All language subtitles for Worlds.Most.Notorious.Killers.S01E01.720p.WEBRip.x264-GalaxyTV

**

-Police began excavating here

when information was passed
to them by a teenage girl.

She told them clues to the
disappearance of Heather West

were lying
beneath the paving stones.

-Heather, the first child
of Fred West,

has been missing since 1987.

-Fred was very jolly,
very amenable.

-What kind of a father
murders his daughter?

**

-It was a story
that was worth investigating.

You never know
where it might end up,

and boy, did we not know
where it was gonna end up.

-I thought we were looking for
the body of one girl.

-The bodies just kept on coming.

First there was two,
then there were five.

-These girls were tortured,
raped, and destroyed.

-I had to explain to the police
that this man is a psychopath.

This is a man for whom
other people don't exist.

-She waved to me as I left,

and that was the last
I saw of her.

**

-Suddenly, the world's media
descended on Cromwell Street,

hundreds and hundreds of them.

-25 Cromwell Street
became known

as the House of Horrors
all over the world.

-Who are these girls
that he's killed?

How did they come
to Cromwell Street?

-Most girls would have run,
but Rose didn't.

-They were married,
husband and wife.

How could it be possible
that these things were happening

without Rose knowing
what was going on in the house?

-She must have known.

She must have been part of this.

-Police were convinced
they should charge them both.

-Married couple accused
of being serial killers --

Britain's worst serial killers.

-What are you talking about,
some fantastic horror story?

Well, yes.

**

[ Camera shutter clicking ]

**

**

**

-You'll find Gloucester
on the map

about 100 miles west of London,
on the edge of an area

of outstanding natural beauty
called the Cotswolds.

The Cotswolds
is the fashionable area,

Gloucester very much
the working-class area.

**

-Cromwell Street
is a little road

really close to the center
of Gloucester.

There was nothing posh
about Cromwell Street.

It was exactly the opposite --
quite small, quite narrow,

had a very itinerant population.

People were coming
and going all the time.

25 Cromwell Street started life
as a derelict building.

Fred West took it on and
proceeded to "do it up,"

which really meant
making it habitable,

and in the early days,
Fred and Rose

let out the top floor
to lodgers.

All manner of strange people
came and went.

There were hippies.
There were runaways.

There were all kinds of people.

**

[ Bell tolling ]

**

-I moved into Cromwell Street
when I was 16.

I was a little bit of a rebel.

I lost my dad two years previous
to leaving home,

and I just decided
I could make it out on my own.

I was gonna be independent
at last,

and nobody could find me.

It was a start of a new life.

**

When I moved into
Cromwell Street,

Fred was very jolly,
very amenable.

He was always
a very happy person.

Rose was very pleasant,

but she was a little bit
aloof with me.

If she didn't want
to speak to you,

she would just turn
her back on you and walk away.

Fred and Rose's relationship

was absolutely besotted
with each other.

They couldn't pass each other

without a little peck
on the cheek.

They smiled
at each other constantly.

**

The house was very homely,
very welcoming.

Rose was an avid cleaner,
so the house always smelled

of a disinfectant-type,
bleach-type smell.

As you go through
the front door,

to the left was Rose's room.

To the right
was the living room.

Upstairs,
there was another floor.

Straight up again
was my room to the right,

which faced out
to the front of the property.

I seemed to hit it off
with Rose.

Eventually,
we got to the stages of,

"Could you babysit
the children?"

Which, yeah, yeah,
that was fine by me.

There was Anna Marie.

There was Heather.

There was Mae,
and there was Stephen.

Heather was 8
and a bubbly girl, up for fun.

We'd either
watch a movie on the TV

or go out and play
our silly little games.

It was a happy family.

**

**

[ Children shouting
indistinctly ]

-Quite by chance,
some of the West children

were outside playing
in Cromwell Street...

and a policeman
is walking down Cromwell Street

wheeling his bicycle.

And the girls turn
to the policeman

and say, "What would you do

if a father was abusing
one of his daughters?"

And the policeman
reports the conversation...

and began a chain of events
that was eventually to lead

the police to arrest Fred
for...raping his daughter.

And at that point,
Gloucestershire Social Services

took the five youngest
West children into care.

**

When that rape charge
comes to trial...

the daughter in question
refuses steadfastly

to give evidence
against her father,

and the judge in the case
has no alternative

but to throw out the charges.

But the five children
remain in care,

and while they're in care,
the social workers come across

what they described
as a family joke.

The younger children said,
"Well, Fred used to threaten us.

You know, if you're naughty,
you'll end up like Heather

under the patio
in the back garden."

**

**

-The family joke
kept cropping up,

so naturally, the police decided
they would have to follow it up.

**

-Gloucester police discovered
that Heather,

the first child
of Fred and Rose,

has been missing since 1987
at the age of 16.

There was
no National Insurance number.

There were no medical records.

There was nothing.

**

**

**

-The door was opened
by Rose West.

"We have a search warrant
to search the garden

for the body
of your daughter Heather."

Rose's reply was,
"Well, you can fuck off."

She had dark hair.
She wore large spectacles.

She was slightly overweight,

and she was wearing
a negligee and bedroom slippers.

Bearing in mind,
this is early afternoon.

We walked through
to the back garden,

and when I say garden, it was
more a really large patio.

**

[ Upbeat music plays ]

-* From the Cotswolds
to the...*

[ Singing indistinctly ]

**

-I was the news editor
of a local radio station...

Severn Sound.

It was a radio station
that people were fond of

because they like to know
what's going on locally.

My relationship with
the Gloucester police

was probably one of the best
in the country

as a journalist.

I had the sort of contacts
that people would die for.

[ Pager beeping ]

I'd not long
finished reading the news

and my pager went off.

It said,
"Police are searching for

a missing girl
at Cromwell Street."

**

I went straight down
to see what was going on.

I was skeptical about what
they were gonna find there

because it just seemed
a happy place.

