EXCLUSIVE One tell-tale sign at a murder scene always has police suspecting the wife... An ex-detective tells JONICA BRAY how Erin Patterson left herself exposed from the day of the fatal lunch
But behind their seemingly ordinary lives, some women harbour dark secrets, deadly resentments and longstanding grudges that can have unimaginable consequences.
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Daily Mail
44 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
I was Fred West's son: Dad was a monster but my psychopath mum Rose was even worse
Barry West was just seven when he watched his parents beat his sister Heather to death at their Cromwell Street home in Gloucester. The son of Fred and Rose West died of a painkiller overdose, aged 40, in 2021 after telling a doctor his life was 'not worth living'. Between 1967 and 1987, Fred and Rose tortured, raped, and murdered at least 12 young women in Gloucester, including two of their own daughters, before Fred died by suicide and Rose was sentenced to life in prison in 1995. In a previously unshared interview, that took place two years before his death, Barry told the Mirror that his father was a 'solid monster' but it was his mother that was 'a complete psycho'. The deviant couple married at Gloucester Register Office in January 1972 and moved into a three-storey property at 25 Cromwell Street shortly afterwards. It was here, in what was dubbed the 'House of Horrors', that the majority of their victims were found buried in the garden and cellar in 1994. Among their 12 victims was their eldest daughter Heather, who was 16 when West killed and dismembered her, and Charmaine, Fred's eight-year-old daughter from his first marriage to Rena Costello. During their time together, Fred and Rose shared ten children in total - including five they had together. Then there were the two girls, including Charmaine and Fred, as well as three daughters Rose gave birth to after becoming pregnant from clients she slept with while working as a prostitute. Barry was Rose and Fred West's youngest child, with the couple also parents to daughters Heather Ann, Mae June and Louise, alongside son Stephen, 45. In June 1987, Heather, 16, became the final victim of the Wests after suffering years or trauma and abuse at the hands of her parents. Barry, then seven, witnessed the death of his sister at the hands of her parents. Taken into care five years later, he was too scared to give evidence at his mother's 1995 trial and was plagued by nightmares and psychiatric problems his entire life. 'That's what people don't know: My mum was, child abuse-wise, the main person,' Barry said. 'My mum was completely sick in the head. She beat me way more than my dad did, and enjoyed it, absolutely enjoyed it.' Barry's bedroom had been in the soundproofed cellar at 25 Cromwell Street, where the West children were often locked in overnight with Rose wearing the keys around her neck. Opening up about the abuse he suffered, he revealed that Rose would violently lash out straggling and even stabbing her children. Barry said that his nose had become deformed due to the number of times she broken it and that she would regularly beat him with a giant wooden spoon which would split his head open. 'She was just as sick as him. Her moods didn't change. She used to hit us even on Christmas Day. She used to smack you straight in the mouth,' Barry added. He recalled one Christmas where he hid his Brussels sprouts behind the back of a chair and when Rose found it days later, she made him eat the rotting vegetable before forcing him to swallow his own sick. Barry described his father as 'disgusting man' who forced him into sexual situations with his mother at just eight or nine'. He claimed Fred regularly spoke about wanting to take his daughters' virginity in front of him , telling him about about the family tradition of incest, and sex with animals. According to Barry, the children would answer to phone to take booking for Rose when she working as a prostitute and he was also offered up to clients. He recalled his mother telling him 'there's a man in here and I want you to do exactly what he tells you to do, no matter what'. Charmaine West (pictured) was murdered by Rose West at the age of eight and buried in the garden by Fred upon his release from prison Mae West (pictured as a teenager) was not taken into care and is believed to be the only one of the siblings who maintained contact with Rose after she was imprisoned Stephen West pictured as a young boy with his dad Fred and his sister Heather, whose grave he was made to dig The man became a regular and repeatedly raped him as well as having sex with Rose. He claimed he and his sibling were made to watch homemade porn featuring their mother. Barry admitted that he thought about killing his father and stabbed him with a screwdriver when he was aged 11. However, Fred just laughed at him, he said. 'Why didn't we all run away?,' Barry asked. He responded to himself by saying his 'dad was like God' who 'you couldn't beat' as 'he would find you.' His older sister Heather's death acted as a warningr. The rest of the children were told she'd moved away, but it went on to become a family 'joke' that if your crossed Fred and Rose, you could suffer the same fate - dead under the patio. Inside the House of Horrors: How Fred and Rose West killed 12 people and buried them in their Cromwell Street home Fred and Rose West are believed to have killed at least 12 people, with most of the victims subject to rape and other forms of sexual torture before their eventual deaths. The couple married at Gloucester Register Office in January 1972 and moved into a three-storey property at 25 Cromwell Street shortly afterwards. It was here, in what was dubbed the 'House of Horrors', that the majority of their victims were found buried in the garden and cellar in 1994. Rose and Fred's first victim was teenager Lynda Gough, who the couple met through a male lodger in early 1973. Her body was found dismembered, with bones missing, in a pit beneath the couple's garage in Gloucester. A further five victims were murdered and buried in the cellar at Cromwell Street between November 1973 and April 1975. The first of these victims, Carol Ann Cooper, 15, was abducted in November 1973. Cooper lived in the Pines Children's Home in Worcester, and was kidnapped after spending the evening at a cinema with her boyfriend. As had been the case with Lynda, Cooper died from strangulation or asphyxiation, before her body was dismembered and buried in a shallow, cubical grave in the cellar. Four further victims, aged between 15 and 21, suffered a similar fate over the next 17 months. Fred's first wife Rena was also murdered aged 27 after her daughter Charmaine was killed in 1971. It is understood Fred killed teenager Anne McFall, who was pregnant with his child, in July 1967. Her body was found in 1994 buried in a cornfield, with her limbs severed and several of her bones missing. The pair also killed their daughter Heather in June 1987. Their children began to come forward about the abuse they suffered at the hands of their parents in 1992. Social services then started investigating Fred and Rose and later questioned Heather's disappearance. They were granted a search warrant for the Cromwell Road property in 1994 and Fred later confessed to the murder of his daughter. Fred killed himself in prison in 1995 while awaiting trial on 12 murder charges. His wife, 67, was sentenced to life in jail without parole for ten murders.
BBC News
44 minutes ago
- BBC News
Bolton: Woman arrested after man found dead
A woman has been arrested on suspicion of murder after a man was found dead in Manchester Police said officers were called to a property on Longden Road on Thursday evening at 20:50 BST to reports of concern for the welfare of a man, believed to be in his 40s, was declared dead at the scene.A woman, also in her 40s, remains in custody for questioning while investigations are ongoing. Listen to the best of BBC Radio Manchester on Sounds and follow BBC Manchester on Facebook, X, and Instagram. You can also send story ideas via Whatsapp to 0808 100 2230.
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
Man charged after death of mother more than 30 years ago
A 67-year-old man has been charged following the death of a mother more than 30 years ago, Police Scotland has confirmed. Shona Stevens, 31, was discovered badly injured on a path in woodland near her home in Irvine, North Ayrshire, on November 10 1994. She later died in hospital. On Friday, Police Scotland announced that a 67-year-old had been arrested – with an update on Saturday revealing the man has now been charged. It comes more than three decades after Ms Stevens was found injured on a footpath near to the rear of Alder Green in the Bourtreehill Park area of Irvine. Senior investigation officer Detective Chief Inspector Stuart Gillies said: 'I would like to thank the members of the local community who assisted us in our inquiries. 'I am grateful for their information and input which greatly contributed to our investigation.' The man is now expected to appear at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court on Monday July 28.
