Rosemary West

Rosemary Pauline West (née Letts; born 29 November 1953) is an English serial killer who collaborated with her husband, Fred West, in the torture and murder of at least nine young women between 1973 and 1987; she also murdered her eight-year-old stepdaughter Charmaine in 1971.

The majority of these murders took place at the West residence in Gloucester.

At the onset of puberty, Letts, reportedly fascinated by her developing body, would deliberately parade naked or semi-naked around the house in the presence of her younger brother, Graham (born 1957).

On numerous occasions, at the age of 13, she would also creep into nine-year-old Graham's bed at nightfall and molest him and her youngest brother Gordon.

Rose first encountered Fred West at a Cheltenham bus stop in early 1969, shortly after Rose had turned 15 and when Fred was aged 27.

Initially Rose was repulsed by Fred's unkempt appearance, but quickly became flattered by the attention he continued to lavish on her over the following days as he invariably sat alongside her at the same bus stop.

Rose twice refused to go on a date with Fred but allowed him to accompany her home.

Having discovered Rose worked in a nearby bread shop, Fred persuaded an unknown woman to enter the premises and present her with a gift accompanied by the explanation that a "man outside" had asked her to present this gift to her.

Minutes later, Fred entered the premises and asked Rose to accompany him on a date that evening, an offer she accepted.

Shortly thereafter, Rose began a relationship with Fred, becoming a frequent visitor at the caravan park where he lived with the two children from his first marriage to Catherine "Rena" Costello, daughter Anne Marie and stepdaughter Charmaine.

Rose became a willing childminder to Fred's daughters, who she noted were neglected and whom she initially treated with care and affection.

On several occasions in the early days of their courtship, Rose insisted she and Fred take the girls on excursions to gather wildflowers.

Within weeks of her first meeting Fred, Rose left her job at the bread shop in order to become full-time nanny to Fred's children; this decision was made with the agreement that Fred would provide her with sufficient money to give to her parents on Fridays to convince them she was still obtaining a salary at the bread shop.

Several months later, Rose introduced Fred to her family, who were aghast at their daughter's choice of partner.

Rose's mother was unimpressed with Fred's boastful and arrogant behaviour, and correctly concluded he was a pathological liar.

Her father vehemently disapproved of the relationship, threatening Fred directly and promising to call social services if he continued to associate with his daughter.

Rose's parents forbade their daughter from continuing to date Fred, but she defied their wishes, prompting them to visit Gloucestershire social services to explain that their 15-year-old daughter was having a sexual relationship with an older man and that they had heard rumours that she had begun to engage in prostitution at Fred's caravan.

In response, Rose was placed in a home for troubled teenagers in Cheltenham in August 1969, and only permitted to leave under controlled conditions.

When allowed to return home to visit her parents at weekends, Rose almost invariably took the opportunity to visit Fred.

Rose's father made one final effort to prevent his daughter from seeing Fred, and Rose was examined by a police surgeon in February 1970, who confirmed she was pregnant.

In response, Rose was again placed into care but was discharged on 6 March on the understanding she would terminate her pregnancy and return to her family.

Instead, Rose opted to live with Fred, resulting in her father forbidding his daughter from ever again setting foot in his household.

Three months later, the couple vacated the Cheltenham flat and relocated to the ground floor flat of a two-storey house at Midland Road in Gloucester.

On 17 October 1970, Rose gave birth to their first child: a daughter they named Heather Ann (speculation remains that Heather may have been sired by Rose's own father).

Two months later, Fred was imprisoned for the theft of car tyres and a vehicle tax disc.

He remained imprisoned until 24 June 1971.

As he served this six-and-a-half-month sentence, Rose, having just turned 17, looked after the three girls, with Charmaine and Anne Marie being told to refer to Rose as their mother.

According to Anne Marie, she and Charmaine were frequently subjected to extensive physical and emotional abuse throughout the time they lived under Rose's care at Midland Road.

Although Anne Marie was generally submissive and prone to display emotion in response to the abuse, Charmaine repeatedly infuriated Rose by her stoic refusal to either cry or display any sign of grief or servitude, no matter how severely she was treated.

Fred West committed suicide in prison that same year while awaiting trial, following the couple's arrest in 1994.

Rose West was born Rosemary Pauline Letts in Northam, Devon, to William Andrew "Bill" Letts and Daisy Gwendoline Fuller after a difficult pregnancy.

She was the fifth of seven children born into a poor family.

Rose's mother suffered from depression and was given electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) both during and immediately after her pregnancy; some have argued that this treatment may have caused prenatal developmental injuries to her daughter.

Rose Letts grew up into a moody teenager, prone to daydreaming and performing poorly at school.

After her parents separated she initially lived with her mother and attended Cleeve School for six months, then moved in with her father in Bishop's Cleeve, near Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.

Letts's father, who suffered from paranoid schizophrenia, was prone to extreme violence and repeatedly sexually abused Letts and her oldest sister Patricia.

West is currently an inmate at HM Prison New Hall, Flockton, West Yorkshire, after being convicted in 1995 of ten murders.

On her 16th birthday, Rose left the home for troubled teenagers to return to her parents while Fred was serving a thirty-day sentence for theft and unpaid fines.

Upon his release, Rose left her parents' home to move into the Cheltenham flat he then lived in.

Shortly thereafter, Fred collected Charmaine and Anne Marie from social services.