Fred and Rose West’s children are embroiled in a bitter family rift as each of them struggles with the legacy of having grown up with the depraved couple as their parents, MailOnline can reveal.
The twisted couple – arguably the most notorious serial killers in British history – counted two of their own children among their many murder victims, while a third later took his own life.
But the seven children who survived being raised at 25 Cromwell Street, Gloucester’s ‘House of Horrors’, were left with incalculable mental anguish after suffering abhorrent sexual abuse, repeated physical beatings and vicious mental torture.
Now MailOnline has learned that the seven now find it so triggering to see each other that practically all contact has ceased between the survivors despite three of them living just minutes from each others’ homes.
Stephen West, 42, Fred and Rose’s eldest biological son said: ‘We [the West siblings] don’t have anything to do with each other.
‘I don’t speak to my siblings and there are no large happy family get-togethers.
‘Too much has gone on. It’s probably too painful for us.’
Stephen’s older sister Anne-Marie Davis, 60, the eldest surviving of the children has not spoken publicly about her upbringing for some years.
Serial killer Fred West (third from right, in blue suit) with his wife Rose (far left) at their daughter Anna’s wedding in 1994
The twisted couple – arguably the most notorious serial killers in British history – counted two of their own children among their many murder victims, while a third later took his own life
MailOnline has learned that the couple’s seven surviving children now find it so triggering to see each other that practically all contact has ceased between the survivors despite three of them living just minutes from each others’ homes
But her husband Philip spoke to MailOnline this week to confirm that she and her siblings are estranged from one another.
He told us: ‘It’s the siblings who live with the misery and pain of what went on in that house and the trauma is probably too much for them to have any contact.
‘Even though some of them live near each other, they don’t speak or see each other because that only opens up old wounds for them.
‘Every few years the case is back in the media, like now with this new documentary, and the public gets interested again but it’s the children who live with the pain of what happened on a daily basis.’
The documentary Mr Davis was referring to is a forthcoming Netflix production due for release on 14 May.
Some 31 years after the Wests’ heinous crimes came to light, the documentary is expected to revisit the case that shocked the world and details how Britain’s worst serial killer couple tortured, raped and murdered their young victims.
The documentary, ‘Fred & Rose West: A British Horror Story,’ is the latest of many that have been made over the past three decades on their murder frenzy.
It is centred on the victims’ families with Netflix claiming that it would ‘give an insight’ into their ‘pain and torment.’
Fred West (left) committed at least twelve murders between 1967 and 1987 in Gloucestershire, the majority with his second wife, Rose
A policeman stands guard outside 25 Cromwell Street, the ‘house of horrors’ where several of the victims’ bodies were found
A new Netflix documentary, ‘Fred & Rose West: A British Horror Story,’ is the latest of many that have been made over the past three decades on the couple’s murder spree
The film, due for release on May 14, is expected to revisit the case that shocked the world and details how Britain’s worst serial killer couple tortured, raped and murdered their young victims
Netflix claim the documentary is centred on the victims’ families and will ‘give an insight’ into their ‘pain and torment.’
Fred West (right) never stood trial because he took his own life in prison in January 1995 before he could face justice, while Rose West (left) remains an inmate at HMP New Hall, a closed-category prison for female adults, juveniles, and young offenders in West Yorkshire
A composite showing 11 of the 12 victims of murderous couple Fred and Rosemary West
But Fred and Rose West, who slaughtered at least 12 girls and young women, shared ten children in total and their story is rarely told.
The ten comprised five that Fred and Rose had together, three girls and two boys.
Then there were two girls from a previous relationship Fred had had and three daughters Rose gave birth to after becoming pregnant from clients she slept with while working as a prostitute.
Of the ten West children, only seven are still alive. Of these, four are understood to have moved to other parts of the UK to begin new lives under new identities.
But three have remained in the Gloucester area where the killings took place – and live barely ten minutes from each other.
Their father, Fred, never stood trial because he took his own life in prison in January 1995 before he could face justice.
Fred’s brother John West, who took part in some of their rapes, also killed himself in prison.
So only Rose stood trial – and is now serving a life sentence after being found guilty in 1995 of murdering ten girls and women, which included her daughter and stepdaughter.
An aerial video of the couple’s home, where a number of bodies were found buried
A police team work to excavate the garden of 25 Cromwell Street, where the couple disposed of the remains of several of their victims
Fred West leaving court in Gloucester in handcuffs during his murder trial in 1994
A smiling Fred West stands in the garden of 25 Cromwell St, where multiple bodies were buried
But the West children have also battled their own life sentences in the form of the personal demons.
The Daily Mail’s veteran Crime Editor Stephen Wright put this succinctly when writing about the case last year: ‘I sat through every day of Rose’s seven-week trial. It was a case which, for me, redefined the meaning of the word ‘evil’.
‘But there is another category of victim whose stories have not been reported so widely. ‘These are the West children, brought up in the most depraved and dysfunctional family imaginable…The Wests’ offspring suffered abhorrent sexual abuse, repeated physical beatings and shocking mental torment.’
‘Make no mistake, each of the West children were victims.’
And each of them has grappled with the dark legacy of their – while trying to put their own mental health ahead of that of each other as siblings.
As Stephen West told us this week: ‘I have my own family and children now and for me, it’s all about protecting them. My kids don’t know about the family history.. My only concern is my own children.’
He added: ‘We [the siblings] have gone in different directions and are getting on with our lives.’
It was not unusual for Fred to force the children to watch video recordings of their prostitute mother (who worked under the name ‘Mandy’) having sex with customers upstairs.
When Fred and Rose were not killing, life in the house revolved around debauchery and sexual abuse.