I went to his
next-door neighbor.

"Well, come on in," he says.

"Have a cup of tea."

And I said to him,
"They're looking for

a young girl who's gone missing
from next door.

They think the person there
may have done it."

And that's when I first
found out his name was Fred.

He said, "Fred?
No, he's a lovely man.

Wouldn't harm a fly."

-Fred was well-liked
in Cromwell Street.

A lot of people thought
he was a good lad.

He was the odd-job man
they would turn to

if they needed
something doing at home.

-It's 8:00.

Good morning, I'm Gordon...

I went back
and put a bulletin together.

It was obviously
the lead story...

and as soon
as that bulletin went out,

the newsroom phone
wouldn't stop ringing

with the local paper saying,
"How do you know this?"

I had no idea this would become
the biggest story of my career.

[ Telephones ringing ]

**

-The general feeling was

if you're gonna bury
a body there,

it's more likely to be
at the back of the garden

than towards the house,

so we started lifting slabs
from the back.

Rose was inside the house.

She would come and go,
watching what we were doing.

Then by about 4:30,
it got dark.

A police guard was put on
the premises, and we went home.

**

-Fred West is about
a dozen miles away working.

He doesn't actually arrive
back in Cromwell Street

until after 6:00,

and then agrees
to go to the police station.

Police made Fred aware
of the family joke

about Heather being
under the patio,

and he said, "That's nonsense.

Surely, you don't believe that."

All arrogance.

-His answer was,
"Well, she just cleared off."

She'd gone to work
in a holiday camp

in another part of the country.

She didn't leave
any forwarding address.

That's the sort of child
she was, he said.

-Fred returns home
to Cromwell Street.

There's been no charge.

They found nothing.

**

[ Jackhammer whirring ]

-When we returned
the following morning,

we carried on lifting up slabs

and cutting through
the concrete.

Fred and Rose were both around.

We could see them
looking through the windows.

They were extremely interested
in what was going on.

**

-My name is Steve Scott.

My news editor and I agreed

that it was a story
that was worth investigating.

You never know
where it might end up,

and boy, did we not know
where it was gonna end up.

**

Police began excavating here

when information was passed
to them by a teenage girl.

She told them clues to the
disappearance of Heather West

were lying
beneath the paving stones.

-On that Friday,
while we were digging,

two detectives came down
to the house,

and a short while later,
they left with Fred.

We were then told
that Fred had been arrested.

-Fred was a petty thief.

Small-time informant,
well-known to the police.

Packs what he calls
his prison kit,

which includes a cigarette tin
with roll-ups in it.

**

-My name is Howard Ogden.

I represent people
who have been arrested

and are in police custody.

My office had been in touch
and said,

"Fred West has been arrested
in connection with

the suspected murder of Heather,
his daughter."

So I rang through
to the custody suite,

and Fred was put on the phone.

And I gave him what would be
the time-honored,

traditional
defense lawyer's advice --

to shut the fuck up
until I get there.

To which he replied, "Well,
I've already admitted it."

-I think when Fred
was watching us,

he realized that we weren't

just gonna dig a hole
here and there and then go away,

so he admitted
to killing his daughter.

**

-Fred confessed that
he killed Heather in a rage...

and buried her
in the back garden.

**

-Everyone was absolutely amazed.

-What kind of a father
murders his daughter?

That's just sick.

-When Rose was told that Fred

had confessed
to killing Heather,

she said Fred had told her that
Heather had run away from home.

She said, "If I get my hands
on him, I'll kill him."

**

**

-The police smuggled him
into the garden

disguised in a boiler suit

to avoid
the attentions of the press,

who by now had become aware
that something was going on.

**

-Fred arrives
handcuffed to a police officer,

and he says, "You're digging
in the wrong place.

You need to dig
in this location."

Fred was more relaxed
than I would have expected.

He didn't seem to be
particularly worried,

and he was quite happy
to indicate

where we would find
the body of Heather.

**

We were expecting to just simply
dig down there and find her,

but we didn't find her.

And it was very frustrating
because we thought,

"Well, is he telling the truth?"

[ Siren wails in distance ]

**

-By the middle of Saturday,
Fred changes his story again.

"No, no, I was lying.

Heather's actually in Bahrain,

and she's working
for a drug dealer.

And she has a Mercedes."

It's a wonderful
piece of fantasy,

but nevertheless,
he maintains it.

And so he says,
"No, nothing to do with me.

I didn't do anything."

**

-Whatever Fred was saying
could not be relied upon.

**

And so we had to find a body.

We had eight members
of the team lifting slabs

and cutting down through the
concrete in different places.

The first thing you know about

when you're getting
close to a body is the smell --

a very, very strong,
acrid smell

that comes from
the decomposing flesh.

Once you smelt it,
you never forget it.

Finally, one of the team
found a bone sticking out...

right at the top of the soil,
just underneath the slab.

**

So at that point, they called in
the home office pathologist,

Bernard Knight, and he said,

"Yes, that is definitely a
human bone from a young female."

**

The next thing we found
was a human skull.

We then found human leg bones...

and the rest of the bones were
scattered around in that area.

It was clear that the body
had been dismembered.

The whole team
were very shocked.

-Police have found
Heather's body...

but there's an issue.

-Professor Bernard Knight
knew what he was talking about.

He said,
"We are either looking at

the world's first
three-legged woman,

or there's another body
around here somewhere."

I thought we were looking for
the body of one girl.

I had no idea it was gonna turn
into a mass-murder inquiry.

**

**

--The remains taken away earlier

are now being examined
by a pathologist.

Forces across the country
have been alerted

to check
their missing-persons files,

as detectives refuse to rule out
the possibility

of finding more bodies.

**

-The initial interview with Fred
will never be forgotten.

You couldn't have made it up.

**

**

**

-There was West
describing killing his daughter

in the most matter-of-fact,
banal way.

"Oh, I think I might have used
that knife from the --

I'm not sure I did.

