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[recorder clicks and whirs]

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[Fred] <i>I swore on the kids' lives that</i>
<i>I wouldn't shop Rose for what she did.</i>

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[ominous music playing]

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{\an8}<i>I'd take the blame and be done with it.</i>

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<i>And then Rose can get the children back,</i>
<i>and they could just carry on.</i>

6
00:00:36,280 --> 00:00:37,960
<i>And that's been worrying me.</i>

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<i>They know that she's mixed up in it,</i>
<i>don't they?</i>

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[music fades out]

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[typewriter keys click]

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[gentle music playing]

11
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[male reporter] <i>Gloucestershire police are</i>
<i>facing an increasingly complex task</i>

12
00:01:06,560 --> 00:01:10,960
<i>as the number of bodies recovered</i>
<i>in 25 Cromwell Street continues to grow.</i>

13
00:01:11,760 --> 00:01:15,680
<i>The police are still not ruling out</i>
<i>the possibility of more discoveries.</i>

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So at that point,
we had found nine bodies.

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[ominous music playing]

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And we knew there was
other members of his family

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who were missing and unaccounted for.

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So we knew it was a possibility
that there was more bodies there.

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Early on, the murder squad
draw up a family tree, big family tree,

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to find out who's missing.

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{\an8}And there was a question mark
about Fred's first wife, Rena,

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[music intensifies]

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{\an8}and her daughter, Charmaine.

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{\an8}No one's seen her since 1971,
over 20 years.

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[Howard Ogden] <i>Can we recap?</i>

26
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<i>Yesterday, you indicated a field</i>
<i>at a place called…</i>

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<i>Kempley.</i>

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[male officer] <i>Who is buried there?</i>

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<i>Rena.</i>

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<i>Do you reckon you can… you'll be able</i>
<i>to take us to the spot then, Fred?</i>

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[Fred West] <i>Yeah, it's marked with a tree.</i>

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[music turns more gentle]

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[typewriter keys click]

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{\an8}[music fades out]

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{\an8}[male officer] That's Mr. West,
his solicitor,

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{\an8}an entourage of, uh, police officers.

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The area that the prisoner was indicating

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that, uh, the remains will be found

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is under the, uh, nearest tree.

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[foreboding music playing]

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[male reporter] <i>The body</i>
<i>of Catherine Costello was found</i>

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<i>in a cornfield</i>
<i>near Gloucester earlier this week.</i>

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<i>Police had been digging there after</i>
<i>switching their operation from the house</i>

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00:03:08,200 --> 00:03:11,560
<i>where Mr. West lived</i>
<i>and where nine other bodies were found.</i>

45
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[Russ Williams] Without Fred's indication
of where Rena Costello is,

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we wouldn't have gone and dug up
a random field in Much Marcle.

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So that information came from Fred.

48
00:03:24,600 --> 00:03:27,600
So the question is,
why was Fred telling us that?

49
00:03:28,680 --> 00:03:31,760
And there was more information
coming through all the time.

50
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[Janet Leach] So, we actually
came back here

51
00:03:38,520 --> 00:03:40,800
late in the evening,

52
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{\an8}and, um, we walked
straight across the field.

53
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Um, it was quite dark.

54
00:03:48,360 --> 00:03:50,480
But he really wanted
to come back to this field

55
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because this is where
Ann McFall was buried.

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[music fades out]

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<i>When I came back from that field and</i>
<i>said to Janet that there was a girl, Ann…</i>

58
00:04:03,560 --> 00:04:05,160
<i>- Ann?</i>
<i>- Ann McFall.</i>

59
00:04:05,240 --> 00:04:06,240
<i>Ann McFall.</i>

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[ominous music playing]

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Ann McFall was a Scottish teenager

62
00:04:10,920 --> 00:04:13,840
who Fred met in Glasgow
when he was with Rena.

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She, in fact, becomes the West nanny.

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{\an8}And she hadn't been seen since 1967.

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You start to think,
how many more victims were there?

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00:04:30,000 --> 00:04:34,440
<i>But all I hope is that all efforts</i>
<i>are made to find Ann altogether.</i>

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<i>They will be.</i>

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[Fred West] <i>That's what I want.</i>

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[Russ Williams] The police were still
in the dark about a lot of things,

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so they're still reliant upon Fred
providing that information.

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He knew the more
that he could take on board himself,

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{\an8}the less that this was
going to come onto Rose.

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{\an8}Where the difficulty
was always going to be

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00:05:03,280 --> 00:05:05,200
was the death of Charmaine,

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because he was not going to be able
to put Rose out of the picture.

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<i>What we'd like to know, Fred,</i>
<i>is what happened to Charmaine?</i>

77
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<i>Did these dreadful things</i>
<i>happen to this little child?</i>

78
00:05:20,200 --> 00:05:21,680
[Fred West] <i>I don't know.</i>

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[Russ Williams] When she went missing,

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we knew Charmaine lived with
Fred and Rose at this previous address,

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25 Midland Road.

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- We began to search the premises.
- [music stops]

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{\an8}[male officer] Arriving at the scene
at 25 Midland Road,

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{\an8}this is Mr. Frederick West.

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{\an8}That room wasn't there.

86
00:05:53,720 --> 00:05:55,560
{\an8}- Yeah?
- This was a hallway.

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{\an8}This was a breakfast room here.

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{\an8}[Hazel Savage] Do you realize
why you're here?

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00:06:05,520 --> 00:06:06,760
{\an8}[Fred West] Yeah.

90
00:06:06,840 --> 00:06:08,200
{\an8}[Hazel Savage] Tell us, then.

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{\an8}[Fred West] To tell you
where Charmaine is.

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{\an8}[Hazel Savage] Right. We need to know
if you can help us at all.

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{\an8}[Fred West] Yeah.

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{\an8}[Janet Leach] He was sort of looking
round the backyard.

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[eerie music playing]

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{\an8}There was, like, a crack
going right up the house,

97
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{\an8}and there was, um, a mark on the wall,

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and he said that's where Charmaine was,
in the middle of the foundations.

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{\an8}[Darren Law] Sorry, Fred,
Charmaine would have been

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{\an8}- in there, where you're indicating?
- [Fred West] Yeah.

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00:06:41,880 --> 00:06:43,920
{\an8}[Darren Law] Can you try
and mark it with that?

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{\an8}[male officer] How old was she, Fred?

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{\an8}[Fred West] She must have been
seven or eight.

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[male reporter] <i>Dig site number three,</i>
<i>and now an 11th body.</i>

105
00:07:04,880 --> 00:07:08,080
<i>Late last night, a few feet</i>
<i>under the kitchen foundations</i>

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<i>of Frederick West's</i>
<i>former home in Gloucester,</i>

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<i>they uncovered human remains.</i>

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<i>Pathologist Professor Bernard Knight</i>
<i>is now examining them in situ.</i>

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<i>His initial findings will determine</i>
<i>the age and sex of the victim.</i>

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[music fades out]

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[Darren Law] <i>I don't know</i>
<i>if you're aware or not,</i>

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<i>Fred, there's been a find at Midland Road.</i>

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00:07:40,560 --> 00:07:41,400
<i>Ah, yes.</i>

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<i>Any comment you'd like to make?</i>

115
00:07:43,120 --> 00:07:45,200
<i>Just glad that they found her, that's all.</i>

116
00:07:46,040 --> 00:07:48,280
<i>"Find her." By "her" you mean…</i>

117
00:07:48,360 --> 00:07:51,080
<i>Well, it must be Charmaine.</i>

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[dramatic music playing]

119
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Having had all the admissions from Fred,

120
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{\an8}we were still working so hard

121
00:08:00,320 --> 00:08:04,320
{\an8}to get the evidence
to prove that Rose was involved.

122
00:08:06,280 --> 00:08:08,280
<i>How did Rose get on with Charmaine?</i>

123
00:08:09,840 --> 00:08:14,320
<i>Well, Rose accepted them</i>
<i>as my daughters, as far as I know.</i>

124
00:08:15,440 --> 00:08:16,840
<i>As far as you know.</i>

125
00:08:16,920 --> 00:08:18,600
[music ends]

126
00:08:21,160 --> 00:08:24,360
[Scott Canavan] Rose apparently
used to abuse Charmaine.

