Serial Killer Fred West’s ‘matter of fact’ confession to stunned police officers sparked an investigation into the most sickening and depraved crimes in UK history
It’s been over 30 years since Fred and Rose West were arrested at their family home in Cromwell Street, Gloucester, where they raped, tortured and murdered girls and young women for their sexual gratification.
At 25 Cromwell Street, the serial killers buried the bodies of most of their victims. Human remains were discovered in the basement of their Gloucester Home as well as at Fingerpost and Letterbox fields in Gloucestershire.
Fred was charged with 12 murders and in 1995 Rose, then aged 42, was convicted of ten. She will remain in prison until she dies and has revealed nothing about the case over the years.
Fred hung himself aged 53 before he could stand trial, at HMP Birmingham. Many believed he took many secrets of more killings to his grave.
However it was his shocking confession that led to police discovering the full extent of the horrors that occurred at the West Family home.
The admission that he strangled his daughter Heather would lead police officers to find the bodies of nine girls and young women, including West’s daughter, buried in the cellar or garden.
Most of the couple’s victims were killed in the 1970s but it was only over a decade later that “the whole dreadful, murky business started to unravel,” says Leo Goatley, the solicitor who represented Rose from 1992 until 2004.
The lead-up to police making the gruesome discovery came after a tip-off about Fred’s eldest daughter Heather, who had not been seen since June 19, 1987.
In August 1992 the couple’s remaining five children were taken into care because of child abuse allegations against their parents. Over the course of months, social workers began to take note of the children’s repeated mentions of the “family joke” that their sister was buried under the patio.
Gloucestershire Police were informed. Det Con Hazel Savage, took the social workers concerns that this might be more than a family joke seriously and convinced senior officers to investigate.
On February 23 1994, police obtained a warrant for 25 Cromwell Street and began digging up the garden. Fred was interviewed at Bearland Police station on February 25 where he told police he had strangled Heather.
He told officers: “I brought my two hands up and grabbed her around the neck. But I didn’t grab her round the neck to choke her or nothing. All I was going to do was to grab her round the neck and shake her.”
He added that he knew he was too strong: “I can undo three-quarter nuts without a spanner.”
The confession was disturbingly matter of fact. He said that later, when she had gone cold, he dismembered her body by cutting off her legs and her head with an ice saw in the bathroom.
When asked by police where Heather’s remains would be found in the garden, he said: “I think the main bulk of her body is in the middle and her legs are on the side. The head is at the foot.”
He also added: ”I’ve had to live with this for eight years. It’s not easy, I tell you, because I loved Heather.”
He and Rose were arrested that day and the following morning, Heather’s remains were discovered.
Within days officers also found the remains of Shirley Anne Robinson and Alison Chambers .
Over the next few months the remains of ten victims were found at the House of Horrors.
Fred’s daughter Charmaine was found found under the kitchen floor at 25 Midland Road and twelfth victim Anne McFall and foetus was found at Fingerpost field.
Terry Moore, who was Deputy Senior investigative officer on the case, said of Fred’s confession: “To my way of thinking, anybody who is suspected of killing their own daughter; it’s a horrific crime and to be doing it and admitting to doing it without any compassion whatsoever led me to believe it’s not just a straightforward murder case.”
Fred’s solicitor Howard Ogden said the confession was so horrifying that it led to an extraordinary moment between him as a defense lawyer and the police team.
“But it was so chilling that we all rose, the lead detective and the defense lawyer and went out to a tiny cupboard that doubled as a tea room and here we were, four complete strangers and we actually had a silent group hug,” he said.
Fred was interviewed 161 times by the police after his arrest in February 1994.
Fred and Rose were convicted for the murders of Rena West, Ann McFall, Charmaine West, Lynda Gough, Carol Ann Cooper, Lucy Partington, Therese Siegenthaler, Shirley Hubbard, Juanita Mott, Shirley Robinson, Alison Chambers and Heather West.
Rose resides in HM Prison New Hall, in Flockton, West Yorks.
