Rosemary West

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Rosemary Pauline West (born November 29, 1953 as Rosemary Letts) is a British serial killer, now an inmate at HMP Bronzefield, Ashford, Middlesex.

Contents

[edit] Known history

One of the most notorious criminals in English history, in November 1995 West was convicted of ten murders. Along with her husband, she was convicted of a serious sexual assault in January 1973. For this, the Wests were fined.

The Wests developed a habit of picking up girls from bus stops in and around Gloucester, England and imprisoning them in their home for several days before killing them. The victims are alleged to have been sadistically tortured. One such victim, Caroline Raine, escaped and reported the couple to the police, although no prison sentence resulted from their subsequent conviction.

Rosemary West had a voracious sexual appetite and enjoyed extreme bondage and sadomasochistic sex. She was bisexual, but preferred women, and it is likely that her victims (apart from Charmaine) were picked up for hers and her husbands sexual pleasure. She also worked as a prostitute, two of her children were fathered by these clients, in April 1982 and July 1983.

[edit] Other victims?

The crimes for which she was convicted for occurred from April 1973 to August 1979. Charmaine, who was murdered in June 1971 was buried at the Wests' previous home of 25 Midland Road, Gloucester. The only other body found at Cromwell Street was that of their daughter Heather, who was murdered in June 1987. The police consider it highly unlikely that the Wests just stopped their sexually motivated murders in 1979, or simply stopped killing in 1987. No-one will ever know for certain, though if this was the case, the murders almost certainly would have stopped in August 1992 when Fred West was arrested after being accused of raping his 13-year-old daughter three times, and Rosemary West was arrested for child cruelty. This case against them collapsed in June 1993 when their daughter refused to testify against them in Court. All of the West's children were taken from them, and were never looked after by Fred or Rosemary again. This case brought to light the disappearance of Heather West in 1987, and finally led to the West's downfall. Fred was arrested in February 1994 and Rosemary was arrested two months later.

[edit] Conviction

Although she did not confess, the evidence against Rosemary West, which was all circumstantial, was overwhelming. She was tried in October 1995, after her husband's suicide. The jury was unanimous: West was found guilty of ten murders on November 22, 1995, and the judge, Mr Justice Mantell, sentenced her to life imprisonment, saying: "If attention is paid to what I think, you will never be released."

The Lord Chief Justice decided that West should spend at least 25 years in prison, but this was increased to whole life in 1997 by the then Home Secretary, Jack Straw. A November 2002 Law Lord's ruling could see West released in 2019, by which time she will be 66 years old.

[edit] Doubt over guilty verdict

A great deal has been written about the complete lack of evidence linking her to the murders at Cromwell Street and her conviction seems to be based on little more than the idea that "She Must Have Known" (see Brian Masters' 1996 book). It has been suggested (Masters, 1996) that Rosemary West was really only put on trial at all because the main suspect (Fred West) committed suicide before he could be convicted. Masters asserts that the police had never intended to prosecute her and clearly only did so because of the enormous public appetite for retribution fed by overwhelming and highly prejudicial media coverage. However, Rose West was arrested and jointly charged with the murders prior to Fred West's suicide.[1]

The key evidence that linked Rose West to the murders at the trial were

  • Rose West's involvment with Fred West in the kidnap, rape and torture of Caroline Roberts (formerly Owen, formerly Raine) in 1972[2].
  • Evidence that Charmaine West disappeared when Fred West was in prison.

Since the trial Rosemary West's Counsel has claimed that there was no direct evidence to link her to the murders. Her counsel also accused the media of having "a malign influence" on her trial. Richard Ferguson, QC, said "other than the sheer horror of the discovery of the remains of the victims, the most striking feature of this case, say the defence, was the dearth of evidence to connect the applicant to these crimes." He said the evidence linking Rosemary West to the deaths of Heather West, her daughter, Charmaine West, her husband's step-daughter, and Shirley Robinson, a lodger at 25 Cromwell Street, was "tenuous."

The remains of Ann McFall, who disappeared before Frederick West met Rosemary, were found dismembered and bound with cord. Mr Ferguson said this showed that Rosemary West had not been involved in killing the seven Cromwell Street victims discovered in similar circumstances.

Rosemary West has never admitted being involved, and there was evidence that Frederick West had carried out two murders and other attacks on his own. The so-called "similar fact" evidence adduced at the trial is of highly questionable validity as it referred to a different type of crime (a sexual assault on Caroline Raine) rather than murder (for which Rosemary West was actually on trial). "Similar fact" evidence is only valid when comparing the same offences (ie if Rosemary West had previously been convicted of murder).

[edit] Further reading

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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