127
00:08:25,360 --> 00:08:30,560
{\an8}I can remember when we were in the house,
Fred telling of how Rose used to make her

128
00:08:30,640 --> 00:08:35,080
{\an8}stand on a chair in the kitchen
with her hands tied behind her back

129
00:08:35,160 --> 00:08:38,360
for hours and hours on end
as a punishment.

130
00:08:40,280 --> 00:08:41,960
<i>Did you kill Charmaine, Fred?</i>

131
00:08:44,040 --> 00:08:45,280
<i>No comment.</i>

132
00:08:45,920 --> 00:08:48,080
<i>- Fred, did that happen?</i>
<i>- She was my daughter.</i>

133
00:08:49,440 --> 00:08:51,120
<i>Why kill her?</i>

134
00:08:51,200 --> 00:08:53,120
<i>I can't understand that.</i>

135
00:08:54,320 --> 00:08:56,160
<i>I got no comment on that.</i>

136
00:08:56,240 --> 00:08:58,600
<i>But it doesn't make sense to me, Fred.</i>

137
00:08:58,680 --> 00:09:00,720
[dramatic music playing]

138
00:09:00,800 --> 00:09:02,400
Early in the investigation,

139
00:09:02,480 --> 00:09:04,360
they found a box of letters,

140
00:09:04,440 --> 00:09:07,240
including prison letters,
between Fred and Rose.

141
00:09:08,440 --> 00:09:11,520
Fred was serving a prison sentence
for a petty offense.

142
00:09:11,600 --> 00:09:14,840
And in one of these letters,
Rose said to Fred,

143
00:09:14,920 --> 00:09:20,280
"Darling, about Charmaine,
she likes to be handled rough."

144
00:09:20,360 --> 00:09:22,720
"Why do I have to be the one to do it?"

145
00:09:22,800 --> 00:09:24,800
[music intensifies]

146
00:09:27,120 --> 00:09:29,160
<i>Charmaine started playing up.</i>

147
00:09:30,160 --> 00:09:32,600
<i>Um, got cheeky towards Rose.</i>

148
00:09:33,360 --> 00:09:37,360
<i>I said, "You're just going to have to try</i>
<i>and control it until I can come home."</i>

149
00:09:38,960 --> 00:09:40,640
[Russ Williams] The evidence
was mounting up

150
00:09:40,720 --> 00:09:44,880
at the time of her death,
Fred was likely to have been in prison.

151
00:09:47,040 --> 00:09:51,560
We suspected the person responsible
for the death of Charmaine was Rose.

152
00:09:54,400 --> 00:09:57,160
But at that point,
we had no way of proving it.

153
00:10:01,200 --> 00:10:02,880
[music fades out]

154
00:10:10,080 --> 00:10:12,080
[gentle ominous music playing]

155
00:10:16,880 --> 00:10:19,120
[man] My job is identifying the dead

156
00:10:19,200 --> 00:10:23,920
and making absolutely sure that
we knew which set of remains were which.

157
00:10:28,240 --> 00:10:31,640
What I'm doing is collecting information,

158
00:10:32,160 --> 00:10:35,440
photographs from family, you know,
anywhere they can get them.

159
00:10:36,360 --> 00:10:42,280
And superimpose it on the remains
and look for points of similarity.

160
00:10:46,280 --> 00:10:49,400
So, of course,
I need a top-quality photograph

161
00:10:49,480 --> 00:10:51,640
{\an8}and a lot of information in it.

162
00:10:51,720 --> 00:10:53,040
{\an8}And I just wasn't getting it.

163
00:10:55,080 --> 00:10:58,120
You can imagine what they're like,
you know, little snapshots.

164
00:10:58,200 --> 00:11:01,480
Faded, a lot of shadow, no teeth showing.

165
00:11:02,240 --> 00:11:05,160
And this set of remains, Charmaine,

166
00:11:05,720 --> 00:11:08,760
I was actually thinking
we've got a major problem.

167
00:11:08,840 --> 00:11:12,200
I couldn't determine
when this person died.

168
00:11:13,840 --> 00:11:18,080
But if we could get
some quality image photographs

169
00:11:19,120 --> 00:11:21,000
that we know are Charmaine,

170
00:11:22,560 --> 00:11:24,160
then I might be able to do something.

171
00:11:25,520 --> 00:11:27,520
[music intensifies]

172
00:11:36,320 --> 00:11:38,320
[music fades out]

173
00:11:38,400 --> 00:11:41,120
[man] We were looking
at something that was

174
00:11:41,880 --> 00:11:45,520
almost unprecedented in modern times.

175
00:11:46,920 --> 00:11:50,040
We're talking about a period of 30 years,

176
00:11:50,120 --> 00:11:56,200
{\an8}of people who were coming into contact
with Fred and Rose West

177
00:11:56,280 --> 00:12:00,800
who were not seeing
the reality of their lives.

178
00:12:03,120 --> 00:12:05,680
{\an8}The government decided
there had to be an inquiry.

179
00:12:06,480 --> 00:12:09,840
{\an8}For me, the task was
actually trying to sort out

180
00:12:09,920 --> 00:12:13,400
what actually went on with the children

181
00:12:13,480 --> 00:12:15,440
in that house in Cromwell Street.

182
00:12:16,920 --> 00:12:18,880
{\an8}[Fred West] How come it looks
all black and white?

183
00:12:18,960 --> 00:12:20,600
{\an8}[woman] It looks all blue, don't it?

184
00:12:20,680 --> 00:12:22,680
{\an8}[children laughing]

185
00:12:23,560 --> 00:12:29,080
{\an8}We felt a lot happier to be at school,
where we felt safe, um.

186
00:12:29,160 --> 00:12:31,880
It was a better place to be
than to be at home.

187
00:12:31,960 --> 00:12:33,960
[somber music playing]

188
00:12:34,040 --> 00:12:36,240
[Rose] Get these rocks, Steve,
they'll be nice.

189
00:12:36,320 --> 00:12:37,480
[child] Hello!

190
00:12:39,840 --> 00:12:42,280
[Stephen West] Mom always disciplined us.

191
00:12:44,440 --> 00:12:47,840
She could never just
hit us once and forget it.

192
00:12:49,640 --> 00:12:54,480
She would just lose her temper
in a big way over just a little thing.

193
00:12:54,560 --> 00:12:55,960
And she wouldn't…

194
00:12:56,040 --> 00:13:00,840
You know, once she started hitting us,
I felt she found it hard to stop.

195
00:13:07,120 --> 00:13:10,760
It was always our fault.
It was always something we deserved.

196
00:13:13,280 --> 00:13:16,160
It was obvious Mom and Dad
didn't want us to say anything to anybody.

197
00:13:19,520 --> 00:13:25,080
My girlfriend spoke to a teacher
about, um, the beatings that I was having.

198
00:13:25,160 --> 00:13:26,360
Um.

199
00:13:27,040 --> 00:13:29,440
Really, in a way, I wanted them
to do something about it,

200
00:13:29,520 --> 00:13:34,160
but the risk was that we all split up,
and that was something I didn't want.

201
00:13:36,440 --> 00:13:37,720
We didn't have the courage

202
00:13:37,800 --> 00:13:40,800
to be able to come out and say,
"Look, this is happening to us."

203
00:13:43,840 --> 00:13:49,320
{\an8}[John Fitzgerald] What we found was that
the surviving children in the West family

204
00:13:50,560 --> 00:13:53,960
{\an8}have experienced some appalling abuse.

205
00:13:56,200 --> 00:13:58,960
{\an8}They know how horrible it could get,

206
00:13:59,040 --> 00:14:01,600
{\an8}and they know
that it could have got worse.

207
00:14:04,360 --> 00:14:06,840
Faced with talking to the police,

208
00:14:06,920 --> 00:14:13,000
the fear of what could happen
must have been extraordinary.

