December: Lucy Partington, (21). Partington was an Exeter University student and the cousin of novelist Martin Amis. [219] She was abducted from a bus stop along the A435. Her precise date of death may have been one week after her disappearance, as Fred admitted himself into the casualty unit of the Gloucester Royal Hospital with a serious laceration of his right hand on 3 January, possibly sustained as he dismembered Partington's body. Her body was discovered in the Cromwell Street cellar on 6 March 1994. [220] [221]

Rose occasionally sexually abused Anna Marie herself, and later took extreme gratification in degrading her with acts such as binding Anna Marie to various items of furniture before encouraging Fred to rape her, and forcing her to perform household chores while wearing sexual devices and a mini-skirt. [97] From the age of 13, Fred and Rose forced Anna Marie to prostitute herself within the household, with her clients being informed Anna Marie was 16. Rose was always present in the room when these acts occurred, [98] to ensure Anna Marie did not reveal her true age. [99] On one occasion when Anna Marie was aged 13 or 14, Rose took her to a local pub, insisting she drink several glasses of barley wine. Several hours later, Fred arrived at the pub to collect Rose and Anna Marie. Once they had left the premises, Anna Marie was bundled into her father's van and beaten by Rose, who asked her: "Do you think you could be my friend?" before she was sexually abused by her father and stepmother. [100] Caroline Owens [ edit ] 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. Killed by Fred West:• Ann McFall, 18, his children’s nanny and pregnant by Fred, disappeared in 1967 After the trial, McFall moved into a caravan at the Timberland Caravan Park; Rena alternated between living with Fred and returning to Glasgow. Letters McFall posted to her family and McNeill in Glasgow between 1966 and 1967 indicate she believed a relationship with Fred could offer her a better life than that she had experienced in Scotland, [42] and she tried to persuade Fred to divorce his wife and marry her. Rosemary, known as Rose, was convicted on 10 counts of murder in November 1995; she will remain in prison until she dies. She has always protested her innocence and has revealed nothing about the case over the years.The experts, the forensic psychologists, believe that the pair of them, Fred and Rose West, would have continued rather than to have big gaps between one (victim) and another,” Goatley said. In May 1992, Fred asked his 13-year-old daughter, Louise, to bring some bottles to a room on the first floor of their home. Rose was not present in the home at the time. Shortly thereafter, the girl's siblings heard her scream, "No, don't!" Later, Fred returned downstairs. Louise was found by her siblings writhing in pain, sobbing that her father had raped and sodomised her, at one stage partially strangling her. [143] When Rose returned home, Louise confided in her mother that she had been raped by Fred; Rose replied, "Oh well. You were asking for it." Over the following weeks, Louise was raped on three further occasions, with Rose personally witnessing one of these rapes before following her distressed and bleeding daughter into the bathroom and asking the child, "Well, what did you expect?" [144] Fred also filmed one of these rapes. Several weeks later, Louise garnered the courage to confide in a close friend what her father had done; this friend told her own mother what had happened on 4 August. In response, the friend's mother anonymously informed the police.

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] After seven weeks of evidence the judge instructed the jury, emphasising that circumstantial evidence can be sufficient for a finding of guilt, and that if two people take part in a murder, the law considers them equally guilty regardless of which of them did the deed. [194] Having discovered Rose worked in a nearby bread shop, a few days after their first encounter, Fred persuaded an unknown woman to enter the premises and present her with a gift accompanied by the explanation that a "man outside" had asked her to present this gift to her. [51] Minutes later, Fred entered the premises and asked Rose to accompany him on a date that evening; an offer she accepted. [49] Shortly thereafter, Rose began a relationship with Fred, becoming a frequent visitor at the Lake House Caravan Park and a willing childminder to Charmaine and Anna Marie, who she noted were neglected and whom she initially treated with care and affection. On several occasions in the early days of their courtship, Rose insisted she and Fred take the girls on excursions to gather wildflowers. There is a view that a drama about such a subject should not be made, which ignores the fact that since Sophocles, dramatists have engaged with the darkest areas of human experience. But these are real events, the argument goes, doesn't that make it wrong? If so, then the many films which have dealt with the Holocaust, such as Sophie's Choice and Schindler's List, should never have been made. But isn't it too soon? If that is true then Paul Greengrass's United 93, made within a few years of 9/11, should never have seen the light of day. It is in fact 17 years since the Cromwell Street murders came to light – almost the same length of time as between the arrest of Peter Sutcliffe and the making of This Is Personal, my dramatisation of the flawed police hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper. Police sift through soil as they search for clues in the Fred West murder cases in the garden of 25 Midland Road, Gloucester, on April 27, 1994. Barry Batchelor/PA Images/Getty Images

