February 25th 1994: The Story of 25 Cromwell Street.

February 25th 1994, police began excavating the home of Fred and Rosemary West at 25 Cromwell Street in Gloucester. The majority of the couples crimes happened at the Cromwell Street address. How did a couple this devious go undetected for so long? Their crimes started in 1971 , although Fred's crimes are believed to have dated from before this, and it was not until 1992 that police were alerted to any serious goings on in the three story terrace house and it would be 1994 before they finally had the couple with charges that would stick. 

Rose had a very tough upbringing, born into a poor family where her mother suffered greatly with depression. During her pregnancy with Rose she underwent electric shock therapy to try and cure her depression but the therapy was unsuccessful and many have stated that this could have had huge developmental consequences on the unborn Rosemary. As a result, her parents separated and following a trial period of living with her mother, she went to live with her father and siblings. Things living with her father didn't start off well for Rose. She was repeatedly sexually assaulted by her father and Rose as a pre-teen/young teen sexually assaulted her younger brothers also. 

When Rosemary met Fred West she was just 15 years of age, she had been normalised to sexual assault by the abuse she suffered from her father and in turn the abuse she inflicted on her brothers. She began spending more and more time with Fred West in the home he shared with his daughters Charmaine and Anne Marie from his previous marriage to Rena Costello. Rose was forbidden from seeing Fred West as he was 12 years her senior, when she refused, she was sent to a school for troubled teens. She took every opportunity to continue seeing Fred West when she was let out on weekends. Rumours started at the time that Rose was now engaging in prostitution with encouragement from Fred. When she turned 16 she fell pregnant, her father insisted that she terminate the pregnancy and stop seeing Fred West. She refused and moved in with Fred. On the 17th of October Rosemary gave birth to a daughter, Heather Ann. Soon after this Fred was arrested on minor charges but this left Rosemary, 17 years of age with three young girls to care for. 

In 1972 Fred married Rosemary and later that year they moved into 25 Cromwell Street where they would settle with their growing family. It was a three storey house with a basement and small back yard. Fred decided he would renovate the house in order to accommodate lodgers in order to have some extra income. Charmaine had began acting up and was becoming troublesome to deal with, so she was sent to live with her mother. On the surface all seemed to be going well for the newly wed couple. 

Rose and Fred openly engaged in threesomes, advertising in a local magazine and Rose also advertised her prostitution services and it became known that the couple enjoyed sadism. They engaged in sexual relations with different lodgers both male and female that were living in the house. In September 1972 the couple began to abuse Anne Marie, Fred's daughter from his first marriage. She was 8 years old when Fred raped her for the first time in their family home. Rose told her afterwards that it was a father's job to do this to every little girl and she could never tell anybody. She was forced to do various household chores in various stages of undress and wearing different types of bondage clothing. 

The following month in 1972 they hired a nanny, Caroline Roberts who the couple picked up one night when they seen her hitch hiking. Caroline got on particularly well with Rose, she considered her a friend. Occasionally, Fred would say things that Caroline found a little suspicious. He "bragged" about how Anne Marie, now ages 8, was no longer a virgin and claimed that if she ever got pregnant, he knew how to perform an abortion. Caroline unsure of what kind of mind games Fred West was playing, decided to quit when Fred insisted she attend a sex party with him and Rose. Caroline only worked for a few weeks for the Wests.

The following month on the 6th of December, Fred and Rose once again picked up Caroline when she was hitch hiking, the couple apologised to her and claimed it had been a crude joke in bad taste. Caroline, wanting to think the best in people and that her friend, Rose, was genuine, accepted a lift from the couple. That night the couple would bring her back to 25 Cromwell House and here she was subjected to a 12 hour assault. During the assault she was raped and threatened by Fred, he told her he would kill her and bury her under the paving stones. 