209
00:14:19,200 --> 00:14:20,400
[music fades out]

210
00:14:20,480 --> 00:14:23,760
[Hazel Savage] <i>I don't know if you've been</i>
<i>told about Mae and Stephen at all?</i>

211
00:14:23,840 --> 00:14:25,000
<i>- No.</i>
<i>- Right.</i>

212
00:14:25,080 --> 00:14:29,280
<i>They have told us that</i>
<i>they are prepared to talk to us</i>

213
00:14:29,360 --> 00:14:31,600
<i>about everything that they know about.</i>

214
00:14:32,320 --> 00:14:35,440
<i>They're not going to lie.</i>
<i>Mae's certainly not going to lie, anyway.</i>

215
00:14:35,520 --> 00:14:38,160
<i>- Whatever Mae says will be the dead truth.</i>
<i>- Will it?</i>

216
00:14:38,240 --> 00:14:40,160
[Fred West] <i>It will be. Exactly.</i>

217
00:14:41,080 --> 00:14:43,080
[eerie music playing]

218
00:14:43,160 --> 00:14:45,920
<i>Well, Mae has made</i>
<i>allegations against you.</i>

219
00:14:47,960 --> 00:14:49,200
<i>I don't believe it.</i>

220
00:14:52,080 --> 00:14:55,760
<i>"About 1985, my dad began to touch</i>

221
00:14:55,840 --> 00:14:58,880
<i>both myself and Heather</i>
<i>in an indecent manner."</i>

222
00:15:02,960 --> 00:15:05,480
"<i>He would touch me on a daily basis."</i>

223
00:15:07,080 --> 00:15:10,800
<i>"Heather and I decided that</i>
<i>when Dad had first started touching us,</i>

224
00:15:10,880 --> 00:15:12,800
<i>that we would never give in."</i>

225
00:15:16,480 --> 00:15:19,120
<i>"And we were both determined about it."</i>

226
00:15:22,800 --> 00:15:24,400
<i>What about that then, Fred?</i>

227
00:15:26,400 --> 00:15:27,680
<i>No comment.</i>

228
00:15:34,880 --> 00:15:39,480
[John Fitzgerald] If we're really looking
for lessons from this particular case,

229
00:15:39,560 --> 00:15:43,040
above all else,
the importance of listening to children.

230
00:15:44,280 --> 00:15:47,160
These murders would
never have come to light

231
00:15:48,080 --> 00:15:50,960
if it wasn't for the children of the Wests

232
00:15:51,840 --> 00:15:55,040
saying that they had
a sister under the patio.

233
00:15:57,080 --> 00:15:59,760
They were brave enough to speak up.

234
00:16:13,320 --> 00:16:15,640
[music fades out]

235
00:16:20,040 --> 00:16:23,800
[Howard Sounes] By this stage, all victims
have been recovered and identified.

236
00:16:23,880 --> 00:16:25,160
[dramatic music playing]

237
00:16:25,240 --> 00:16:28,600
That was the end
of that part of the murder investigation.

238
00:16:29,800 --> 00:16:31,440
We've got 12 victims,

239
00:16:32,000 --> 00:16:33,720
we've got two suspects,

240
00:16:34,400 --> 00:16:36,680
and now they've got
enough evidence to charge Rose.

241
00:16:37,760 --> 00:16:40,160
But she doesn't admit to anything,

242
00:16:40,240 --> 00:16:43,080
so there's no smoking gun in this.

243
00:16:43,160 --> 00:16:47,400
She's blamed her husband,
who in turn took all the blame himself.

244
00:16:48,080 --> 00:16:51,600
They were in it together,
and they protected each other.

245
00:16:55,040 --> 00:16:58,040
- [typewriter keys click]
- [music continues]

246
00:16:58,120 --> 00:17:01,720
[male reporter] <i>Frederick West is driven</i>
<i>into Gloucester Magistrates Court.</i>

247
00:17:01,800 --> 00:17:04,880
<i>Just minutes away from a reunion</i>
<i>with his wife, Rosemary,</i>

248
00:17:04,960 --> 00:17:06,920
<i>she arrived moments later.</i>

249
00:17:07,600 --> 00:17:09,600
<i>This is the first time</i>
<i>they'd seen each other</i>

250
00:17:09,680 --> 00:17:11,840
<i>since they were arrested four months ago.</i>

251
00:17:13,440 --> 00:17:17,360
When I saw her in the holding suite,

252
00:17:17,440 --> 00:17:19,520
{\an8}she was maybe a little pensive

253
00:17:19,600 --> 00:17:21,840
{\an8}that she was getting
into the dock with Fred West.

254
00:17:23,520 --> 00:17:27,520
[Howard Ogden] He imagined that
she'd be maybe blowing him a kiss

255
00:17:27,600 --> 00:17:32,240
and they might mooch along the bench
to be closer in the dock.

256
00:17:32,880 --> 00:17:34,160
No.

257
00:17:34,760 --> 00:17:37,640
[Howard Sounes] I go down there.
Every seat is taken.

258
00:17:37,720 --> 00:17:42,160
Fred West is brought up, so suddenly
we see Fred West for the first time.

259
00:17:42,240 --> 00:17:45,720
And I see this stocky, wild-looking man

260
00:17:45,800 --> 00:17:51,400
with wild, curly hair, bright blue eyes,
broken nose, gappy teeth.

261
00:17:51,480 --> 00:17:54,160
And then Rose is brought up.

262
00:17:55,480 --> 00:17:57,160
When Fred West was escorted into the dock,

263
00:17:57,240 --> 00:17:59,400
he leaned forward
and touched her shoulder.

264
00:17:59,480 --> 00:18:01,280
She didn't acknowledge this gesture.

265
00:18:01,360 --> 00:18:03,640
There appeared to be
no communication between them,

266
00:18:03,720 --> 00:18:05,640
Rosemary steadfastly ignoring him.

267
00:18:05,720 --> 00:18:08,760
Later, when they were taken down,
Fred West again tried to lean over

268
00:18:08,840 --> 00:18:10,520
and touch his wife's back.

269
00:18:10,600 --> 00:18:13,880
This time,
the prison officer pushed away his hand.

270
00:18:13,960 --> 00:18:17,520
That was the point.
She made it obvious and public

271
00:18:17,600 --> 00:18:20,320
that she was turning against Fred West.

272
00:18:23,320 --> 00:18:28,400
[Russ Williams] Whatever Fred was trying
to do to help her wasn't working.

273
00:18:28,480 --> 00:18:31,200
So now she needed to distance herself.

274
00:18:33,440 --> 00:18:35,440
[music fades out]

275
00:18:37,160 --> 00:18:40,400
<i>You know what Rose is doing now?</i>
<i>Distancing me and her.</i>

276
00:18:43,040 --> 00:18:47,520
<i>See, I'm beginning to wonder,</i>
<i>did Rose have any love towards me at all?</i>

277
00:18:48,600 --> 00:18:51,120
<i>Or was I somebody</i>
<i>there to use all the time?</i>

278
00:18:51,200 --> 00:18:54,800
<i>I was easy touch</i>
<i>and do as I'm told and not interfere.</i>

279
00:18:54,880 --> 00:18:56,080
[ominous music playing]

280
00:18:56,720 --> 00:19:00,760
[Russ Williams] He's starting now to see
that this relationship is deteriorating

281
00:19:00,840 --> 00:19:03,440
to the point where it may no longer exist.

282
00:19:04,320 --> 00:19:07,360
"Why am I doing this?
Why am I taking all the flak?"

283
00:19:09,040 --> 00:19:10,040
[male officer] <i>Right,</i>

284
00:19:11,080 --> 00:19:15,520
<i>I had asked you whether or not</i>
<i>there was any other person</i>

285
00:19:15,600 --> 00:19:16,800
<i>who was common…</i>

286
00:19:18,520 --> 00:19:20,440
<i>to the 12 bodies.</i>

287
00:19:21,920 --> 00:19:25,280
<i>Well, it's obvious there is, isn't it?</i>
<i>Somebody else.</i>

288
00:19:28,200 --> 00:19:30,480
[Howard Sounes] Fred West changes.

289
00:19:31,760 --> 00:19:34,560
He realizes that
his wife is betraying him.

290
00:19:36,360 --> 00:19:41,360
Fred, monster though he was,
is heartbroken, and he falls apart.