As her legal representative, Goatley spent hundreds of hours with Rose between 1992 and 2004, including on prison visits. Fred had also led police 17 miles or so out of the city to a field in the village of Kempley – near his birthplace of Much Marcle – where Costello’s remains were found in April. The remains of West’s former nanny and pregnant mistress, Ann McFall, were recovered in June from a field nearby. Despite denying involvement in her death, Fred indicated the area where she was buried. The most wonderful thing in my life was when I met you. Our love is special to us. So, love, keep your promises to me. You know what they are. Where we are put together for ever and ever is up to you. We loved Heather, both of us. I would love Charmaine to be with Heather and Rena. Remains later identified as those of Swiss student Therese Siegenthaler, 21, Shirley Hubbard, 15, Lucy Partington, 21, Juanita Mott, 18, and 15-year-old Carole Ann “Caz” Cooper were subsequently found in the basement of the house. The remains of Lynda Gough, 19, were uncovered in the bathroom area. Immediately after this court appearance, Fred was re-arrested on suspicion of murdering Anne McFall, whose body had been found on 7 June but had not been officially identified until this date; he was formally charged with McFall's murder on 3 July, appearing in court the following morning. [172] Diversion of culpability [ edit ]

Rose gave no outward reaction as the guilty verdict was delivered, said Summers. “I think she probably knew what was coming.” When Gough's dismembered body was found, the jaw was completely wrapped in adhesive and surgical tape to silence her screams, and two small tubes had likely been inserted into her nasal cavities to allow breathing. Long sections of string and sections of knotted fabric were also discovered with her remains. Gough had likely been suspended from holes carved into the wooden beams supporting the ceiling of the cellar Fred later admitted he had devised for the purpose of suspending his victims' bodies, and likely died of either strangulation or suffocation. [112] Her dismembered body, missing five cervical vertebrae, the patellae and numerous finger bones, was buried in an inspection pit beneath the garage. [113] When each of the West children reached the age of seven, they were assigned numerous daily chores to perform in the house; they were rarely allowed to socialise outside the household perimeters unless either of their parents were present, and had to follow strict guidelines imposed by their parents, with severe punishment—almost always physical—being the penalty for not conforming to the household rules. The children feared being the recipients of violence from their parents, the vast majority inflicted by Rose, occasionally by Fred. The violence was sometimes irrational, indiscreet or just inflicted for Rose's gratification; she always took great care not to mark the children's faces or hands in these assaults. Firstly Heather, and subsequently her younger brother Stephen (born 1973), ran away from home; both returned to Cromwell Street after several weeks of alternately sleeping rough or staying with friends, and both were beaten when they returned home. [86] Between 1972 and 1992, the West children were admitted to the Accident and Emergency department of local hospitals 31 times; the injuries were explained as accidents and never reported to social services. [87] [88]This case against the Wests collapsed when Anna Marie and her 13-year-old half-sister Louise declined to testify at the court case on 7 June 1993, with the child rape victim expressing her desire to return to her family, and Anna Marie choosing to withdraw her statement because of her noting the misery of her younger siblings, and her fear of Rose's vindictiveness. [150] Shortly thereafter, Anna Marie spoke further with DC Savage, further emphasising that her mother Rena and half-sister Charmaine were also missing. Rose “presents [as] and in many ways is just very ordinary,” he said. “She would chat away about sewing or whatever, talk about the kids and it’s all very mundane and twee and having a laugh.” But Goatley said he saw flashes of anger if the conversation strayed into more difficult territory. 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. Heather's disappearance, Fred and Rose's constantly changing stories about their daughter's whereabouts, plus their allusions to foul play, ultimately led to police enquiries as to Heather's whereabouts. These enquiries culminated in a search warrant being issued to excavate the Wests' garden in February 1994. [141] [142] Arrest [ edit ] 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]

November: Carol Ann Cooper, (15). Cooper had been placed into care following her mother's death in 1966. She was last seen alive by her boyfriend in the suburb of Warndon boarding a bus to her grandmother's home. Fred referred to Cooper as "Scar Hand" in reference to a recent firework burn she had sustained. [217] Cooper was the final victim unearthed from the cellar. Her skull was bound with surgical tape and her dismembered limbs bound with cord and braiding cloth. [218] August: Alison Chambers, (16). Chambers had been placed into foster care at the age of 14, and had repeatedly absconded from Jordan's Brook House. She became acquainted with the Wests in mid-1979, and Fred later claimed to his solicitor that Chambers had died as a result of Rose becoming "too bloody vicious" with her. Her dismembered body, missing several bones and with a leather belt looped beneath her jaw and tied at the top of her head, was buried in the garden of Cromwell Street. This was the final murder where a definite sexual motive was established. [227] 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 ] Fred later claimed that he had been sexually abused by his mother at age 12, that he had engaged in acts of bestiality in his early teens, and that his belief that incest was normal stemmed from his father's incest with Fred's sisters. [10] Fred's youngest brother, Doug, dismissed these claims as fantasy. [11] Adolescence [ edit ]Police firmly believe the Wests were responsible for further unsolved murders and disappearances. They believed they committed ten murders between 1971 and 1979, at least seven of which were for sexual purposes. Following the rash of murders between 1973 and 1975, Fred and Rose are not known to have committed any murders until 1978. They committed one further murder in 1979, followed by an eight-year lull until they murdered their daughter in 1987. Police do not know of any further murders they committed before their 1994 arrest although Fred con