Caroline, by some miracle, made it out of 25 Cromwell Street alive. She immediately went her moth who called the police and explained the kidnapping and assault to them. She did not at this time inform the police about the rape. The police officer taking her statement came down hard on the young woman and made her feel ashamed and guilty for what had happen, questioning her choice of clothing and quizzing her on her sex life. This made Caroline feel a sense of shame and that she was being painted as the cause of the problem instead of being treated as a victim. Due to this treatment, Caroline decided not to testify against the couple. Fred and Rosemary appeared in court on assault charges and were asked to pay a £50 fine each. 

Between 1972 and 1992 the West children were admitted to hospital over 30 times. These hospital visits were a direct result from the physical abuse suffered at the hands of their parents. The cases were never reported to social services. In 1992 a police officer was approached by a group of children ages between 11 and 15, one of the older members of the group who told the officer that there was something about the West children that was strange and there was abuse going on in the house. Due to this complaint, police did pay a visit to 25 Cromwell Street and looked to see the children. It became quite clear that there was somebody missing. Young Heather Ann had not been seen in some time and it was obvious she was not in the house. Fred and Rose told officials that Heather Ann had run away from home, there had been an argument in which she disclosed that she was a lesbian. They hadn't seen her since 1986, nobody had reported the 16 year old missing.  

Fred and Rose were both arrested in August 1992 but the case against them collapsed in June of the following year when their daughter would not testify against them. These allegations did eventually lead to a search warrant being executed on the 25 Cromwell Road property where on the back patio, a female, young adult skeleton was found. 

During this time a reported asked Fred West what happened to his daughter, Fred relied "I haven't murdered my daughter."

Police interviewed Fred West 151 times and he told them he was pleading guilty before telling them he was innocent, throughout Rose's 60 interviews she refused to talk or cooperate with police. Upon informing Fred West that police were going back to his home to search the entire property from top to bottom and excavate the outdoor areas as they needed, Fred decided to cooperate, sort of. 

He handed police a note with the names of the other victims they would find in the house and the whereabouts of his daughter Charmaine's body whom he admitted to killing. It would later be determined that Fred West was in prison at the time of Charmaine's murder so therefore Rose must have been responsible instead.

Their victims were:
Charmaine West, daughter of Fred West from his previous marriage. 1971

Catherine "Rena" West, Fred West's ex wife. 1971

Lynda Carole Gough, a lodger who lived in their household. 1973

Carol Ann Cooper, who disappeared while walking to the cinema. 1973

Lucy Katherine Partington, who disappeared when going to catch a bus. 1973

Theresa Siegenthaler, who disappeared while hitch-hiking. 1974

Shirley Hubbard, who left her work experience job to head home and was never seen again. 1974

Juanita Marion Mott, a former lodger who was staying with her mother when she disappeared 1975

Shirley Ann Robinson, a lodger who got pregnant with Fred's child. 1978

Alison Jane Chambers, a girl who was working in an office in the area, 1979

Heather Ann West, daughter of both Fred and Rosemary West, 1987

While there are believed to be more victims of Fred and Rosemary West police are still unable to say with certainty the identifications of others. 

Fred boasted about having killed hundreds of girls and had been overheard boasting about other names that are not on The West's victim. Anna McFall was 18 at the time of her disappearance in 1967, she was roughly 8 months pregnant at the time and she was the nanny of Fred and Rena West. It is believed that Fred was the father of her unborn child. Her body was discovered in 1994 close to the location of Rena West. Fred West never admitted to killing her.  

Fred committed suicide in January of 1995 and never had to stand trial for these crimes. 

Rosemary West was found guilty on 10 counts of murder. 

Due to the savage nature of the deaths Rosemary was given life without parole. The bodies were dismembered, naked and in some cases still bound. The skull of Shirley Hubbard was found to be wearing a mask made of tape which covered her whole face and a tube for her to breathe through. While Rosemary West sits in prison she and her lawyer have worked on various attempts at parole and appeals. 

Rosemary West was born into a tough life and while some may argue that she herself was a victim of her circumstances, it does little to negate the decades of torture that went on the 25 Cromwell Street. The house has since been levelled to the ground and today, nothing stands in it's place.