Anyway, what I did was I,

you know, disarticulated
her legs and cut off her head."

Wasn't said with any...venom.

-You immediately saw darkness
in Fred because of his eyes.

They were emotionless.

The account that he gave that
it was all okay, really,

because he had closed her eyes,
a nice, fatherly thing to do

if you're going to
murder your daughter.

As a defense lawyer, you do
your utmost not to be fazed,

not to show it on your face,

but nonetheless,
it was utterly chilling.

**

-I never thought that Fred
was capable of anything

as heinous as what he'd done
with Heather.

It hurts.

**

-One of the most
remarkable moments

is when he's told
they found three thigh bones.

"Now, Heather didn't have
three legs, did she, Fred?

Who's the other body?"

-"Oh. Shirley."

**

-"Shirley who?"

-"Shirley Robinson,"

the one that caused
all the trouble."

**

**

-Shirley was a lodger
in the house.

She was in the room
below myself.

I think she was about 18, 19.

She was a beautiful person.

**

Had many a nights up giggling
like two little schoolgirls,

laughing about makeup, music,
things that we liked.

**

She was my best friend.

**

-My friend's dad had
two houses on Cromwell Street,

so I practically grew up
on Cromwell Street.

I'd always be there.

I met Shirley probably as soon
as she came on the street.

She was about
three years older than me,

and I just had a crush on her.

She was lovely.

I can remember asking friends
on the street,

"Have you seen Shirley lately?"

And they said, "No.

We just thought she'd moved on."

-Shirley was in some ways
Rose's double.

She was the same height,
the same build.

She had the same haircut.

I'd been there
about eight months,

and one day, I said to Shirley,

"Oh, put a bit of weight
on there, girl."

She said, "No,
I'm actually pregnant."

I went, "Okay," and it came
about in a conversation that...

the dad was Fred.

-Fred's explanation for Shirley
causing all the problems

was that she'd
fallen in love with him

and had photographs of
the two of them taken together.

[ Camera shutter clicks ]

And she thought she was gonna be
the next Mrs. West,

and, well,
couldn't let that happen.

"I'm devoted to Rose.
I really am."

And so she had to be terminated.

**

-Every day, more details emerge
about the bodies

found under the patio
at number 25 Cromwell Street.

This is the face
of the second woman named,

18-year-old Shirley Robinson,

a lodger at the house
and heavily pregnant.

-When I heard
they'd found Shirley, as well,

I was absolutely devastated.

It was like being hit by a bus.

**

-When we found Shirley's body,

we found the remains
of the unborn child, as well.

**

The baby had been removed

and dismembered
prior to being buried.

**

I remember one of my colleagues
made the comment,

"What a bastard he must be,"

because that took it to
a different level of depravity

to do something like that,

especially when
this is your own child.

**

-Rose was separated from Fred,
of course, by this point,

and she'd been
interviewed repeatedly.

When Rose was questioned
about Shirley Robinson,

she said she didn't know
anything about her.

Cromwell Street
had a lot of lodgers,

and Rose's persistence
was always that,

"Well, there were so many people
coming and going,

I didn't know
who they all were."

**

Fred continued
to be interviewed.

And then he says,
"Well, there's, um,

there's a -- there's a third
body in the garden."

Shirley's mate.

**

-Fred would describe her

as a friend of Shirley
who came looking for her.

-I was gobsmacked.

The bodies just kept on coming.

First, there was two,
then there were three.

We just kept thinking,
"When will this ever stop?"

**

-The moment we discovered
that it wasn't just Heather West

that was buried
under that patio,

the world's media descended
on Cromwell Street,

hundreds and hundreds of them,
and I'm not exaggerating.

[ Camera shutters clicking ]

The tabloid press in the UK in
the '90s were all very powerful.

There was this
cutthroat atmosphere

that operated between them.

They would be out
to get the biggest story,

the biggest front page.

They would do anything
to make sure

that their paper
sold more than the others.

The competition involved
great journalism,

but sometimes,
it involved money.

-Anyone who had any connection
with the Wests

instantly became fodder
for the tabloid press.

"We will bid more for your story
if you'd only tell us,

or we'll pay you more
than they'll pay you."

It became a feeding frenzy.

-You could quite easily
make £10,000.

Whether it was true or not,

it doesn't really matter
if you're a tabloid newspaper.

It was more about
sensationalizing a story.

The eyes of the world
were on Gloucester.

**

-This was a huge case
for a small police force.

What was the truth,
and what was a story?

The police were trying
to slow down the investigation

because their instinct was,
"This is going too quickly.

We're gonna miss something.
We've got to be careful.

We've got to get this right."

**

-My name is Paul Britton.

In 1994, I was the head of

the Regional Forensic
Psychology Service.

Gloucestershire Police
wanted my help

to make sense
of what had happened,

and in particular,
to help them to talk to,

to unravel, Mr. Fred West.

They had a man
who was affable, friendly,

who liked being with them,

and that did not sit easily with
the remains of three young women

that had been dismembered
and decapitated.

**

I was able to build
a clearer picture of Fred

from his background.

If I'm psychologically
profiling someone,

I have a number
of questions that are key.

The first question,
"Who are you?"

is usually the one that
the police are interested in.

The second one,
"How did you come to be there?"

helps me to give the police
a strategy

of how this person
functions and operates.

**

**

-Fred was born in 1941.

His father was a farm laborer,

and his mother
had been a live-in maid.

His father got up early
to milk the cows, 4:30.

It was a house
used to hard work, manual labor.

They were very much
living in the past.

**

-Frederick West
in his early days

was exposed to several factors

which would definitely
feed into his later choices.

He watched his mother,
for example,

slaughtering farmyard animals.

He knew that his father had a
disregard for women in general.

They were there
to be used as needed.

West was introduced to sex
at a very early age.

It was almost a rite of passage.

Fred said he was taken to bed
by his mother

pretty much as soon as
he'd reached puberty.

