“There’s a bit of my dad in me”: inside Stephen West's life now after escaping Fred and Rose’s abuse

The horrifying case of Fred and Rose West's multiple murders and abuse has been re-examined in a new Netflix series, Fred and Rose West: A British Horror Story. The three-part documentary details how, as well as violently killing (at least) nine vulnerable young women who unfortunately crossed their paths, the Wests also murdered two of their own children: Heather and Charmaine.

Beyond that, the Wests also had eight other children between them – including Stephen West, footage of whom appears in the Netflix film, as he details the extreme abuse he and his siblings were subjected to at the hands of their parents.

He also recalls the tearful conversation he had with his father, after the police's child abuse investigation ended up uncovering further crimes, which culminated in Rose West being found guilty of ten murders in November 1995. Fred West committed suicide in January 1995 before he could stand trial.

Stephen West, born in 1973, was the first son and third child of notorious killers Fred and Rose West. His childhood was marred by violence, with some reports claiming his mother, Rose, hit him over the head with a bowl and repeatedly kicked him in the head and chest.

Like his sister Heather, who was abused and murdered by their parents, Stephen also made an attempt to run away from the family’s twisted home, but it ended in failure.

Unlike his sisters, Stephen appears to have escaped the sexual abuse inflicted by Fred. However, Fred reportedly once told him he’d have to start having sex with his mother at 17 – though Stephen was evicted from the family home at 16. Despite his own trauma, Stephen said he tried to shield his sisters from their father’s predatory behaviour.

Stephen may have been the first person Fred confided in about his crimes. On the morning police began searching their infamous 25 Cromwell Street home, Fred reportedly told his son: “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.”

Later, while in custody, Fred made chilling admissions to Stephen, including the horrifying revelation that as a child, Stephen had unknowingly helped dig the graves of his father’s victims.

Stephen recalled: “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.’”

“We felt a lot happier to be at school where we felt safe. It was a better place to be than to be at home,” Stephen says in an old interview that features in the Netflix series. “Mum always disciplined us, she could never just hit us once and forget it.”

He has also detailed Rose's raging temper, that could spark at any minute leaving her children fearful in their own home. “She would lose her temper in a big way over a little thing and once she started hitting us, she found it hard to stop. It was always our fault, something we deserved.”

Stephen has also spoken out about why they kept quiet for so long, “It was obvious mum and dad didn't want us to say anything to anybody and my friend spoke to a teacher about the beatings that I was having. In a way I wanted them to do something about it, but the risk was that [we'd be split up] and that was something I didn't want.”

Later, Stephen and his sister, Mae, once Fred was taken into custody relating to the murder investigations, said they would cooperate with the police – with Mae alleging sexual abuse at the hands of her father.

“I hated him, I hated what he did,” Stephen said. “It's so unbelievable that you're trying to make sense of it every day. I asked the police could I see him, one of the hardest things I ever did to face him. He was just crying, he was very, very down. To see him cry was hard to accept.”

Stephen also alleges that prior to committing suicide, his father confessed that he would be taking sick secrets with him to the grave. “He told me that he would never tell anybody the whole truth, that it was worse than I could imagine. He promised me he would die with them never knowing the full extent of what he did.”

Stephen’s life has been far from smooth since his abusive childhood, with mental health issues and dark convictions of his own transpiring since.

In 2002, Stephen attempted suicide, and two years later, he was sentenced to nine months in prison after admitting to seven counts of having underage sex with a 14-year-old girl when he was 20.

He reportedly once remarked, “There’s a bit of my dad in me.”

Stephen also reportedly said in Howard Sounes’ book Fred & Rose that following his conviction, his mother wrote to the judge imploring him to give Stephen a longer sentence. “My mother sent a letter to the judge saying that I should never release me and I should be locked up for ever.”

Now 52, Stephen is believed to live in the Gloucester area with his wife and two children, and at one point worked as a builder.

He has no contact with Rose, who is serving a lifelong sentence in prison in HM Prison New Hall, in West Yorkshire.