Fred & Rose: The Full Story of Fred and Rose West and the Gloucester House of Horrors

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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. For twelve years I acted for Rose West as her solicitor and for a time represented both Rose and Fred West in relation to child care proceedings. I acted for Rose in all stages of the numerous criminal allegations brought against her from July 1992 through to the serial murder trial at Winchester Crown Court in October and November of 1995, then the Appeal in the Lord Chief Justice's court in 1996 and a subsequent application to the Criminal Cases Review Commission in 2001. It was only Rose who stood trial and then was convicted of the murder of ten young women. Fred West committed suicide while awaiting trial.

She lost her appeal against the conviction in 1996 and, the following year, her life sentence was converted to a “whole-life” tariff.And there remain all the interminable, seemingly unfathomable questions that conspire to deny the closure people so long for. It is a complex process. Initially, revenge and punishment of the offender offers a sense of justice, it gives a temporary sense of relief. But this is often short-lived and the inner destruction ploughs through the living broken lives.

A police investigator walks past a pair of uniformed officers as he carries a large plastic box of evidence from the home of Fred and Rose West at 25 Cromwell Street, Gloucester, England, March 4, 1994. Ian Cook/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images 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] No forensic evidence linked Fred to the murder of Anne McFall, and he always denied killing her. However, her body had been extensively dismembered, and was missing several phalange bones. Furthermore, the cubic dimensions of the grave in which her body was buried match the modus operandi of Fred's later murders. [233] Over the course of 11 fevered days, nine victims had been found in one drab end-of-terrace family home.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.

Despite the trial, the public was left with many unanswered questions – about both the Wests’ victims and whether public bodies had missed opportunities to halt the appalling cycle of abuse, incest and murder years earlier. As her legal representative, Goatley spent hundreds of hours with Rose between 1992 and 2004, including on prison visits.In the early hours of the following morning, as his son Stephen was about to leave for work, Fred informed him: "Look son, look after mum and sell the house [...] I've done something really bad. I want you to go to the papers and make as much money as you can." [156] Shortly thereafter, police returned to Cromwell Street to continue their search for Heather's body. Upon their arrival, Fred indicated his wish to be arrested for Heather's murder and to be taken to Bearland police station to provide a full confession; he was then arrested and formally cautioned. [155] Discoveries [ edit ]