**

That's very hard to imagine
in the modern world.

It instilled in him the sense
that a mother

was entitled
to break in her children,

and a father
was equally entitled

to break in his daughters.

**

**

-The police wanted to get
as much information

while Fred was talking
as they possibly could

because they didn't know
when he would stop.

**

-Fred had to be guarded 24/7.

Sooner or later,
my number came up,

and I was asked to go in
for eight hours.

It was quite
a surreal experience.

We watched "The Dam Busters"
and "The Great Escape."

He was getting really worked up
whether Steve McQueen

would actually jump the fence
on his motorbike.

At times, I had to pinch myself.

On the one hand,
he's a sadistic murderer.

On the other hand,

he's a chappie who can
sit with me for eight hours

playing dominoes
and enjoying watching films.

**

-Fred could entice you
into this spell that he wove.

If you look at
any pictures of West

with a prison officer
or a policeman,

they're often laughing.

-I had to remind the police
that this man is a psychopath.

This is a man for whom
other people don't exist

in the real world.

They don't have feelings.

They don't have rights.

And then, the question
was asked of me,

"Well, why are these girls
buried in the garden?"

And my answer is, sadly,

because the house was already
full of other bodies.

**

-And tonight, a chilling
prediction from the man

leading the investigation.

-I have reason to believe

that there may be
other remains in the area,

but I am not in this position
at this time

to explain that further.

**

-Is it possible
there were more victims?

Inevitably...

their attention turned to
the cellar of Cromwell Street.

**

-One night,
I remember Fred said,

"Hey, come and have a look
at what I've done."

So off I went down the steps

into this very dark,
dank cellar.

It straightaway
put my hackles up.

It seemed to stretch
the whole of the house

and half the width of the house.

Fred said, "I've decorated
the cellar for the children."

He'd painted it.

He'd done graffiti of cowboys
and hearts on the walls.

There were some toys
in the corner, and it smelled.

It was damp. It was dark.

It was miserable.

**

And I went, "Lovely.

I really need to go up now
because I'm claustrophobic."

And that was my tour
of the cellar

that absolutely freaked me out.

**

-Fred was not stupid.

He knew that the game was up,

and it's important that if you
are accepting of the situation,

that you make sure that
those investigating are aware.

**

"I, Frederick West...

authorize my solicitor,
Howard Ogden,

to advise Superintendent Bennett
that I wish to admit

to a further
approx nine killings.

**

**

-When the Sunday Mirror
newspaper broke the story

of the number of victims
buried inside Cromwell Street,

they coined the phrase
"House of Horrors."

[ Camera shutter clicks ]

It was a perfect phrase.

It draws you into the story,

and as a result,
25 Cromwell Street

became known as the House
of Horrors all over the world.

**

-The feeling in Gloucester
was red-hot.

Everyone was talking about it --
in the pubs,

in the shops, everywhere.

-It's just
thoroughly disgusting.

I mean,
it's horrifying to think.

-Totally shocking,

especially around,
you know, in Gloucester.

I mean, you wouldn't
expect this to happen.

-The staff
on the local newspaper

are trying to convey the mood
of a community in disbelief.

-It was a shocker
for the police,

and it was a shocker
for everyone else on the story.

It was a complete revelation.

-Who are these girls
that he's killed?

How did they come
to Cromwell Street?

Did they go there voluntarily?

There were so many questions
that were flashing

through your mind
about what he was admitting.

You just didn't know
where to start, almost.

**

-He went into a sort of trance,
as if he was at a seance.

He wasn't connecting
with the world anymore.

He was in his own
bizarre universe,

and he would describe,
"Oh, that's the Worcester girl,"

or, "That's the Dutch girl."

-He said that the girls
were entering into his soul.

In Fred's sick mind,
he was concerned

that they shouldn't flee because
they were about to be revealed,

but Fred was specific
and accurate

as to where
the police should dig.

-The people who were there
that day with him

found it very creepy, indeed,
very eerie.

He was describing women
who he'd killed and buried

in the cellar of his own house.

-This is where these young girls
were destroyed.

West is able
to re-experience it.

People with him
will not understand

what it is that's happening.

There will be all sorts
of mystical interpretation,

but it's not that at all.

It's simply the wild animal
re-experiencing its kill.

**

**

-Human remains found
in the cellar

are carried away
for forensic examination,

in what many detectives believe
will turn into Britain's

biggest-ever
mass-murder investigation.

**

-When I was told what had
happened to some of the victims,

it made me sick to the stomach.

-When the bodies were found
in the basement,

they had all been dismembered.

There were nooses.

One skull had been wrapped
in thick duct tape.

Obviously, these girls
had been tortured.

**

In the basement,
there were low beams,

and in two of these beams,
some holes that had been drilled

about two,
three inches in diameter.

Fred said that he'd put a pole
through these holes,

and with one of the victims,
he had hung her upside down

with her ankles
tied to the pole.

-Initially, bondage and the
restraining of the victim

is something that had
a functional value.

If the girl is tied,
bound, incapacitated,

then you can do
what you want to her.

Later, it became something
that was important in itself.

The seeing of
the young woman's fear

becomes more valuable
for Fred West

than the sexual return itself.

You're looking at a profound,
sexually sadistic killer.

-Various bones were missing.

It's entirely possible
that Fred removed the kneecaps

to prevent the girls moving.

They weren't capable of walking.

He removed the fingers
and toes as trophies,

so you have the dreadful task
of assembling the bodies

of these young women,
who were all naked.

All had been abused.

All had been mutilated
and dismembered,

and all of whom
had been buried...

in what was supposed to be
a children's playroom.

-This was a real
modern-day horror story.

It was if you're gonna
keep finding bodies

and it's never gonna stop.

It just seemed to get worse
and worse.

**

-How could it be possible

that these things were happening
in this cramped,

little semi-detached house
in Gloucester,

without Rose knowing
what was going on in the house?

