Fred and Rose West are two of the most notorious serial killers in British history. Over 20 years, between 1967 and 1987, the husband and wife committed at least 12 horrifying murders, often torturing and sexually abusing their victims, before dismembering their bodies and burying them in the cellar or garden of their Gloucester home — later dubbed the ‘House of Horrors’ by the press.
Among the many victims were Fred and Rose’s children, who grew up under violent, authoritarian rule, and were sexually and physically abused by their parents. Two of the 10 children were eventually murdered, while those who survived have been plagued by the terrors they endured and witnessed as kids.
Fred took his own life in police custody in January 1995, after admitting to at least 12 murder, and Rose was convicted of 10 murders in November that year. The Wests’ known murder victims were Ann McFall, 18, Charmaine West, aged eight, Catherine (Rena) Costello, 27, Lynda Gough, 19, Carol Ann Cooper, 15, Lucy Partington, 21, Thérèse Siegenthaler, 21, Shirley Hubbard, 15, Juanita Mott, 18, Shirley Robinson, 18, Alison Chambers, 16, and Heather West, 16.
Close to 30 years on from their arrest, the nightmarish case is now being retold in a new three-part documentary series, Fred and Rose West: A British Horror Story, which lands on Netflix today (May 14).
In light of renewed interest in the sickening crimes of their parents, we revisit what happened to each of their children, who survived the monstrous House of Horrors and who very sadly did not.
Charmaine West
Charmaine West (born March 1963) was the first-born child of Fred’s first wife Catherine (Rena) Costello. When she and Fred got married the previous year, Rena was already pregnant with Charmaine, whose father wasn’t in the picture. During her upbringing, Charmaine — as well as her younger sister, Anna Marie, Fred and Rose’s first biological child who was born in 1964 — was subjected to cruel treatment by Fred, including being caged into a bunk bed and only allowed out when he was at work.
Everyone's clicking on...
In 1965, the family moved from Rena’s home city Glasgow to Gloucester, closer to Fred’s hometown, and it was here that Fred allegedly started to sexually abuse Charmaine. He was also increasingly controlling and abusive towards Rena, who eventually escaped, leaving her daughters in Fred’s care.
With Rena gone, Charmaine and Anna Marie spent time in and out of Gloucestershire social services’ care, but when Fred met Rose (then 15-year-old Rosemary Letts) in 1969, she became the pair’s childminder. Although she was caring at first, Rose soon became violent, regularly beating the girls. In December 1970, two months after Rose gave birth to her and Fred’s first biological daughter Heather Ann, Fred was imprisoned for theft.
During his time in prison — which lasted until June 1971 — Charmaine vanished. It’s been reported that Charmaine’s stoicism in the face of Rose’s physical and emotional abuse, as well as her refusal to recognise Rose as her mother (once telling her, ‘My real mummy wouldn’t swear or shout as us’) enraged her stepmother. On one occasion, a neighbour said they saw Charmaine standing naked on a chair, gagged and with her hands bound, while Rose stood by her side with a wooden spoon in her hand.
Charmaine was last seen alive 1971, when Rose took her and her sisters to visit Fred in prison. It’s unclear exactly when she was killed, but it’s believed to be on this day or shortly after. Rose told her daughters Anna Marie, Heather, and other friends, family, and neighbours that Rena had come to collect Charmaine — but when Rena herself came looking for her first child, she, too, was murdered by the Wests.
Charmaine’s body was discovered in Fred and Rose’s former home on Midland Road, Gloucester in 1994. It’s believed Rose initially kept her remains in the cellar until Fred returned home and could bury her in the garden.
She would be 62 years old if she was alive today.
Anna Marie West (now known as Anne Marie Davis)
Born in July 1964, Anna Marie West was similarly subjected to violence from Fred and Rose during childhood. The Wests ran a tight ship at home, with all the children, including Anna Marie, forced to do daily chores and follow strict guidelines, and suffer punishment if they disobeyed. They were also rarely allowed to socialise outside the house. Unlike Charmaine, Anna Marie was allegedly submissive and emotional when faced with Rose’s abuse.