One witness at Rose’s trial in Winchester recalled being at 25 Cromwell Street in the and hearing a child scream ‘stop it Daddy’ from another room in the middle of the night.
It seems that over three decades on, the West children remain haunted by the horrors that they witnessed as children.
Charmaine
Charmaine West (Deceased). Born in 1963, the oldest of the ten children who now would have been aged 62. And the first of the victims to be killed who disappeared at the age of eight in 1971. She was Fred’s daughter from his marriage to Rena Costello but after splitting, he raised her as his own with Rose becoming her stepmother.
But while Fred was in jail for petty theft in June 1971, Rose murdered the eight-year-old and stashed her remains in the cellar for Fred to bury in the garden upon his release. Charmaine’s skeleton was dug up at their former home in the city, 25 Midland Road.
Anne-Marie Davis, 60: Charmaine’s younger sister and oldest surviving of the siblings. She was one of the Wests’ first victims when they converted their cellar into a torture chamber and was ordered to strip before being tied to a mattress, gagged and raped by her father. She was just eight at the time. She was also routinely raped by clients who came to her basement room and 300 times by her uncle John West who killed himself while awaiting trial. Anne-Marie was the only sibling to give evidence against Rose West during her trial in 1995 as she revealed details of the horrific rapes and torture she endured at the hands of her father and stepmother. A year later she attempted to commit suicide by jumping off Westgate bridge in Gloucester and was rescued by firefighters. She is married and currently lives in the Gloucester area.
Fred and Rose with Anne-Marie
Anne-Marie
Heather West (Deceased): The eldest of the West’s five biological children who was born in December 1970 and would now have been aged 54. She was 16 when she disappeared in 1987. Her absence finally prompted police in 1992 to eventually become suspicious and begin investigating West after being informed by social workers that his children had told them that ‘she was under the patio’ had become a standing family joke. In 1994, West admitted to her murder leading police to uncover the ‘House of Horrors.’ Her body was discovered under the patio of 25 Cromwell Street in February 1994. When she was found, her fingernails were in a pile separate from her body, suggesting she had been tortured. Fred said in a police interview: ‘I cut her legs off with that…and then I cut her head off and then I put her in the bin and put the lid on and rolled it down to the bottom of the garden behind the Wendy house.’
Heather
Mae West, 52: Born to the Wests in September 1972. Now a mother of two, she lives in a secret location away from the West Country. Unlike her younger siblings she was not taken into care and is believed to be the only one who has continued to remain close to her mother following her imprisonment. Wrote a memoir about her childhood in 2018 called ‘Love as Always Mum xxx.’ She described how Fred often put ‘hard core porn’ videos on TV for his children to watch – some featuring ‘mum and her clients’. ‘Dad didn’t make any secret of the fact he sometimes filmed her having sex,’ she said. ‘…I used to find it completely repulsive.’ She added: ‘We always knew about their interest in kinky sex: they never tried to hide it from us. They’d leave porn magazines lying around the house, along with bondage gear: masks, rubber suits, whips and the like. It wasn’t unusual for us kids to come across dildos, vibrators and other sex toys just lying around the house. It amused Dad, more than anything, to see how we reacted.’
Mae West
Mae West and Heather
Stephen West, 42: Regularly ran away from home as a youngster, sleeping rough and would be beaten by Fred on his return. He was told he would have to have sex with his mum when he turned 17, and was unwittingly made to dig Heather’s grave, with Fred telling him the hole was for a fishpond. Stephen later admitted: ‘There’s a bit of my dad in me.’ In January 2002, after a failed suicide attempt, he was jailed for nine months for having sex with 14-year-old girl. Has no contact with Rose and once revealed in an interview in 1999 that it was ‘important’ for him to cut ties with her. He is currently married and has two young children and lives in the Gloucester area where he works as a builder.
Stephen West as a boy with his dad, Fred
Fred West’s son Stephen West
Tara West, 47: Fathered by one of Rose West’s clients when she worked as a prostitute from the family home and other locations under the name of ‘Mandy.’ Tara managed to escape most of the sexual abuse suffered by her older siblings and once claimed that Rose did this because she felt sorry for her because of her parentage. Was named after the Tara Hotel in Gloucester which Rose frequented with her clients. In 1992 she was taken into care and not allowed to contact her parents or her older siblings. Now believed to be married and living in the North of England under a different name.
Louise West, 46: Another of the siblings who was taken into care and prevented from contacting the rest of her family for many years. Was in the care of a foster family as a youngster and now believed to be living in the north of England. Has never returned to Gloucester since being taken but is believed to have intermittent contact with some of her younger sisters.
Barry West
Barry West (Deceased): Died in August 2020 at the age of 40 from a suspected overdose after battling years of drug and alcohol addiction. He was aged just seven when he watched his parents beat his sister Heather to death at their Cromwell Street home. An inquest into his death heard how Mr West, who was too scared to give evidence at his mother’s 1995 trial, had a ‘complex medical history’. He was placed into the care of a foster family by social services in 1992 to help him ‘become normal’ but battled with severe mental health problems throughout his adult life. He was found dead at his supported living accommodation in Maidstone, Kent.
Rosemary ‘Junior’ West, 42: Named after mother and another one of her children who was fathered by a client during her work as a prostitute. After being placed into care, she was given a new identity and now lives away from the Gloucester or West Country area.
Lucyanna West, 41: The third daughter Rose West had by one of her clients while working as a prostitute. After being taken into care at the age of nine, she was raised by a foster family and provided with a new identity. Went to university and now works as a therapist.
Rose West, who is serving a life sentence, holds baby Mae
