As police questioning continued – with Fred repeatedly changing his story and Rose denying any knowledge – investigators uncovered a femur in the garden. When a pathologist then found two more femurs under the patio, later identified as belonging to Heather, police knew they could have multiple murders on their hands.

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. 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 my book I have considered the questions of how and why Fred and Rose West developed into the monsters that together committed such dreadful acts. Those are questions that a court of law does not enquire into. It is perhaps a paradox that the sharp logic and economy of the law also must serve to curtail a wider discourse.

To many of these women, it became apparent Rose and her husband (who regularly participated in threesomes with his wife and her lovers) took a particular pleasure from seeking to take women beyond their sexual limits—typically via sessions involving bondage, as the Wests openly admitted to taking a particular pleasure from any form of sex involving a strong measure of dominance, pain and violence. To cater to these fetishes, they amassed a large collection of bondage and restraining devices, magazines and photographs—later expanding this collection to include videos depicting bestiality and graphic child sexual abuse. [80]

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 ] It had and continues to have an enormous impact on the people of Gloucester. It’s a cloud over the ancient city.” 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. That evening, having been formally charged with his daughter's murder and questioned as to why police had also discovered a third thigh bone, Fred confessed there were two further sets of human remains in his garden, and agreed to return to Cromwell Street to reveal the locations of both graves; one of whom he named as Shirley Robinson, whom he described as being a former tenant and a lesbian who had been heavily pregnant with his child at the time of her 1978 murder; [121] the other victim he described (incorrectly) as being "Shirley's mate", but either could not or would not elaborate as to her identity. Both sets of remains were discovered on 28 February, and Fred was charged with both murders two days later. [161] On 6 August 1992, the police searched the West household on the pretext of searching for stolen property. Although numerous objects of sexual paraphernalia—including 99 pornographic videos of both home-made and commercial nature—were discovered, police did not find the video depicting the rape of Fred's daughter. The 13-year-old made a full statement through a specially-trained solicitor, describing her father's actions, the fact the sexual abuse had begun when she was 11, and that her mother had been casually indifferent to her plight. All the children in the household were placed in foster care the following day. [40] Medical examinations revealed evidence of physical and sexual abuse. [n 4]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] Her trial at Winchester Crown Court began on 3 October 1995. She was tried before Mr Justice Mantell. [180] April: Juanita Mott, (18). Mott had been a former lodger at 25 Cromwell Street, but was living with a family friend in Newent when she disappeared. Mott is believed to have been abducted by the Wests as she hitchhiked along the B4215. In his subsequent confessions to police, Fred would refer to Mott as "the girl from Newent". [224]

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. Over the following 17 months, four further victims between the ages of 15 and 21 suffered a similar fate to that endured by Gough and Cooper, although the disarticulation conducted upon each successive victim, plus the paraphernalia discovered in each shallow grave, suggests each victim was likely subjected to greater abuse and torture than those previously murdered. [115] Any ordinary man would have given the child some ice cream, but instead he smashed her round the head with his hand ... He was a violent and sadistic bastard who enjoyed beating up women and kids.They’d both been subjected to incest, and they both had abused as well, so when they both met it was the worst possible combination,” she said.