In 1972, when Anna Marie was eight years old, she was restrained and raped by Fred, while Rose watched and actively encouraged the abuse, even forcibly undressing her daughter. After this first assault, Rose — who was sexually abused by her own father — allegedly told Anna Marie: “I’m sorry. Everybody does it to every girl. It’s a father’s job. Don’t worry, and don’t say anything to anybody.”
The sexual abuse continued for years, with Rose facilitating Fred’s abuse (binding Anna Marie to furniture before encouraging Fred to rape her), as well as occasionally enacting it herself, forcing Anna Marie to do chores while wearing a sexual device. From the age of 13, Anna Marie was forced into prostitution, telling clients who visited the house (where Rose was already selling sex) that she was 16. Anna Marie ran away from home in 1979 when she was 15.
Anna Marie told the police for the first time about her own abuse at her father and stepmother’s hands in 1992, but refused to testify at the 1993 trial — citing her younger siblings’ distress at the situation and her fear of retaliation by Rose. The case collapsed, but Anna Marie brought the police’s attention to her missing mother, Rena, and sister, Charmaine.
She was eventually called as a witness for the prosecution in Rose’s murder trial in 1995 (the only West child to testify), telling the court that Rose was more calculating, aggressive, and controlling than Fred. In the years since, Anna Marie has attempted suicide twice; her first attempt was just two weeks after testifying against Rose. Fred’s brother John was also charged with raping Anna Marie in the 1970s, but he took his own life before the verdict was delivered.
Speaking to Cosmopolitan UK, Rose’s former lawyer Leo Goatley says he believes Anna Marie and her mother reconciled at one point, with Rose admitting that what her daughter alleged was true. “That’s one of the few public admissions that Rose did make,” he explains. “But in the intervening years, it’s clear that any relationship is [now] broken down with all of the children. They don’t have any contact with her, and, as far as I know, she doesn’t have any contact with them.”
Today, now known as Anne Marie, she’s 61, married, and still lives in the Gloucester area.
Heather West
In October 1970, Rose and Fred’s first daughter Heather Ann West was born into the already abusive and controlling West household. She was regularly abused by her parents and, on one occasion, tried to run away, but returned to the home after weeks of sleeping rough.
After Anna Marie successfully ran away in 1979, Heather and her younger sister Mae (born in 1972) became the focus of Fred’s violent sexual abuse, who allegedly told them: “I made you; I can do what I like with you.” He also said he wanted to impregnate both of his daughters, and would force them to watch porn with him.
In an attempt to prevent Fred’s abuse, Heather, Mae, and their younger brother Stephen (born in 1973) would try to avoid allowing each other to be alone with him, and would avoid showering or getting undressed when he was in the house. Mae later wrote that Heather “was affected quite badly by all of this, even more than me”. She reportedly started biting her nails until they bled, having nightmares, rocking back and forth whenever she sat down, and always had one eye on her father. It’s believed Fred forced her into intercourse by the mid-80s.
Heather’s distressing behaviour and bruises on her body were soon noticed by the staff at her school, as well as by her friends, to whom she confided in about the abuse. Rumours about the Wests’ home life, including Rose selling sex, also started to swirl, with Heather confirming their legitimacy.
In June 1987, a year after she left school, Heather disappeared. Her siblings were told that she had accepted a job in Torquay — a role she’d actually been rejected from, as her siblings had known. Later, when they enquired about why she hadn’t been in touch, Fred and Rose told the children conflicting stories: that Heather had run off with a lesbian lover or that she was involved in credit card fraud. Fred later ‘joked’ that, should the kids ever misbehave, they would “end up under the patio like Heather”.
It was Heather’s disappearance — and her parents’ changing stories — that ultimately began the West’s demise, and her body was later discovered in the garden of Cromwell Street (the so-called ‘House of Horrors’). Fred had directed the police to Heather’s remains, after claiming that he had strangled her in a fit of rage — but, as her fingernails were found in a pile separate from her body, it’s likely she was subjected to torture before her death. Fred claimed Rose had no involvement in the murder, but she was convicted of killing her daughter in 1995.