**

**

Rose is truculent, belligerent.

She says, "Oh,
Fred does what he wants.

I knew nothing about it.
I'm always busy.

I was pregnant all the time."

-She was quite in control
of herself,

quite sure of herself,

and at times,
quite verbally aggressive

in answering questions.

In fact,
a few times, she actually swore.

-The police decided
that they would put

she and Stephen and Mae,
her eldest surviving children,

in a safe house,
where she would remain

while Fred was continued
to be interviewed,

and they would bug
the safe house

to see
if she would admit anything.

**

-They had many, many hours
of taped conversations,

but there was nothing
that they could use.

-Apart from swearing profusely
almost all the time,

Rose did not admit
one single thing

in her period in the safe house.

-Police in Gloucester
searching 25 Cromwell Street

last night discovered yet
a further set of human remains.

They were found in the bathroom
area on the ground floor.

-The police have now established

there are nine victims
in Cromwell Street,

but Fred had confessed
to a further three victims.

Where were they?

-Detectives are now liaising
with colleagues

in the north and in Scotland,

trying to trace
Catherine Costello,

Mr. West's first wife.

Relatives haven't seen her
for 20 years.

**

-Before Fred met Rose,

he was living with his
first wife, Rena Costello,

and their two children,
Charmaine and Anna Marie,

and a young woman from Scotland
called Anne McFall,

who came to babysit
the children.

-Fred confessed to killing
both Rena and Anne McFall

and said he'd buried them
in fields near the village

where he was born
and raised in Much Marcle.

-Fred claims Charmaine is
in the back of the car asleep

when he kills her mother, Rena.

He doesn't know what to do
with this 8-year-old child,

and so he takes her back

to where they were then living
in Gloucester

and kills her and buries her.

**

-At Midland Road, they found
the body of Charmaine West,

a daughter
by Mr. West's first marriage.

**

-Earlier today,
the search switched

from inner-city Gloucester

to open fields
near the village of Much Marcle.

**

**

-This was very early
in the morning

in one of the most beautiful
places you can imagine,

with a church bell ringing,

with the daffodils
just coming out.

Yet there we were with Fred
and a whole load of officers

whose duty was gonna be to dig.

-Fred pointed out where he
thought he'd buried Rena at...

But of course, the landscape
had changed dramatically

in the intervening 20 years.

**

It took them 12 days
to find Rena West's remains.

It took them 55 days to find
the remains of Anne McFall,

and by the time they'd finished,

they dug out roughly the size
of an Olympic swimming pool.

-Yesterday evening,
they uncovered body number 12.

Detectives won't comment
on speculation

they belong to Anne McFall,
once Frederick West's nanny.

**

The home office pathologist,
Professor Bernard Knight,

will again visit Cromwell Street
this afternoon,

when he'll examine
the last set of remains

where they were discovered.

**

-Because West had given
very little detail

about who these girls were,

it was a very complex task
trying to identify them.

They, of course,
inquired of others' forces

about missing persons.

They inquired of Interpol,
at one point,

because Fred identified one of
the victims as "the Dutch girl."

There was literally
a flood of information.

-The inquiry was receiving calls
from all over the country,

so there was
a huge amount of work

with all these names coming up.

-One of the people
that the police turned to

was Dr. David Whittaker,
a forensic expert on dentistry,

and that became
very significant.

**

-Dr. Whittaker had devised
and perfected a process

whereby if he had
a skull with teeth

and a photograph of the victim,

then by superimposing
the photograph on the skull,

he could confirm their identity,
and also, he was able to tell

how old they were within a month
or so when they had died.

-The police have got
literally a mountain of remains,

and they've got photographs
of missing girls

and they've got skulls.

-Identifying these victims
took thousands of police hours.

**

[ Camera shutter clicks ]

-The first victim to be
identified was Lucy Partington,

a student who had gone missing
in 1973, just after Christmas.

-Over 100 police searched
the local parks and grounds.

There was a big poster campaign,

a big campaign
through the media,

but that came to nothing.

**

-It's 20 years now,
and clearly, if the last chapter

could be written, as it were,

it'd be slightly less of
a burden to have on our minds.

**

-Fred confessed that
he'd picked her up at a bus stop

the day after Boxing Day.

**

-It was a bitterly cold night.

She was waiting for a bus.

As it turned out,
the bus was 10 minutes late,

and she was given a lift,
she thought, home.

-Fred was convinced he was
a lothario, and he would brag.

He claimed that they'd had
a rampant two-month affair.

His explanation to the police

was that he didn't want Rose
to find out about it,

and so he killed her and
buried her in Cromwell Street.

**

**

During the investigation,
the police discovered

that West had gone
to A&E in Gloucester

about a week after
Lucy Partington had disappeared.

He had a severe cut
in his hand.

Now, I'm not in any doubt that
that cut was a result of him

dismembering
Lucy Partington's body.

He must have kept
Lucy Partington alive

for some time in the cellar
at Cromwell Street,

probably immobile.

May well been bound,
may well have been gagged.

It's almost too awful
to contemplate

what must have happened.

It is...horrifying beyond words.

**

**

-Carol Ann Cooper, picked up
on the side of the road,

killed in Cromwell Street.

Therese Siegenthaler
was hitchhiking across Europe.

Fred called her
"the Dutch girl."

In fact, she came
from Switzerland.

Shirley Hubbard
was the youngest at 15,

disappeared from a bus stop
in Worcester.

-We now have hitchhikers
identified as victims...

all buried while Fred
lived at Cromwell Street.

**

It becomes increasingly clear
that Fred has essentially

been...trawling the streets
of Gloucestershire

looking for victims.

Fred was effectively
a poacher on the loose,

looking for prey who could be
enticed back to Cromwell Street.

Many were people who were on
the edge, the fringe of society.

Not a lot of people
would come looking for them.

Some of the girls
who became victims

had been lodgers
in Cromwell Street.