291
00:19:41,440 --> 00:19:44,680
<i>The reason I could not tell the truth</i>
<i>is because I'm protecting somebody</i>

292
00:19:44,760 --> 00:19:46,920
<i>and I am still protecting somebody.</i>

293
00:19:47,680 --> 00:19:49,720
<i>I can't say it no plainer than that.</i>

294
00:19:49,800 --> 00:19:53,040
<i>All I'd ask is</i>
<i>a direct answer to a direct question.</i>

295
00:19:53,120 --> 00:19:55,840
<i>Is Rose West the person?</i>

296
00:19:55,920 --> 00:19:57,920
[music intensifies]

297
00:20:00,040 --> 00:20:03,160
The lines were becoming intensely drawn.

298
00:20:03,680 --> 00:20:07,480
Fred West's whole situation
was falling apart.

299
00:20:07,960 --> 00:20:10,360
<i>If I'm going to have</i>
<i>any chance in this case at all,</i>

300
00:20:10,440 --> 00:20:12,400
<i>I've got to go back and tell the truth.</i>

301
00:20:13,800 --> 00:20:17,840
<i>Why should I take the rap?</i>
<i>Rose broke every promise she made to me.</i>

302
00:20:20,280 --> 00:20:22,440
<i>But I did none of it on my own.</i>

303
00:20:24,880 --> 00:20:26,880
[music fades out]

304
00:20:34,360 --> 00:20:36,480
I hated him. I hated what he did.

305
00:20:38,880 --> 00:20:43,480
It's so unbelievable that you're trying
to make sense of it every day.

306
00:20:43,560 --> 00:20:45,560
[somber dramatic music playing]

307
00:20:47,160 --> 00:20:49,360
I asked the police, "Could I see him?"

308
00:20:50,280 --> 00:20:53,560
It was probably one of the hardest things
I ever did, to face him.

309
00:20:55,600 --> 00:20:56,840
He was just crying.

310
00:20:58,400 --> 00:21:00,200
He was very, very down.

311
00:21:00,720 --> 00:21:02,840
Um, I'd never seen him like that before.

312
00:21:02,920 --> 00:21:06,000
And to see him cry
was hard to sort of accept.

313
00:21:08,040 --> 00:21:14,600
He told me that he would never
tell anybody the whole truth,

314
00:21:15,200 --> 00:21:19,600
that it was worse than I could imagine.

315
00:21:21,440 --> 00:21:24,560
He promised me he would die
with them never knowing

316
00:21:24,640 --> 00:21:26,480
the full extent of what he did.

317
00:21:26,560 --> 00:21:28,560
- [music intensifies]
- [clock ticking]

318
00:21:33,920 --> 00:21:35,920
[music fades out]

319
00:21:36,440 --> 00:21:37,760
[typewriter keys click]

320
00:21:37,840 --> 00:21:41,280
[news theme tune playing]

321
00:21:46,240 --> 00:21:47,360
Good evening.

322
00:21:47,440 --> 00:21:51,800
Frederick West, the Gloucester builder
whose home concealed nine corpses,

323
00:21:51,880 --> 00:21:53,040
has been found dead.

324
00:21:53,720 --> 00:21:55,880
[male reporter 1] This lunchtime
at Winson Green prison,

325
00:21:55,960 --> 00:21:58,720
prison officers found him
hanging in his cell.

326
00:21:59,440 --> 00:22:01,200
There's little doubt that West's death

327
00:22:01,280 --> 00:22:03,640
is a severe embarrassment
to the prison authorities.

328
00:22:04,320 --> 00:22:07,120
[male reporter 2] Yesterday, his son
Stephen told the inquest his father

329
00:22:07,200 --> 00:22:08,640
had said he planned to kill himself

330
00:22:08,720 --> 00:22:11,080
in the belief
it would free his wife, Rosemary.

331
00:22:11,640 --> 00:22:14,640
He was yet again
allowed to cheat the legal system

332
00:22:14,720 --> 00:22:18,880
and all victim's families from doing
the time for the crimes he committed.

333
00:22:20,280 --> 00:22:21,960
[dramatic music playing]

334
00:22:23,480 --> 00:22:26,120
{\an8}We were all very, very angry.

335
00:22:26,920 --> 00:22:28,920
{\an8}Upset, but angry.

336
00:22:29,640 --> 00:22:33,000
It was just…
To us, it was like the chicken's way out.

337
00:22:33,600 --> 00:22:34,600
Coward's way.

338
00:22:40,040 --> 00:22:45,320
For months, I'd been involved in
this dark depravity of the investigation.

339
00:22:46,240 --> 00:22:48,840
We were just preparing for the court case.

340
00:22:49,320 --> 00:22:50,880
The news hits.

341
00:22:50,960 --> 00:22:53,520
The heart's been ripped out
of the investigation.

342
00:22:54,760 --> 00:22:56,280
It was devastating.

343
00:22:58,040 --> 00:23:00,280
[male reporter] <i>Rosemary West in public</i>
<i>for the first time</i>

344
00:23:00,360 --> 00:23:03,520
<i>since her husband was found</i>
<i>hanging in his cell on New Year's Day.</i>

345
00:23:04,480 --> 00:23:07,320
<i>According to Rosemary West's solicitor,</i>
<i>Leo Goatley,</i>

346
00:23:07,400 --> 00:23:11,600
<i>the case against her, which he claims</i>
<i>was flimsy, is now even flimsier.</i>

347
00:23:12,160 --> 00:23:14,400
It was Fred who'd made admissions.

348
00:23:14,480 --> 00:23:16,920
It was Rose that had
always denied everything.

349
00:23:17,000 --> 00:23:18,920
With him out of the picture,

350
00:23:19,000 --> 00:23:22,560
it did occur to me, "Perhaps this is it,
it's not going to go to trial."

351
00:23:25,000 --> 00:23:27,920
I wasn't sure how she was going to feel.

352
00:23:30,160 --> 00:23:33,960
They were husband and wife,
and she loved him.

353
00:23:37,360 --> 00:23:39,240
And I got to see Rose.

354
00:23:39,800 --> 00:23:42,800
She was calm, she was quiet.

355
00:23:43,880 --> 00:23:49,400
There was a tear in her eye,
and yet a slight look of glee on her face.

356
00:23:49,880 --> 00:23:54,600
And I think in her mind, she felt
that she could well be off the hook.

357
00:23:55,840 --> 00:23:57,720
[music swells]

358
00:24:00,040 --> 00:24:01,360
[music fades out]

359
00:24:07,960 --> 00:24:09,720
[Marian] Somebody had asked me,

360
00:24:10,560 --> 00:24:15,840
as a family of a victim,
what did I want to happen?

361
00:24:16,480 --> 00:24:18,280
What would justice be?

362
00:24:19,400 --> 00:24:20,360
[gentle music playing]

363
00:24:20,440 --> 00:24:25,920
I didn't think that
anything would take away the pain.

364
00:24:27,160 --> 00:24:33,720
But I had this real need to go and do
something that was about reclaiming Lucy.

365
00:24:37,120 --> 00:24:39,600
[Russ Williams] So I had initial contact
with Marian.

366
00:24:40,640 --> 00:24:43,680
And of course, the question is,
when can we see her?

367
00:24:44,960 --> 00:24:48,320
And I had to have
a fairly honest conversation with her

368
00:24:48,400 --> 00:24:51,000
about what she's going to see,
what her expectations are.

369
00:24:52,400 --> 00:24:55,800
But Marian being Marian,
that didn't put her off one bit.

370
00:24:59,320 --> 00:25:02,960
[Marian] Russell arranged to meet us
in a mortuary in Cardiff.

371
00:25:04,760 --> 00:25:08,400
And I just went up and I… lifted the lid.

372
00:25:10,040 --> 00:25:12,160
And there was Lucy's skull.

373
00:25:13,440 --> 00:25:15,520
Such a beautiful thing.

374
00:25:21,200 --> 00:25:23,200
[music intensifies]

375
00:25:27,760 --> 00:25:29,400
And then I got the blanket

376
00:25:29,480 --> 00:25:32,840
and I wrapped her skull
in the blanket and put it back.

377
00:25:35,200 --> 00:25:40,040
It was really the most healing part
of the whole experience for me,

378
00:25:40,120 --> 00:25:44,640
because it was like I didn't see
the horror that had led to this.

