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 HM Prison Bronzefield, Ashford Middlesex.
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[edit] Known history
One of the most notorious criminals in English history. Convicted of ten murders, including her daughter Heather, stepdaughter Charmaine and her husband and fellow serial killer Fred West's first wife, and a series of sexual assaults between 1969 and 1994. The Police suspect she was involved in further murders for which she has not been convicted. It is believed that most of the murders were carried out by Fred.
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, even more so than her husband. She was bisexual, but preferred women, and it is likely that her victims (apart from Charmaine) were picked up mostly for her sexual pleasure. She also worked as a prostitute, often preferring black clients, and many of her children were fathered by these clients.
[edit] Other victims?
Fred was arrested in February 1994 and Rosemary was arrested two months later. The crimes for which she was convicted occurred from 1973 to 1979, by which time the basement of the Wests' house at 25 Cromwell Street was full of the bodies of her victims (apart from Charmaine, who 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 1987. The police consider it highly unlikely that the Wests just stopped their sexually motivated murders in 1979, and there are likely to have been many more murders with the bodies being buried elsewhere. It is believed that the Wests may have killed as many as 30 people.
Rose West was convicted of ten murders and the police have concluded that her late husband Fred murdered a total of twelve, but Rose played no part in the first two murders. Fred West killed Ann McFall alone in 1967 and his first wife in August 1971.
Some reports claimed that the Wests may have killed as many as 30 people. Most of the victims were people whose disappearances were unlikely to be detected, which is why their killing spree went undetected for over 20 years. All of the 12 known victims of the Wests were female.
[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.
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] Bibliography
She Must Have Known: Trial of Rosemary West by Brian Masters