-Juanita Mott,
another local girl.

We know that she went
to Cromwell Street.

She disappeared
off the face of the earth.

And Alison Chambers,

who Fred described
as a friend of Shirley Robinson,

who was, in fact, a lodger.

Linda Gough --
Linda got to an age

where she wanted
to spread her wings,

told her parents that
she was working as a nanny

with a nice family.

When her mother
went to check on her,

she saw Rose West wearing
some of Linda's clothes.

It's inconceivable
that these girls could have been

kept in that cellar
without Rose knowing.

It's just beyond belief
that she was not involved.

-There was always something to
weave all these girls together,

and that one thing...
was Fred and Rose.

**

**

-There were undoubtedly many
involved in the investigation

who wanted Rose arrested
and charged, as well.

-But Fred is still insisting

that Rose had nothing
to do with it

and it was all him.

-Everyone felt some empathy
for her, thinking,

"Oh, God, she's been living
with this monster,

and she didn't know."

And then after a while,

when we knew more details
about the murders,

people then began to conclude,

"Well, come on,
she must have known.

She must have been
part of this."

**

**

-I did a lot of research
on Rose's background.

It looked like
a very nice upbringing,

but behind closed doors,

there was
something very different.

Her father, Bill,
was an absolute monster.

This very, very violent, man --

every day,
in the most terrible ways.

He'd throw stuff at the wall.

**

Hit his wife, hit the children.

But Rose had a way of
making her father, Bill, laugh,

so she was spared all that

because he saw
something else in her.

**

And so from quite a young age,
he began to groom her.

She would just drop
her dressing gown,

walk around naked
in front of him.

Rose had been completely
sexualized at a very young age.

It was appalling.

**

In the year that Rose was 15,

her sister asked her to
look after the mobile caravan

where they would serve
teas and coffees

to people who were working
in the area.

And she'd off and disappeared

and was having sex
with these men.

-One of the things that Rose
learned as she was growing up

was that she could use sex
to manipulate men.

-Remember, she'd been abused.

She became a sexualized object

and will be marked with it
so that it will never go away.

**

-Fred and Rose met
at the bus stop in Cheltenham.

She said that
he had gunky teeth.

His teeth were slightly green,

but when he went
and sat next to her on the bus

and engaged her in conversation,

she said that he could have
charmed the bees from the trees.

-They met in 1969.

Fred was considerably older
than Rose.

He was 27.

She was 15.

They married 12 months later.

Went to live together
on a caravan site.

**

-Rose's upbringing
from a distance

looked different to Fred's,
but it really wasn't.

So when they met on the bus,

it was an accident
waiting to happen,

a perfect storm.

-Fred West empowered Rosemary.

We know that in her background,
sexual activity

was something that she used
to pacify men around her.

Frederick West lifted her
from that

so that he took her
from being an object

and made her a partner.

**

**

-It was Rose who had
the really voracious appetite

for aggressive, hardcore sex,
hardcore porn, hardcore BDSM,

and Fred was quite happy
watching her.

**

-Fred had drilled little holes,

peep holes, because Fred
was nothing if not a voyeur.

Fred took out adverts
in local publications

advertising Rose's services.

**

He liked to watch people
having sex...

and his favorite performer
was his wife, Rose.

-It was something that
she and Frederick shared.

This was her
pleasing him, as well.

She's giving him something that
he couldn't ordinarily expect.

He is a voyeur to what is
literally happening feet away,

and Rosemary is giving him this
as a gift.

-She didn't care if she had sex
with men or women.

If she wanted to do something,
he'd let her do it,

but it didn't make her a killer.

**

-During the investigation,
the police come across a case

which throws
a totally different light...

on Rosemary West.

**

**

[ Camera shutter clicks ]

-Caroline Owens knew the Wests

because she spent some time
with them as a lodger,

but she'd moved out.

And then, as luck would have it,
one day,

they saw Caroline hitchhiking
on the side of the highway.

**

Rose was in the car with Fred.

Caroline gets into the car.

It's a two-door car,

so Rose has to adjust the seat
and gets into the back with her.

Soon after that,
Rose starts fondling her.

Caroline objects to this.

Fred punches her in the face,

basically
knocks her unconscious.

When she comes round,
she's in Cromwell Street,

and then the nightmare
really begins.

**

-She was bound.

She was held captive.

She was beaten with
a leather belt in her genitalia.

She was raped by both
Frederick and Rosemary West.

And then,
one of the things happened

that changed everything
for the future --

she escaped.

**

**

[ Siren wails ]

-Caroline wasn't treated
particularly well by the police.

They probably had
the attitude of,

"Well, you're a girl
on your own.

It's your own fault."

And so she decided to go with
the lesser charges,

and she wouldn't have to give
the same degree of evidence.

-The Wests were convicted

basically of
an indecent assault,

and they were only fined £25.

-Which is just ludicrous.

The fact that Caroline Owens
escaped was a mistake --

a mistake that would
come back to haunt them.

**

**

-There is a progression in the
offending career of the Wests.

In the early stages,

Fred West would tend
to operate singly

when he was acquiring
his victim.

In the middle stages,

you see the abductions
from the street.

It's high-risk.

Of course,
with a woman in the car,

the potential hitchhiker
or person at the bus stop

would have
a different attitude.

We know that a woman in the car
means it's much safer, don't we?

How wrong could you be?

They get past that by taking
people into their own home,

the lodgers.

Then you move on.

As that begins to wane,
remember,

these are creative people.

These are people
who look for new experiences.

They turn their attention
to their own children.

**

-Fred's attitude
to his children,

especially the girls, is that
it was the father's right

to teach them
about everything in life,

and even that being sex.

-It's important here
to understand

that Rose isn't just
a bystander.

She's fully involved
in guiding what's happening,

so in a sense,
they are seeding the future.

**

**

-I was in my bedroom,

and it was
the middle of the night.

And I heard Heather screaming,

"Stop it, Daddy,
stop it, Daddy!"