379
00:25:44,720 --> 00:25:47,720
I just saw the beauty.

380
00:25:49,120 --> 00:25:53,360
And I just knew that
it was the right thing to be doing.

381
00:25:58,760 --> 00:26:03,040
I just wanted
to reclaim Lucy as my sister.

382
00:26:14,400 --> 00:26:16,400
[music fades out]

383
00:26:18,080 --> 00:26:20,080
[birds cawing]

384
00:26:21,720 --> 00:26:23,520
[dramatic music playing]

385
00:26:23,600 --> 00:26:25,400
[man] If we just move across.

386
00:26:25,480 --> 00:26:28,640
Yeah. The eyes, the eyes
aren't bad there, actually.

387
00:26:28,720 --> 00:26:29,840
- No.
- It's just…

388
00:26:30,680 --> 00:26:34,000
[David Whittaker] By this time,
Frederick West was out of the picture.

389
00:26:34,080 --> 00:26:39,720
And this particular set of remains,
Charmaine, became absolutely crucial.

390
00:26:40,960 --> 00:26:43,320
{\an8}Having identified
all the other sets of remains,

391
00:26:43,400 --> 00:26:47,040
{\an8}the one case that was
really going to matter, Charmaine,

392
00:26:47,120 --> 00:26:48,800
{\an8}I couldn't do anything with.

393
00:26:49,640 --> 00:26:53,120
And then this photograph appeared.

394
00:26:54,160 --> 00:26:55,440
Miraculously.

395
00:26:56,920 --> 00:27:00,360
We'd got the quality,
we'd got the teeth visible,

396
00:27:01,080 --> 00:27:02,200
and also it was dated.

397
00:27:04,240 --> 00:27:08,000
We could then look at the extent of change

398
00:27:08,080 --> 00:27:11,360
that had occurred
since the photograph was taken.

399
00:27:11,440 --> 00:27:14,520
And if we can estimate
that period of time,

400
00:27:14,600 --> 00:27:17,600
we've not only identified Charmaine,

401
00:27:17,680 --> 00:27:19,920
but we've determined
when she died as well.

402
00:27:20,680 --> 00:27:26,160
And that was very, very crucial evidence
in the case against Rosemary West.

403
00:27:27,600 --> 00:27:31,080
[Russ Williams] We were able
to positively identify

404
00:27:31,160 --> 00:27:33,880
Fred was in prison
when Charmaine was killed,

405
00:27:34,960 --> 00:27:37,800
which then purely put the onus onto Rose

406
00:27:37,880 --> 00:27:41,120
as being the perpetrator
of that single crime.

407
00:27:41,200 --> 00:27:43,040
[music intensifies]

408
00:27:43,120 --> 00:27:44,760
This was massive for us.

409
00:27:46,920 --> 00:27:52,800
{\an8}This morning, Rosemary West was charged
with the murder of Charmaine West.

410
00:27:52,880 --> 00:27:55,560
Today, a spokesman said
the Crown would be seeking

411
00:27:55,640 --> 00:27:58,640
her committal to trial
on the ten murder charges.

412
00:28:00,920 --> 00:28:06,560
[Howard Sounes] The whole country wants
this horrible story to have a resolution.

413
00:28:08,360 --> 00:28:12,160
And then midway through '95,
the date was set,

414
00:28:12,240 --> 00:28:14,320
Winchester Crown Court, October.

415
00:28:16,640 --> 00:28:18,640
- [birds cawing]
- [music fades out]

416
00:28:25,160 --> 00:28:27,680
[Dezra] It was a cold day,
but the sun was shining.

417
00:28:29,200 --> 00:28:34,560
And, uh, our liaison officer
met me for the trial.

418
00:28:36,560 --> 00:28:39,920
And he said to me,
"Would you like to go to the house?"

419
00:28:40,680 --> 00:28:45,080
And, uh, I remember going in the street
and standing in front of the house.

420
00:28:47,320 --> 00:28:50,440
There was a wall there where
she would sit when she was out having…

421
00:28:50,520 --> 00:28:54,240
Out talking to friends, or the chip shop
at the corner where she used to go.

422
00:28:54,320 --> 00:28:57,800
So that was nice,
him telling me things like that.

423
00:29:00,280 --> 00:29:01,880
Then he took me around the back,

424
00:29:01,960 --> 00:29:04,680
because I wanted to be
where they'd found her.

425
00:29:08,080 --> 00:29:09,600
It may sound weird…

426
00:29:10,880 --> 00:29:13,400
I was glad she was found in the garden.

427
00:29:13,480 --> 00:29:16,440
It just seemed
that's where people get buried,

428
00:29:17,560 --> 00:29:18,720
in the earth.

429
00:29:23,160 --> 00:29:29,720
That's one small comfort I have
from where she was laid to rest.

430
00:29:38,600 --> 00:29:42,960
The next day then, a car was
picking us up and taking us to the court.

431
00:29:46,040 --> 00:29:47,080
[typewriter keys click]

432
00:29:50,400 --> 00:29:51,440
[typewriter keys click]

433
00:29:53,560 --> 00:29:55,240
My name is Brian Leveson.

434
00:29:56,320 --> 00:29:59,760
In 1995, I was a Queen's Counsel.

435
00:30:00,760 --> 00:30:04,480
{\an8}I was approached
by the Crown Prosecution Service

436
00:30:04,560 --> 00:30:06,240
{\an8}to prosecute the case.

437
00:30:08,680 --> 00:30:11,240
I have prosecuted all sorts of crime.

438
00:30:12,560 --> 00:30:17,880
But if I had to identify one case that
lives with me the most, this is the case.

439
00:30:20,720 --> 00:30:23,800
The leading counsel in the defense
was Richard Ferguson QC,

440
00:30:24,800 --> 00:30:28,800
one of the leading
criminal barristers of the time.

441
00:30:28,880 --> 00:30:32,960
No, I'm sorry. Professionally,
we're not allowed to make any comment.

442
00:30:33,440 --> 00:30:37,480
He led Sasha Wass, now Sasha Wass KC,

443
00:30:37,560 --> 00:30:41,840
who was herself
a very capable criminal lawyer.

444
00:30:43,880 --> 00:30:46,160
[woman] I was asked
whether I wanted to do this case,

445
00:30:46,240 --> 00:30:49,040
and to be frank, there was no question
of me turning it down.

446
00:30:49,120 --> 00:30:51,360
It was an extraordinary case.

447
00:30:53,200 --> 00:30:58,200
I was a junior counsel.
I'd been doing criminal work for 13 years.

448
00:30:58,800 --> 00:31:00,600
- Don't hold your breath. Okay?
- [man] Okay.

449
00:31:03,160 --> 00:31:06,160
[Sasha Wass] I'd done a couple of cases
in which there'd been press interest,

450
00:31:06,240 --> 00:31:07,440
but nothing like this.

451
00:31:07,520 --> 00:31:09,240
There were press everywhere.

452
00:31:09,840 --> 00:31:13,320
[male reporter] <i>Hampshire police have</i>
<i>mounted strict security along the route,</i>

453
00:31:13,400 --> 00:31:16,840
<i>closing roads as the convoy</i>
<i>made its three-minute journey</i>

454
00:31:16,920 --> 00:31:18,680
<i>to Winchester city center.</i>

455
00:31:19,800 --> 00:31:22,120
It became like a piece of theater.

456
00:31:24,040 --> 00:31:28,280
[crowd] Murderer! Murderer!

457
00:31:30,520 --> 00:31:33,600
Court three was a very large courtroom.

458
00:31:33,680 --> 00:31:35,680
[dramatic music playing]

459
00:31:36,240 --> 00:31:37,800
Rose is brought into the dock.

460
00:31:38,640 --> 00:31:41,000
She's short, she wears spectacles,

461
00:31:41,080 --> 00:31:43,320
she's got a gold cross round her neck.

462
00:31:43,400 --> 00:31:46,480
She's doing her best
to appear respectable.

463
00:31:46,560 --> 00:31:48,040
And she's very subdued.

464
00:31:48,120 --> 00:31:50,000
There's no show of emotion.

465
00:31:50,080 --> 00:31:52,000
She just sits there and listens.

