Heather West had last been seen on June 19, 1987, but she was never reported missing to police. Over the course of months, social workers caring for her five siblings began to take note of their repeated – though reportedly offhand – mentions of the “family joke” that their sister was buried under the patio. In summer 1993, the police were told of these concerns. The West case was one of the most disturbing serial murder cases in British criminal history. Murder most foul, but it seems even foulness is relative. The case is appalling on a number of levels: The horrific details of the offences, the juxtaposition of ordinary day to day routine family life with depraved, sadistic sex, torture and murder of innocent young women, who were just starting out on their lives, the shear persistence of the offending that remained undetected for so many years and the cruel unknowing that had to be painfully borne by the victims loved ones. The nation was scarred as the details emerged. There was a sense of an unwelcome mirror held up to society, if it ever needed to be, reminding us of just what depths humankind can sink. Heather and Mae West became the focus of Fred's incestuous [57] sexual attentions after Anna Marie ran away from home in 1979 [125] after enduring a particularly severe beating from Rose to her stomach just days after being discharged from hospital for treatment of an ectopic pregnancy. [126] The frequency of the abuse endured by Heather and Mae increased when both girls reached puberty. Fred was overt and unapologetic in his conduct, and would justify his actions with the simple explanation: "I made you; I can do what I like with you." [127] He further referred to his intentions to impregnate both his daughters on at least one occasion, and would occasionally force all his children to watch pornography with him. As Heather, Mae and their younger brother Stephen were very close in age, the trio resolved that if their father asked either of the two girls to be alone in a room with him, they would only do so if at least one other member of the trio were present to avoid either girl being raped. Both girls also developed a regime whereby they would only shower or undress when their father was either out of the house, or as her sister stood guard at the door. Stephen was also informed by his father that he would have to have sex with his mother by the age of 17 (in the event, his parents evicted him from their home when he was 16). [128]

While the police investigation into the West murders was thorough and deservedly earned commendation for the way it was conducted, it is fair to say that even the officers were not satisfied that the full extent of the case had been fully excavated and resolved. There is much that remains a mystery. There are many questions that will not go away. In giving my account as her defence solicitor I revisit and review the many conversations that we had. I have also reviewed available evidence relating to the victims and have given close scrutiny to the early years and the disappearance in 1968 of a young woman who did not appear on the indictments of either Fred or Rose West. Her file remains open as that of an unsolved missing person. Rose, who had begun to engage in prostitution by this time, explained to Owens that she worked as a masseuse when the younger woman enquired about the steady stream of men visiting her. [102] According to Owens, Fred also claimed to be skilled in performing abortions, should she ever need such a service. Owens also noted Fred talked about sex almost incessantly; her suspicions as to his sexual overtones were further heightened when Fred boasted that many of the women he claimed to have performed abortions upon were so overjoyed that they would offer him their sexual services as a reward. [102] When Owens herself became the recipient of the Wests' overt sexual advances, she announced her intentions to leave Cromwell Street and return home. [103] But the documentary makes the case that other locations need to be searched by police, including a derelict farm and a field in the Herefordshire area. A report commissioned by Gloucestershire County Council into how its agencies served the West children, published in 1995, highlighted the need for teachers, doctors, social workers and police “not to dismiss lightly the comments of children (however apparently bizarre),” and for different bodies to communicate. But at least one newspaper described it as raising more questions than it answered.A lot of the victims were in care or had absconded or run away from home, and they were victims that disappeared. They were anonymous, and no one knew they were missing,” said Goatley. It is not just DNA that parents pass onto their children, the psychological imprint of their nurturing will mediate in their lives and in a moderated form resonate through the generations. This of course does not mean at all that the child of a serial killer will follow suit. On the contrary, it is likely to precipitate a dialectical process where the mind-numbing knowledge of the sins of parents is the antithesis of the social norms school children may aspire to, thereby triggering an instinctive repulsion. On March 4, West passed a handwritten note to his solicitor saying: “I wish to admit to a further (approx) nine killings expressly Charmaine, Rena, Lynda Gough and others to be identified.” To ensure her daughters' well-being, Rena frequently travelled to England to visit Charmaine and Anna Marie while they lived with Fred at Bishop's Cleeve. [37] Despite initially maintaining her friendship with McFall, Rena soon began to resent her matriarchal presence around her daughters. On 11 October, [40] in an act of resentment, Rena stole some belongings from Fred's caravan and returned to Glasgow. She was arrested the following month and returned to Gloucester to face trial. On 29 November, Rena was sentenced to three years' probation. Fred testified at the hearing, admitting he and McFall were living together, but falsely claiming McFall intended to return to Scotland imminently. [41] Initially, Rose was incarcerated at HMP Bronzefield as a Category A prisoner; [199] she was later transferred to HM Prison Low Newton before, in 2019, being transferred to HM Prison New Hall, [200] where she continues to protest her innocence. [198] [201] Victims [ edit ]