I thought Heather was being
chastised for being naughty.

Then I was told...
by one of the children

that it was Fred's right to...

I think the words were
"break his daughters in."

It took me a little bit of time
to put two and two together,

and then I realized
what they were saying.

I always sit and think
to myself, "If I'd reported it,

would anything
ever have been done?"

And I always answer myself, "No.

I was a runaway.

Nobody would believe a runaway."

-It's thought that what happened
at Cromwell Street

was all behind the facade
of a family home,

but, of course,
it never was a family home.

It was a pleasure dome
for Rosemary and Frederick West.

-I couldn't listen
to that anymore,

so I made the decision to leave.

But I made the decision
not to tell them.

I was frightened to tell them,

so I left it until
the day that I was leaving.

And I said,
"My rent is due today,

but I'm actually moving out."

To which Rose said, "When?"

I said, "Now."

She seemed a bit shocked.

Shirley knew I was leaving.

I told her my decision.

I said to her, "I'll keep touch.

I'll come back
when I know baby's due."

And she waved to me as I left.

**

And that was the last
I saw of her.

**

[ Siren wails ]

-Fred West always said all along
that it was just him.

He didn't want
to implicate Rose.

He just wanted to keep her sweet

for when he came out
from serving his sentence.

-Fred had a notion that Rose

would come and visit him
in prison,

that she'd have a rather lovely
little cottage close by,

that she'd cook him
something nice,

and it would all be terribly
charming and lovey-dovey.

[ Siren wails ]

-Police still have
no direct evidence

linking Rose to the murders.

Nevertheless,
the case of Caroline Owens

and the joint abduction
and the joint abuse

by both Fred and Rose

convinced them that
they should charge them both.

They were gonna use that
as the lever

to convince the jury that
they were partners in crime.

"Look at
what had happened before,

and look at what happened now."

It was what was called in court
similar fact evidence.

**

**

-Frederick West, minutes away

from a reunion
with his wife, Rosemary,

is driven into
Gloucester Magistrates Court.

She arrived moments later,

this the first time
they'd seen each other

since they were arrested
four months ago.

**

-When I went into the court,
it was heaving with people.

Rose was brought
to the left-hand side,

and Fred came up the steps
on the other side.

I remember looking at her
and then looking at him,

and as soon as he approached
there, he looked at Rose,

sort of like...

to give her a sort of a --
and she went like that.

She literally dropped her head
and blanked him.

-Every single pair of eyes,

and there were a lot of them
in that courtroom,

was focused, laser-focused,
on her reaction.

That day was the moment
that we all realized

things were about to change.

**

[ Projector whirring ]

**

-West had seen them --
himself and Rosemary --

as a pair, as united.

But she is seeing this
as a lifeline.

"Maybe if I can help the world
to know that I was coerced,

that I was pushed into it,
maybe it will go better for me."

He knows now that all
of their previous fantasizing

is coming to nothing.

**

-Fred is mortified
and in a fit of pique,

goes back to the police station,
changes his story completely,

says it's no longer him.

He didn't do it.
He just buried the bodies.

Someone else did it,
and that someone else was Rose.

**

**

-There was a huge sense of
anticipation ahead of the trial.

These are a married couple,
Britain's worst serial killers,

and that they were gonna be
in the dock together,

fighting each other,

really was gonna be
the trial of the century.

-Detectives had
a long conversation

with the governor
of Winson Green Prison

and said
Fred is a prisoner at risk.

He will potentially try
and take his own life.

You must guard him very,
very carefully.

**

-Rose West was kept in

the segregation unit
at Holloway,

which means she was separated

from the rest
of the prison population.

She had a cell to herself...

about 8 or 9 foot long
and about 3 1/2, 4 foot wide.

It wasn't a luxurious cell by
any stretch of the imagination.

Rose liked spending money
at the canteen --

confectionary, biscuits,
that sort of thing.

She asked the governor
for permission to have

plastic knitting needles,
which was agreed,

although she had to
hand them out

every night before lights-out.

Child murders are seen
as the lowest of the low,

and other prisoners knew
that she was down there

and would call out,
shouting obscenities.

[ Indistinct shouting ]

**

-I was at my sister-in-law's
house for the New Year,

and, uh...I was sat there,
and pager went off.

[ Pager beeping ]

"Wow.

Fred's killed himself."

-Prison guards found West
hanging in his cell

at Winson Green
on New Year's Day.

Postmortem results have
confirmed Frederick West died

from a starvation of oxygen
to the brain caused by hanging.

-Everyone was absolutely livid.

The nationwas livid.

Fred had cheated justice,
which is a travesty.

-It was just shocking,

but then, that shock turned
to anger quite quickly

because how on earth can one of
the most high-profile prisoners

this country has ever had

be allowed to commit suicide
ahead of his trial?

-He hanged himself
and took the coward's way out.

**

-I got a phone call
from the duty governor

saying that Fred West
had committed suicide

at Winson Green Prison,

and he was coming down
to tell Rose.

And it was literally two steps
from my office

to Rose's cell door.

I opened her cell door, said,
"Rose, the duty governor's here.

He has something he needs
to speak to you about."

She was on her bed knitting.

He said, "Rose, I'm really sorry
to have to tell you this,

but Fred has committed suicide."

There was nothing from Rose --
no exclamation, no tears --

but there was just a glint,

a flicker of emotion
in her eyes,

almost pleasure
that Fred had died

because she now thought that,

"If Fred's dead,
they've got nothing on me."

-She was a psychopath.

There would be
that sense of relief.

"He's gone.

Thank goodness for that."

-Was Rose about
to get away with murder?

**

**

-With Fred now dead,
there is every suggestion

that any case against Rose
will just fall.

Fred was the vital cog,
and there's a real danger

that Rosemary West
will never come to trial.

-Legal experts say
any statements made by West

before he died are now
inadmissible as evidence.