466
00:31:52,800 --> 00:31:56,520
[Brian Leveson] Rose West pleaded
not guilty to all counts

467
00:31:56,600 --> 00:32:01,360
and maintained her innocence
from first to last.

468
00:32:03,560 --> 00:32:06,520
One of the big challenges of the case

469
00:32:06,600 --> 00:32:12,160
is that there was no evidence
of a direct nature.

470
00:32:12,240 --> 00:32:13,800
Nobody said,

471
00:32:13,880 --> 00:32:19,840
"I saw Fred stab." Or "Rosemary strangle."

472
00:32:20,480 --> 00:32:23,480
The case depended
on circumstantial evidence.

473
00:32:23,960 --> 00:32:28,720
Circumstantial evidence really relies on
several different strands of evidence.

474
00:32:30,760 --> 00:32:35,440
And in this case, the prosecution
called several witnesses to say

475
00:32:35,520 --> 00:32:39,320
that Rosemary West
and Frederick West had acted together

476
00:32:39,400 --> 00:32:42,560
in circumstances which were very similar,

477
00:32:42,640 --> 00:32:49,000
said the prosecution, to the way in which
the murder victims had been abused.

478
00:32:51,160 --> 00:32:54,080
[Howard Sounes] A succession of witnesses
are called for the prosecution,

479
00:32:54,160 --> 00:32:57,960
and I think maybe three or four in,
we have Caroline Owens,

480
00:32:58,840 --> 00:33:00,040
the one that got away.

481
00:33:01,600 --> 00:33:04,040
[male reporter] <i>Arriving in a closed van</i>
<i>with other witnesses,</i>

482
00:33:04,640 --> 00:33:07,040
<i>Caroline Owens came</i>
<i>to Winchester Crown Court</i>

483
00:33:07,120 --> 00:33:10,720
<i>with a first-hand account of</i>
<i>what she claimed was a night of terror.</i>

484
00:33:11,400 --> 00:33:14,440
[Howard Sounes] Caroline Owens became
a really significant person,

485
00:33:14,520 --> 00:33:16,640
because she was a documented case

486
00:33:16,720 --> 00:33:21,440
of a woman whom
the Wests had attacked together.

487
00:33:22,400 --> 00:33:26,360
She comes into the witness box
and she tells her story,

488
00:33:26,960 --> 00:33:31,280
and it was the most powerful
direct evidence against Rose.

489
00:33:37,360 --> 00:33:39,120
[Caroline Owens] I don't think

490
00:33:39,960 --> 00:33:41,760
{\an8}people realize how much

491
00:33:43,160 --> 00:33:45,160
{\an8}guilt survivors feel.

492
00:33:45,720 --> 00:33:47,720
[somber music playing]

493
00:33:50,600 --> 00:33:55,600
[crying] I realized they started killing
three months after my court case in '72.

494
00:33:58,600 --> 00:34:01,760
And to my mind,
if I'd pushed the rape charge,

495
00:34:01,840 --> 00:34:03,160
[sniffles]

496
00:34:03,240 --> 00:34:04,840
they would have been alive.

497
00:34:10,320 --> 00:34:15,840
So, given that opportunity
to actually be a witness against her…

498
00:34:18,720 --> 00:34:20,280
kind of set me free a little bit.

499
00:34:23,240 --> 00:34:28,120
Even though, like, all my little secrets
and my little demons were out there

500
00:34:29,040 --> 00:34:30,880
on view to the world,

501
00:34:30,960 --> 00:34:36,160
I actually, for the first time in
my lifetime, I think, felt self-respect.

502
00:34:40,360 --> 00:34:44,280
I went in there to get justice
for the girls that didn't make it.

503
00:34:56,840 --> 00:35:00,400
[Sasha Wass] Caroline Owens was
a very powerful witness,

504
00:35:00,480 --> 00:35:05,680
and she kept herself together
throughout all of her evidence

505
00:35:05,760 --> 00:35:08,920
right until the end,
um, when she broke down.

506
00:35:09,960 --> 00:35:13,960
She felt she had to do justice
for the girls that didn't make it.

507
00:35:14,440 --> 00:35:16,920
That was a very telling piece of evidence.

508
00:35:17,000 --> 00:35:18,200
[music fades out]

509
00:35:23,080 --> 00:35:26,080
[Mary-Ann] The whole lead-up to the trial,
and the trial,

510
00:35:26,160 --> 00:35:30,960
{\an8}is very, very blurred,
because all I can think at the time was,

511
00:35:31,040 --> 00:35:33,800
"This has happened to Juanita.
Oh my God, this has happened to Juanita."

512
00:35:33,880 --> 00:35:35,000
"This is real."

513
00:35:35,480 --> 00:35:41,160
"Now I'm going to have to re-hear it all
again in a court, but I have to do it."

514
00:35:41,680 --> 00:35:43,440
[somber music playing]

515
00:35:46,920 --> 00:35:49,400
[Belinda] It was just panic attacks.

516
00:35:49,480 --> 00:35:51,280
Anxiety was real bad.

517
00:35:53,200 --> 00:35:54,240
You listen,

518
00:35:55,680 --> 00:36:00,800
you know what's going on and you can hear
the gasps of other people listening.

519
00:36:02,240 --> 00:36:05,160
Me personally, I couldn't take it all in,

520
00:36:05,680 --> 00:36:09,640
listening to the amount of stuff
that went on.

521
00:36:09,720 --> 00:36:11,280
It was just…

522
00:36:12,760 --> 00:36:14,840
How? How could they do it?

523
00:36:16,000 --> 00:36:17,200
How or why?

524
00:36:20,040 --> 00:36:21,640
[music fades out]

525
00:36:26,720 --> 00:36:30,520
[Sasha Wass] The job of the lawyer
is to advise their client

526
00:36:30,600 --> 00:36:33,720
as to the benefits
and the pitfalls of giving evidence.

527
00:36:33,800 --> 00:36:37,840
But the ultimate decision is always,
always the defendant's.

528
00:36:37,920 --> 00:36:39,160
[ominous music playing]

529
00:36:39,240 --> 00:36:42,760
[male reporter 1] <i>Rosemary West, on trial</i>
<i>at Winchester, accused of ten murders,</i>

530
00:36:42,840 --> 00:36:46,280
<i>today became the first witness</i>
<i>called in her own defense.</i>

531
00:36:46,360 --> 00:36:48,560
She was reminded on several occasions

532
00:36:48,640 --> 00:36:51,400
that it was up to her
whether she wanted to give evidence.

533
00:36:51,480 --> 00:36:56,640
She had a certain confidence.
She wanted her day in court.

534
00:36:56,720 --> 00:36:58,920
[male reporter 2] The moment arrived
at midday.

535
00:36:59,000 --> 00:37:00,960
Mrs. West spoke of her troubled early life

536
00:37:01,040 --> 00:37:04,600
and was often in tears as she described
how she'd twice been raped

537
00:37:04,680 --> 00:37:06,840
before she met Fred West at the age of 15.

538
00:37:07,440 --> 00:37:10,760
She said that Frederick West
had promised to love and care for her.

539
00:37:10,840 --> 00:37:14,080
Because she was so young,
she'd fallen for his lies.

540
00:37:14,160 --> 00:37:18,520
And so she's led through
her life with Fred at Cromwell Street,

541
00:37:18,600 --> 00:37:21,840
whereby she gives us the impression
that they lived separate lives

542
00:37:21,920 --> 00:37:24,560
and Fred sent her out
to have sex with other men,

543
00:37:24,640 --> 00:37:26,160
leaving Fred at home.

544
00:37:26,240 --> 00:37:29,920
And what Fred did at home when
she wasn't at home, she didn't know about.

545
00:37:30,520 --> 00:37:34,760
Rose West was very defensive and defiant

546
00:37:34,840 --> 00:37:37,880
to the point of almost being convincing.

547
00:37:37,960 --> 00:37:42,360
Uh, the stumbling block was
when she was cross-examined.

548
00:37:43,920 --> 00:37:46,800
[male reporter 2] Brian Leveson QC
began his cross-examination.

549
00:37:46,880 --> 00:37:50,360
He said, "You never saw anything
that alerted you to the horror

550
00:37:50,440 --> 00:37:52,400
of what had been happening at your homes?"