July: Anne McFall, (18). McFall's remains were found on 7 June 1994 in Fingerpost Field, Much Marcle. Her body had been placed in a rectangular pit and covered with loose topsoil. She had been pregnant with a daughter, and her pregnancy had been in its eighth month. [212]Six months later – having found no trace of Heather alive – officers from the Gloucestershire Constabulary obtained a warrant to search 25 Cromwell Street, the Wests’ family home since 1972. When Fred was found dead in his remand cell on January 1, 1995, reaction in Gloucester was mixed, according to Summers. While some felt relief because “they wanted this shameful person wiped off the face of the earth,” others – particularly the victims’ relatives – felt they’d been cheated of justice, he said. It was felt that he did it in an attempt to get Rose off. He thought that if he could kill himself … she could then pin it all on him. Obviously that didn’t work,” Summers said. By 1957, Fred and his brother John frequently socialised at a youth club in nearby Ledbury, where his distinct and guttural Herefordshire accent marked him as a " country bumpkin". He aggressively pestered women and girls, whom he objectified as sources of pleasure to be used as he saw fit, and would abruptly approach and fondle them. [12] When a girl accepted his advances, she would find his sexual performance unsatisfying, as his primary objective was his own gratification. [13] Classmates recall Fred as scruffy, dim, lethargic, and regularly in trouble. [6] Throughout his life he remained barely literate, yet displayed an aptitude for woodwork and artwork. He left school in December 1956 at the age of 15, first working as a labourer at Moorcourt Farm. [9]

November 1958 - Fred is injured in a motorcycle accident. In a coma for seven days and is said to be prone to violent outbursts after his recovery. He pointed out that Fred was incarcerated when Charmaine West was killed; claimed that the Wests had each learned from their mistake in allowing Caroline Owens to live (they "would never be so trusting again"); [182] and said that the gag on victim Thérèse Siegenthaler had a "feminine" touch‍—‌a scarf tied in a bow. [183]He said to me: 'Can you remember helping me dig those holes in the garden when you were a kid?' I said I couldn't remember, but he said, 'We did it together, you know.' Then he said: 'That's where the girls were found, in the exact holes'." Even in the West case, in the trial, where identities were established, it was never entirely clear what fate befell those women and those young girls. It’s known that they were abducted, it’s known that the quality of their lives in their last days would have been appalling … It’s a nightmare trying to speculate about precisely what did happen to those girls.” January: Mary Bastholm, (15). A teenage waitress at a café Fred frequented. Bastholm was abducted from a bus stop on Bristol Road, Gloucester. Fred confessed to police he had killed Bastholm after raping her in his car. She is believed to have been buried in Bishop's Cleeve. [206] Police were unable to charge Fred with this crime as they had no evidence. [213] Her body has never been found. [214]

Dramas about such events need a clear purpose, which is to illuminate those events. The process of making these programmes is a complicated and painstaking one. Of central importance are the feelings of those whose lives have been most directly affected, which is usually the families of victims. Often they have suffered twice, first by losing a loved one in horrific circumstances, second by acquiring a kind of stigma of being associated with a notorious crime. In July 1967, [43] McFall, aged 18 and eight months pregnant with Fred's child, vanished. She was never reported missing, but her dismembered remains were found buried at the edge of a cornfield between Much Marcle and Kempley in June 1994. Her limbs had been carefully disarticulated, and many phalange bones were missing from her body—likely to have been retained as keepsakes; her unborn child may also have been cut from her womb. [44] Fred initially denied he had killed McFall, but confided to one visitor following his arrest that he had stabbed her to death following an argument. This explanation is inconsistent with the fact that her wrists were found with sections of dressing gown cord wrapped around them, suggesting she had been restrained prior to her murder. [45] In 2006, I met the late Gordon Burn for a drink in a Manchester pub. It was Burn's brilliant book about the Yorkshire Ripper case, Somebody's Husband, Somebody's Son, which had given me the confidence to write my 2000 television drama, This Is Personal, about the police investigation of the Ripper murders. At the time of our meeting, I had just written a new television drama, See No Evil, about the moors murders – a subject Gordon too had explored in his novel Alma Cogan. Killed by Fred West:• Ann McFall, 18, his children’s nanny and pregnant by Fred, disappeared in 1967 As we were leaving, Partington mentioned a book which had helped her – Eva Hoffman's meditation on the aftermath of the Holocaust, After Such Knowledge. It is a title, it occurs to me now, which might have served for Appropriate Adult.Even Fred occasionally became the recipient of his wife's violence. On one occasion in August 1974, [90] Rose chased after Fred with a carving knife in her hand; Fred was able to slam shut the door of the room into which he had run as Rose lunged at him with the knife, resulting in the knife embedding itself in the door, and three of Rose's fingers sliding down the blade, almost severing them from her hand. In response, Rose calmly wrapped her hand in a towel and said: "Look what you done, fella. You've got to take me to the hospital now." [91] Initial sexual assaults [ edit ] Anna Marie West [ edit ] Hospital records reveal Charmaine had received treatment for a severe puncture wound to her left ankle in the casualty unit of the Gloucester Royal Hospital on 28 March 1971. This incident was explained by Rose to have resulted from a household accident. [64] Murder of Charmaine West [ edit ] Heather also expressed to Mae and Stephen her desire to run away from home and live a nomadic lifestyle in the Forest of Dean, and to never again see any human beings. [134] Murder of Heather West [ edit ] As well as the 12 confirmed victims, police firmly believe Fred is also responsible for the 1968 disappearance of 15-year-old Mary Bastholm, but to date no body has been found. [214] West's son, Stephen, has said he firmly believes the missing teenager was an early victim of his father, as Fred had openly boasted of having committed Bastholm's murder while on remand. [228]