According to
Rosemary West's solicitor,

the case against her,
which he claims was flimsy,

is now even flimsier.

**

-The police redouble
their efforts to make sure

that Rose
is not gonna escape justice.

And in particular,
they take the look at the death

of Charmaine,
Rena's daughter, in 1971.

**

-Fred always claimed
that he had killed Charmaine

after murdering
his first wife, Rena,

but the police knew
from Fred West's records

that he'd served another
term of imprisonment

for petty burglary in 1971...

roughly the time
that Charmaine was murdered.

**

Rose was Charmaine's
surrogate mother.

They didn't get on well.

When Charmaine disappeared,
the school that she went to

wanted to know
why she was no longer in class.

Rose told them that she'd gone
away with her mother, Rena.

So the focus now falls on Rose.

**

Police went back
to Dr. Whittaker

to see if they could get
a more accurate time frame

on when Charmaine
was actually killed.

They were able
to get a photograph

which was taken
when Charmaine was at school...

and he was able to superimpose

the photograph
that he'd obtained

on the skull
that the police had recovered.

Dr. Whittaker was able
to tell within a matter of days,

weeks maximum,
that, in his opinion,

Charmaine was alive
on a certain date

when Fred West was in prison,

and she was dead on a date when
Fred West was still in prison.

-It was a little bit
more complicated than that

because he gives them
a date in June

but with a two-week window
on either side,

so it's not
absolutely conclusive.

**

-Rose West stood trial
at the start of October 1995.

She was charged
with 10 murders --

all of the murders
at Cromwell Street,

plus the murder of Charmaine.

There were queues to get into

the public gallery
every morning.

It was, like,
the hottest ticket in town.

-There was a great deal
of apprehension

from the officers who had been
involved in the case

because it was almost a 50/50.

What would happen
if she was found innocent?

What a travesty that would be.

-The most telling testimony

came from Rose's
other stepdaughter, Anna Marie.

Anna Marie had to divulge
the most personal details

of the way that Fred and Rose

had sexually abused her
down the years,

and Caroline Owens
told her story of

how she bore the guilt
as the one who got away.

**

-It emerged that a number
of prosecution witnesses

took money from newspapers
to tell their story,

and of course, when you do that,

it's very easy
for the defense to say,

"Well, how are we supposed to
believe what you're saying?

Your story
has been embellished."

-This was a case
with Caroline Owens,

who had told
police investigators

that Rose was complicit,

and when it was put to her
that it was in her interests

that Rose West was found guilty,
she wept openly

and she said that
she was telling her story

because she wanted justice
for the women

and girls that had been killed
by Fred and Rose West.

**

I think everyone was surprised
that Rose took the stand.

The defense probably thought
they had to do something.

It was possibly
their last throw of the dice.

-Her evidence
really fell into two parts.

One, "I couldn't possibly
have done it

because I was pregnant
all the time,"

and two, "Fred never
told me anything."

-There were times when
she appeared to shed a tear,

but then you could see
that she'd actually

poked herself in the eye.

She was not a credible witness.

-As the trial of Rosemary West
on 10 charges of murder

reaches its final phase,

Mrs. West was brought
the quarter of a mile

from Winchester Prison
to the city's Crown Court

to hear the judge,
Mr. Justice Mantell,

summarize the evidence.

**

-There was a sense
among the media

that if the jury came back

and convicted Rose
of killing Charmaine,

there was every chance

that she would be convicted
of the other crimes.

**

And that was one of
the first verdicts returned.

She was found guilty
of Charmaine.

**

The following morning,

the jury came back
within half an hour

and convicted Rosemary West
of all the other crimes.

Mr. Justice Mantell's words
still ring in my ears.

"If attention is paid
to what I say,

you will never be released."

Effectively, Mantell said,

"You will spend the rest
of your life behind bars."

**

**

-I was with the support group.

We were in our van on patrol,
and we had the radio on.

And it was announced
that she'd been found guilty,

and everyone cheered
because justice had been done.

-Frederick West
was a farmyard killer...

and then he met Rosemary West.

It was her rage,
her sexual lust,

that was unleashed.

What we don't know, really, is
if she didn't have the venue,

the house
and Frederick West there

to be her mentor and counselor,

would it have gone to the
heights that it finally went to?

Their joining together
took things to a place

that very few people
can contemplate.

-There are very, very few
man-and-wife killing teams...

and this was one of
the most remarkable.

Even the Honeymoon Killers
in the United States,

who killed in the '40s,
the end of the '40s,

only had 4 victims, not 12.

**

-There was quite a public debate

about what should happen
to 25 Cromwell Street.

There was some suggestion

that it should be turned into
some sort of museum,

but the local council was never
gonna let that happen.

And eventually...
it was demolished.

**

-The West case, of course,
was notorious,

and there wasn't a person
in the country

who was not aware of it.

But do we know the whole truth

about what
Fred and Rose West did?

I'm not sure we do.

I think a lot of secrets
died with Fred West.

-I'm quite satisfied
that there are,

as yet,
victims who haven't been found,

and I know this is shared
by investigators.

But they can't
keep digging forever.

-Rose convinced herself so much

that she was nothing to do
with those killings

and it was all Fred
that she now believes it.

I mean, she believes
she is innocent.

**

**

-There were many
missed opportunities

to stop Fred and Rose.

They were hiding...

in plain sight.

-You had young women

who were simply falling off
the edge of the world

in and around
Gloucestershire,

but no one seemed to be asking
the questions.

Why not? Because such things
never happen.

"What are you talking about?"

"Some fantastic horror story?"

Well, yes, but nobody knew
it was true.

-The legacy of the West case
is to remind us all

of the capacity of man and woman
to do the most evil deeds,

and present a bland face
to the world.

But I do believe it's important
to confront evil,

and not to sweep it
under the carpet.

Fred and Rose West
fundamentally threatened

our concept of family
and innocence.

I think it cost this country
its innocence.

**