551
00:37:52,480 --> 00:37:54,560
"That's right, sir," she replied.

552
00:37:54,640 --> 00:37:57,600
Nor had she seen
any unexplained bloodstains in the house

553
00:37:57,680 --> 00:38:01,440
or anything to suggest that
children had been sexually abused there.

554
00:38:01,520 --> 00:38:03,040
Mr. Leveson then asked Mrs. West

555
00:38:03,120 --> 00:38:06,320
about her eight-year-old stepdaughter,
Charmaine.

556
00:38:07,400 --> 00:38:10,400
He would be relentless,
he wouldn't pause, he just kept going.

557
00:38:10,480 --> 00:38:14,000
You could see her getting flustered
and agitated

558
00:38:14,080 --> 00:38:17,000
and frustrated by the process.

559
00:38:17,080 --> 00:38:19,160
After further questions, she said,

560
00:38:19,240 --> 00:38:23,280
"I couldn't have killed a little girl
at that time or at any time."

561
00:38:23,360 --> 00:38:25,920
"You abused that girl," said Mr. Leveson.

562
00:38:26,000 --> 00:38:28,800
"Not to the extent you'd like to think,"
said Mrs. West.

563
00:38:28,880 --> 00:38:31,560
"You killed her
and kept the body for Fred to bury."

564
00:38:31,640 --> 00:38:35,000
"No, sir, where could I have kept
a body in Midland Road?"

565
00:38:35,480 --> 00:38:39,320
She saw no evil,
heard no evil, and did no evil,

566
00:38:39,400 --> 00:38:43,640
whilst, of course, living in the same
small house as a mass murderer.

567
00:38:49,760 --> 00:38:51,760
[music fades out]

568
00:38:53,120 --> 00:38:54,560
As a journalist, as a reporter,

569
00:38:54,640 --> 00:38:57,760
you're never supposed to pay witnesses,
certainly before a trial,

570
00:38:57,840 --> 00:38:59,640
but we found ways round it.

571
00:39:00,560 --> 00:39:02,840
The money is paid after conviction.

572
00:39:04,560 --> 00:39:07,200
And I confess, I offered witnesses money.

573
00:39:08,480 --> 00:39:10,160
And the money goes up and up.

574
00:39:10,240 --> 00:39:13,640
You start at 1,000, 5,000, 10,000, 30,000.

575
00:39:13,720 --> 00:39:14,600
[dramatic music]

576
00:39:14,680 --> 00:39:19,240
[Brian Leveson] Press payments was
an enormous issue in the trial

577
00:39:19,320 --> 00:39:26,320
because it provided a hook for
the defense to challenge the witnesses.

578
00:39:26,400 --> 00:39:32,640
"You've said this not because it's true,
but because you're being paid

579
00:39:32,720 --> 00:39:37,600
to make it as newsworthy as possible."

580
00:39:38,480 --> 00:39:43,360
And so, I had everybody researched
for deals with the press, everybody.

581
00:39:43,440 --> 00:39:45,840
Including the appropriate adult,
Janet Leach.

582
00:39:52,120 --> 00:39:53,320
[music fades out]

583
00:39:53,400 --> 00:39:59,400
As far as the prosecution were concerned,
Janet Leach was going to save the case.

584
00:39:59,480 --> 00:40:02,480
She hadn't entered into
any agreement for her story,

585
00:40:02,560 --> 00:40:04,360
and she was a completely clean skin,

586
00:40:04,440 --> 00:40:07,880
so they felt very confident
calling her as a witness.

587
00:40:07,960 --> 00:40:10,360
Fred took a liking to Janet,

588
00:40:10,440 --> 00:40:16,120
whereby he then confided in her
things that he didn't tell the police,

589
00:40:16,200 --> 00:40:19,360
and as a result,
she becomes probably the star witness,

590
00:40:19,440 --> 00:40:21,880
probably the biggest witness
for the prosecution.

591
00:40:24,160 --> 00:40:26,880
He told me at the beginning
about the pact that they'd made

592
00:40:26,960 --> 00:40:29,720
that he was going to take
the brunt of it all,

593
00:40:29,800 --> 00:40:31,440
and that it was worth it.

594
00:40:33,640 --> 00:40:36,840
He was clearing up
a lot of Rose's mistakes,

595
00:40:36,920 --> 00:40:39,640
"little mistakes," she used to call them.

596
00:40:41,320 --> 00:40:44,400
Rose was involved right from the onset.

597
00:40:45,720 --> 00:40:48,600
It was time to tell the truth.

598
00:40:51,560 --> 00:40:54,680
[Howard Sounes ] I felt, and I think
the whole court felt, "This is the truth."

599
00:40:54,760 --> 00:40:58,640
"Of course Rose is involved,
and finally somebody is saying it."

600
00:40:59,280 --> 00:41:03,640
That evidence, for me, was very powerful,
and I'm sure it was for the jury.

601
00:41:05,000 --> 00:41:09,120
Our approach was to ask a witness
whether they had been paid,

602
00:41:09,200 --> 00:41:14,600
and she denied vehemently
that she had been paid for her story.

603
00:41:14,680 --> 00:41:16,400
As far as that case was concerned,

604
00:41:16,480 --> 00:41:21,240
you couldn't imagine
things could become more extraordinary,

605
00:41:21,320 --> 00:41:22,480
um, but they did.

606
00:41:26,000 --> 00:41:30,200
The trial of Rosemary West has gripped
the courtroom on so many occasions.

607
00:41:30,280 --> 00:41:33,760
Today, on the 24th
and final day of evidence,

608
00:41:33,840 --> 00:41:37,160
another revelation
which will dominate tomorrow's headlines.

609
00:41:37,240 --> 00:41:39,400
Asked whether
she'd told the truth last week

610
00:41:39,480 --> 00:41:41,120
about her dealings with the media,

611
00:41:41,200 --> 00:41:43,600
Mrs. Leach paused before saying no.

612
00:41:45,800 --> 00:41:48,720
She had sold her story
to my newspaper group,

613
00:41:48,800 --> 00:41:51,120
and this emerges during her evidence.

614
00:41:51,200 --> 00:41:53,560
[siren wails]

615
00:41:53,640 --> 00:41:56,360
She has a kind of breakdown.
She collapses.

616
00:41:57,880 --> 00:41:59,040
Everyone is shocked.

617
00:41:59,120 --> 00:42:02,440
Brian Leveson is shocked.
John Bennett almost has a heart attack.

618
00:42:02,520 --> 00:42:05,040
This is really
a body blow to the prosecution.

619
00:42:06,880 --> 00:42:08,560
The trial has to be stopped.

620
00:42:12,240 --> 00:42:14,600
Three days pass. A weekend passes.

621
00:42:14,680 --> 00:42:16,960
Finally, we're told
the trial is going to resume.

622
00:42:18,000 --> 00:42:20,640
She was brought back in a wheelchair,

623
00:42:20,720 --> 00:42:25,120
but in effect, she was damaged goods
as far as the prosecution were concerned.

624
00:42:26,160 --> 00:42:30,840
I was getting a lot of flashbacks
and having panic attacks.

625
00:42:33,720 --> 00:42:35,520
It was just all too much.

626
00:42:37,480 --> 00:42:39,720
I felt that I was doing a duty,

627
00:42:40,800 --> 00:42:43,360
but I was totally out of my depth.

628
00:42:52,760 --> 00:42:54,160
[Howard Sounes] Suddenly it's over,

629
00:42:54,640 --> 00:42:57,640
and as I listened to the prosecution case,

630
00:42:58,240 --> 00:43:01,680
by the end of it I was wondering,
where was the evidence?

631
00:43:01,760 --> 00:43:05,120
Where's the evidence this woman
killed anybody? I haven't heard it.

632
00:43:05,200 --> 00:43:07,880
She hasn't confessed.
There's no forensic evidence.

633
00:43:07,960 --> 00:43:10,400
There's no fingerprints.
There's no murder weapon.

634
00:43:10,480 --> 00:43:14,320
The outcome of this trial
was far from a foregone conclusion.

