Rose West now: Everything we know about serial killer’s life in prison ...Middle East

Rosemary West’s story is one that shocked and horrified a nation as the depraved detail of her and her husband Fred’s crimes emerged.

She remains among the UK’s most infamous and prolific serial killers, convicted of 10 murders including that of her own daughter.

Fred West was convicted of two murders – a total of 12 victims for the couple.

A new three-part documentary series Fred & Rose West: A British Horror Story, released by Netflix on Wednesday 14 May, sheds new light on the lives and crimes of the notorious murderers.

With exclusive access to previously unseen police video and unheard audio recordings, the series shows how Gloucestershire Police were able to unearth the remains of the West’s victims.

While testimony from family members of some of the victims gives an insight into the pain and torment they went through for decades.

Fred West died by suicide on 1 January 1995, while on remand in prison awaiting trial. But his wife is still alive.

We take a look at her life and crimes.

Rose West is now 71. Her late husband Fred, would have been 83. They had met at a bus stop in Cheltenham in 1969, when she was 15 and he was 27.

Although repulsed by his scruffy, dirty appearance, the teenager known then as Rosemary Letts was flattered by the attention he gave her. He asked her out on a date on a number of occasions but she refused.

When he visited her in the bread shop where she worked in Cheltenham, she eventually relented and soon became a regular visitor to the caravan he lived in with his daughter Anne Marie and stepdaughter Charmaine from his first wife Catherine “Rena” Costello. Within weeks, she had left her job at the shop and become a nanny for the children.

Rose’s parents disapproved of the relationship and forbade her from seeing him but she continued, and so social services were contacted and she was placed in a home.

At the age of 16, she left the home and returned first to her parents and then to Fred West, who was by then living at a flat in Cheltenham. By October 1970, Rose had given birth to her first child, Heather.

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Two months later, Fred was imprisoned for theft,and during his time in jail Rose, then aged 17, was left in charge of the three girls. She is said to have subjected her stepdaughters to physical and emotional abuse and eventually killed eight-year-old Charmaine shortly before Fred was released from prison.

Her body was initially stowed in a coal cellar until Fred had returned home and he buried it in the yard of their Midland Road flat.

It was to be the first of the 10 murders, for which Rose West was convicted.

In January 1972, the couple married at Gloucester Register Office. No family or friends attended.

Several months later, they moved to a three-storey house at 25 Cromwell Street, Gloucester, which they rented from the council before later buying.

The upper-floor rooms were converted into bedsits and rented out while the family lived downstairs.

While living there, Rose had seven further children between 1972 and 1983, five daughters and two sons. After the birth of her second child, she began work as a prostitute at the family home. At least three of her children are understood to have been conceived by clients.

The road in Gloucester the family moved to in 1972 (Photo: Netflix)

Where is Rose West now, and what do we know about her life?

On 3 October 1995, Rose West stood trial at Winchester Crown Court on 10 counts of murder, all of which she denied.

She maintained she had never met at least six of the victims and said she loved her daughter Heather.

However, it emerged during the trial that her husband could not have killed Charmaine as he was in prison at the time of her death. Surviving witnesses also testified to say Rose had been the more aggressive perpetrator of the pair.

After seven weeks of evidence, the jury convicted her of all 10 murders and she was sentenced to life in prison without parole – later changed by the Lord Chief Justice to a minimum of 25 years. In 1997, then Home Secretary Jack Straw placed a whole-life tariff on her sentence.

She appealed against her convictions claiming Fred had committed the murders singlehandedly and she had also been a victim. However, in March 1997, the Court of Appeal refused to consider her application for an appeal.

She was initially imprisoned at HMP Bronzefield in Ashford, Middlesex, before being transferred to Low Newton in County Durham

While there, it was reported she had become friendly with child killer Myra Hindley, although the latter denied this claim.

In 2019, West was moved to HMP New Hall in West Yorkshire.

In an interview, her former lawyer Leo Goatley told Cosmopolitan magazine: “Initially, she was on a wing, and they were all lifers, so they felt fairly settled and had routines.

“They then brought younger women prisoners in, who were in for 12 months, 18 months, who were pretty wild and were out for fights to show who had the bragging rights, this sort of thing.

“”Some people were trying to set fire to Rose’s cell and she had problems in the kitchen.”

He said he would not be surprised if she was a model prisoner, enjoying classes such as sewing, but one who could stand up for herself if confronted.

What did Fred and Rose West do?

While living at Cromwell Street, Rose and Fred physically and sexually abused their children.

In June 1987, the couple killed their 16-year-old daughter Heather, fearing she would disclose what was going on at house, and buried her body under the patio. It was to a be threat used against their remaining children and one which would eventually lead to the couple’s downfall.

Fred was arrested in August 1992 after being accused of sexually assaulting one of his daughters. During the investigation, it became apparent Heather had not been seen since 1987.

When the West’s children were interviewed by police, they said their father had told them if they told anyone about what happened at Cromwell Street they would be “buried under the patio” like their sister Heather.

The case against Fred West eventually collapsed when witnesses declined to testify, but police continued to investigate the disappearance of Heather.

Detectives then discovered that Fred’s stepdaughter Charmaine and first wife Rena were also missing.

In February 1994, Gloucester Police acquired a warrant to search the house at Cromwell Road.

The following day Fred West admitted killing his daughter Heather but said his wife had no part in it. He offered to show officers where she was buried in the back garden at the family home.

Over the course of the next few weeks, police found the remains of nine women including Heather in the garden and under parts of the property at Cromwell Street.

These included former lodgers and women who had been reported missing after hitch-hiking or travelling in the area.

The body of Charmaine was found in the grounds at the Midland Road, where the Wests had lived. Catherine Costello’s remains were discovered in a field in Kempley in the Forest of Dean near his original home.

Also found there was the body of 18-year-old Ann McFall, believed to be Fred West’s first victim. She had been a nanny to his daughter Anne Marie and stepdaughter Charmaine through his marriage to Rena. She was pregnant with his child.

Fred West originally confessed to all 12 murders and said his wife was not involved. But he withdrew this confession while in prison on remand, claiming Rose was culpable, when she refused to have any further contact with him.

A timeline of the deaths of the 12 victims

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