If Heather was alive today, she would be 55 years old.
Mae West
Mae West was born in June 1972. Shortly after Mae was born, Rose started selling sex from an upstairs room at their Cromwell Street home, meaning Mae always grew up with a string of strangers coming in and out of the house. Mae also suffered physical abuse at Rose’s hands, who once allegedly dragged a knife across Mae’s rib cage, leaving light wounds all over her, as well as sexual abuse at Fred’s hands.
After her parents’ arrest, Mae initially denied that she’d been sexually abused, but later wrote about it in her 2018 memoir, Love as Always, Mum xxx: The True and Terrible Story of Surviving a Childhood with Fred and Rose West. When Fred confessed to killing Heather, Mae allegedly refused to believe it, going into a state of shock.
Mae stayed in contact with Rose for a while after her imprisonment, with Goatley telling Cosmopolitan UK that she “was the one who probably kept in touch with Rose the longest”. But, he adds, “I think even that is no longer the case”.
Mae is now a 52-year-old mother of two, and lives somewhere in the UK.
Stephen West
Born in 1973, Stephen West was Fred and Rose’s first son. He, too, suffered physical violence during his childhood, including once allegedly being hit over the head with a bowl and repeatedly kicked in the head and chest by Rose. Like Heather, Stephen also unsuccessfully tried to run away from home.
It seems Stephen never was never subjected to sexual abuse (though Fred did once apparently tell him he’d have to start having sex with his mother at the age of 17 — but he was evicted at 16), but, as mentioned above, tried to help his sisters avoid being assaulted by their father.
Stephen may have been the first outsider to whom Fred confessed his crimes, telling his son on the morning of the police searching Cromwell Street: “Look son, look after mum and sell the house… I’ve done something really bad. I want you to go to the papers and make as much money as you can.”
Fred also made several more admissions to Stephen while he was in custody, including that Stephen had unwittingly helped dig the victims’ graves as a child.
As per Stephen’s recollection: “He [Fred] said to me: ‘Can you remember helping me dig those holes in the garden when you were a kid?’ I said I couldn’t remember, but he said: ‘We did it together, you know.’ Then he said: ‘That’s where the girls were found, in the exact holes.’”
In 2002, Stephen attempted suicide, and in 2004, he was jailed for nine months after having sex multiple times with a 14-year-old girl (he was 20 years old). He once allegedly said: “There’s a bit of my dad in me.” He’s now 52, married with two children, and still lives in the Gloucester area. He doesn’t have any contact with Rose.
Tara West
There’s much less known about Rose’s final five children, most of whom were fathered by her sex work clients. Tara West was born in 1977, and believes she avoided most of the sexual abuse suffered by her siblings because Rose felt sorry for her, owing to her parentage. In 1992, at the age of 15, she was taken into care, and wasn’t allowed contact with her parents or siblings. She’s now 48, and is reportedly living in the UK under a different name.
Barry West
Barry West is believed to be Fred’s biological son, and was born in 1980. Although he was too afraid to testify at Rose’s trial, Barry has since claimed that he witnessed the murder of Heather when he was seven years old. He says she was restrained, sexually and physically abused, and then Rose repeatedly stamped on her head.
Understandably, Barry had a difficult adulthood. He struggled with drug and alcohol addiction, and had severe mental health issues. He took his own life in 2020 at the age of 40.
Rosemary ‘Junior’ West
Born in 1982, Rosemary ‘Junior’ West is also believed to have been fathered by one of Rose’s clients. She was also taken into care in 1992, and has since been given a new identity, so little is known about her adult life. She’s currently 43.
Lucyanna West
Rose’s final child, also fathered by a client, was Lucyanna West, who was born in 1983. She, too, was taken into care in 1992, and now lives under a new identity. She will now be 42.