635
00:43:16,840 --> 00:43:20,560
[Sasha Wass] It never gets any easier
waiting for a jury…

636
00:43:22,760 --> 00:43:25,040
but it's a very stressful time

637
00:43:25,120 --> 00:43:27,760
because you want to do
your best for your client,

638
00:43:27,840 --> 00:43:30,320
and that means a not guilty verdict.

639
00:43:31,640 --> 00:43:34,280
[Brian Leveson] You're thinking,
"Is there some point I've missed?"

640
00:43:34,360 --> 00:43:37,000
"What are the jury thinking about?"
You don't know.

641
00:43:37,080 --> 00:43:42,520
Because it was by no means a given
that Rosemary West would be convicted.

642
00:43:43,960 --> 00:43:46,040
[Leo Goatley] I think Rose…

643
00:43:46,120 --> 00:43:48,760
I think she was confident
about how things were gonna go.

644
00:43:49,560 --> 00:43:51,200
[Howard Sounes] Anything could happen.

645
00:43:51,280 --> 00:43:53,720
I wouldn't have been surprised
if she walked free.

646
00:43:53,800 --> 00:43:57,240
And then, of course,
you have this Tannoy system in the court.

647
00:43:57,320 --> 00:44:00,520
"Everyone attending court number three,
please return to court."

648
00:44:00,600 --> 00:44:04,480
And you all pile back into court,
and yeah, they've got a verdict.

649
00:44:08,840 --> 00:44:10,840
[clock ticking]

650
00:44:18,440 --> 00:44:19,400
[music fades out]

651
00:44:19,480 --> 00:44:21,640
Rosemary West has been convicted of

652
00:44:21,720 --> 00:44:25,080
ten of the most horrific murders
in British criminal history.

653
00:44:26,000 --> 00:44:29,640
[male reporter 1] <i>Mr. Justice Mantell</i>
<i>didn't waste his breath on a long speech.</i>

654
00:44:29,720 --> 00:44:33,920
<i>"Rosemary Pauline West," he said,</i>
<i>"on each of the ten counts of murder</i>

655
00:44:34,000 --> 00:44:36,840
<i>on which you have been</i>
<i>unanimously convicted by the jury,</i>

656
00:44:36,920 --> 00:44:39,560
<i>the sentence is one of life imprisonment."</i>

657
00:44:39,640 --> 00:44:42,400
<i>He added, "If attention is paid</i>
<i>to what I think,</i>

658
00:44:42,480 --> 00:44:44,400
<i>you will never be released."</i>

659
00:44:44,480 --> 00:44:47,640
<i>He then ordered the prison officers</i>
<i>to take her down.</i>

660
00:44:47,720 --> 00:44:50,800
[somber music playing]

661
00:44:55,320 --> 00:44:58,400
[Russ Williams] I remember John said
to us, "Don't show any emotion."

662
00:44:59,640 --> 00:45:01,520
We sat there stony faced.

663
00:45:02,280 --> 00:45:05,360
What was happening inside was,
I think, a degree of relief.

664
00:45:06,520 --> 00:45:10,320
I was pleased mostly for the victims,
for the families.

665
00:45:12,440 --> 00:45:13,960
[John Bennett] And the families.

666
00:45:14,480 --> 00:45:20,040
No one can appreciate the pain
and suffering they have been through

667
00:45:20,120 --> 00:45:23,760
to learn about
the terrible circumstances of this case

668
00:45:24,560 --> 00:45:27,080
and the questions that it raises,

669
00:45:27,560 --> 00:45:32,000
some of which, perhaps,
will always remain unanswered.

670
00:45:33,320 --> 00:45:36,320
[male reporter 2] <i>In a black dress with</i>
<i>white sleeves, she was led into prison</i>

671
00:45:36,400 --> 00:45:39,640
<i>knowing she'll spend</i>
<i>the rest of her life behind bars.</i>

672
00:45:39,720 --> 00:45:43,480
<i>The woman who'd insisted she knew nothing</i>
<i>about the bodies buried beneath her house</i>

673
00:45:43,560 --> 00:45:46,560
<i>joins the ranks</i>
<i>of Britain's biggest serial killers.</i>

674
00:45:49,200 --> 00:45:50,360
[door slams shut]

675
00:45:56,480 --> 00:45:58,920
[Belinda] All the different families
were there,

676
00:45:59,600 --> 00:46:01,640
and Stephen was there as well.

677
00:46:03,200 --> 00:46:09,320
I introduced myself and gave him a hug.

678
00:46:09,920 --> 00:46:11,480
He was very shy.

679
00:46:12,920 --> 00:46:17,280
He just said to me,
"I'm really sorry about your sister."

680
00:46:17,360 --> 00:46:20,040
I said, "It's not you
to be sorry for, is it?"

681
00:46:21,000 --> 00:46:24,680
I said, "But we've got to remember
we're all in this together."

682
00:46:26,480 --> 00:46:27,720
He said, "Thank you."

683
00:46:30,360 --> 00:46:35,000
She's been found guilty,
he's dead, it's over.

684
00:46:35,760 --> 00:46:38,560
I can get on with my life,
and we can move on.

685
00:46:43,040 --> 00:46:45,520
But it doesn't happen like that.

686
00:46:46,080 --> 00:46:47,320
I wish it did.

687
00:46:50,760 --> 00:46:54,520
[Belinda] I think about
the last time I'd spoke to her.

688
00:46:56,440 --> 00:46:59,800
She said to me,
"I'll always be here for you."

689
00:47:01,280 --> 00:47:03,960
"No matter what or no matter when."

690
00:47:05,120 --> 00:47:06,720
"Just like you are for me."

691
00:47:08,680 --> 00:47:15,120
This is why I say to my children, every
single time I say goodnight or goodbye,

692
00:47:15,200 --> 00:47:19,480
I always say, "I love you," because
you never know when's the last time.

693
00:47:27,640 --> 00:47:31,640
[Dezra] I did lock it away in a box
in my head like I do with lots of things,

694
00:47:32,400 --> 00:47:34,960
so I've never really worked through it.

695
00:47:36,240 --> 00:47:40,680
This, what I'm doing now, I think
it's for Alison, mostly for Alison,

696
00:47:41,720 --> 00:47:46,440
but also for me so that
I can have a bit of closure,

697
00:47:47,680 --> 00:47:49,560
because I don't have that at the moment.

698
00:47:50,040 --> 00:47:53,120
[gentle music playing]

699
00:47:58,880 --> 00:48:04,000
[Marian] Because of what's happened,
I've had to face myself deep inside.

700
00:48:07,240 --> 00:48:13,880
The whole process is about healing,
it's about becoming whole,

701
00:48:13,960 --> 00:48:20,760
it's about finding a way of living
which brings something good out of it.

702
00:48:23,960 --> 00:48:29,760
Everyone involved in this atrocious crime,

703
00:48:30,560 --> 00:48:34,000
everyone is connected.

704
00:48:34,600 --> 00:48:36,600
[music ends]

705
00:48:41,760 --> 00:48:43,960
[Russ Williams] I did keep one card.

706
00:48:44,560 --> 00:48:50,000
One card from Marian, which was sent to me
when we were saying our goodbyes.

707
00:48:50,600 --> 00:48:52,600
[somber music playing]

708
00:48:52,680 --> 00:48:54,240
"To dear Russell,

709
00:48:55,120 --> 00:49:00,920
thank you again for all your good humor
and sensitivity. Are you blushing yet?"

710
00:49:04,600 --> 00:49:10,640
"Your kindness made a big difference
to the traumatic agony of it all."

711
00:49:12,280 --> 00:49:14,000
"For the better, of course."

712
00:49:17,360 --> 00:49:18,640
"Love from Marian."

713
00:49:21,800 --> 00:49:26,280
In a way, she helped me
just as much as I hope I helped her.

714
00:49:34,320 --> 00:49:37,600
The shadow of being in the police
stays with you for a long time,

715
00:49:39,160 --> 00:49:44,040
but I started to realize
that there is good out there.

716
00:49:45,640 --> 00:49:50,040
To see it and to feel it
and to be part of it,

717
00:49:51,080 --> 00:49:52,560
that's what I want to do.

718
00:49:55,480 --> 00:49:56,960
[music fades out]

719
00:50:00,240 --> 00:50:02,240
[gentle music playing]

