murdering them, but would not admit to raping them first. He maintained they all consented to sex with him.
As West talked to the police about his murders, they were still unsure of the number of actual victims as identification was proving difficult. The police had unearthed nine different sets of bones and did not know whose they were. West was not much help, since he could not remember the names and details of some of the women he had picked up. Considering the many women who go missing every year, extensive work had to be undertaken to match up the missing persons reports with the remains.
As the investigation continued, Rose was arrested in April 1994. She abandoned Fred to save herself. She tried to position herself as the victim of a murderous man, but she was not convincing and the police worked tirelessly to link her to the murders. The bodies of Rena, Ann McFall and Charmaine were found as Fred West continued to cooperate with the police. With regard to the disappearance of Mary Bastholm, West for some reason decided not to cooperate and her body was not found.
On 13 December 1994, Fred and Rose West were jointly charged with the
murders of 12 girls. At their first court appearance, Fred attempted to console Rose, but she avoided his touch. She had told the police he made her sick. Their partnership in crime was definitely over, but was this an act to place all the blame on Fred? They were both remanded in custody for a date to be set for their trial at a higher court. However, Fred would escape justice and never paid for his crimes. He was sent on remand to await trial to HMP Winson Green, Birmingham, where on 1 January 1995 he committed suicide by hanging himself, using strips of cloth from a bed sheet.
Despite the lack of direct evidence linking her to the murders, Rose West went to trial on 3 October 1995, charged with the murders of 10 girls. A number of witnesses, including Caroline Owens, the woman previously referred to as Miss A, and Anne-Marie testified about Rose West’s sadistic sexual assaults on young women.
Her defence team tried to suggest that evidence of sexual assault was not the same as evidence of murder and that, furthermore, she did not know what Fred was doing when he murdered the girls and buried them. However, they made a grave error in allowing Rose to give evidence. Her defiance came through very clearly to the jury. Furthermore, the prosecution learnt to extract damaging testimony from her by making her angry. She left the jury with entrenched beliefs that she had treated the children badly and that she was completely dishonest. Finally, the defence played the recordings of Fred West describing how he had murdered the victims when she was out of the house. Unfortunately for Rose, Fred was shown to be lying on key issues, which cast a doubt over his entire statement.
The Evil Within - A Top Murder Squad Detective Reveals The Chilling True Stories of The World's Most Notorious Killers Page 42
