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| Case file: Frederick and Rosemary West In the summer of 1991 Frederick West from Gloucester, England, was facing a charge of sexual assault against several of his children. The case was dropped, however, when his daughter refused to give evidence against him. Later she told a police officer that she was frightened of ending up in the backyard like her sister. The sister had disappereard four years before. Alarmed, the police arrested West and his wife, Rosemary, and started a painstaking search of their home. Fred West soon admitted to murdering the girl and described exactly where she was buried. The area was excavated carefully and ground-penetrating radar was used in the search for the body. The investigative team was horrified to uncover not only the remains of the missing daughter, but also those of several other girls and young women. As the search of the property was extended, more bodies were found beneath the basement floor. In the course of their inquiries, the police discovered that Fred's first wife, her daughter, and a friend were missing also - two of the bodies were unearthed in a field some miles away. It became clear that the Wests were obsessed with violent sex and had been arrested for assaulting a 16-year-old as early as 1973, although the girl had been too scared to give evidence and they had received only small fines. The Wests would go in search of their victims together, looking for young women who were on their own. As a couple, they found it easy to lure them into their clutches. Once at the Wests' home, the girls would be abused, tortured, and eventually killed. In all, 12 women were murdered by Fred and Rosemary West, and both received life sentences. Fred committed suicide while in prison on January 1, 1995. The trial judge recommended that Rosemary never be released. |
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