Friendless Rose West's life behind bars with unusual prison breakfast
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New information has emerged about the daily life of infamous serial killer Rose West in prison.
Now 71, West and her husband Fred committed horrific crimes at their Gloucester home between 1967 and 1987, raping, torturing, and murdering at least 12 women and girls. Their terrifying deeds didn't come to light until 1992 when their 13 year old daughter Louise accused Fred of rape and Rose of cruelty.
The case fell apart after their eldest daughter Anne Marie, who had been abused since she was eight, refused to testify, but the children's accounts raised suspicions with the police.
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The authorities launched a major investigation after learning that the children were frequently threatened with being buried "under the patio like their sister Heather", who had disappeared five years prior. The full extent of the horror was soon revealed, with victims ranging from Rose's eight year old stepdaughter Charmaine to Fred's ex-wife Catherine 'Reno' Costello, aged 27.
In 1995, Rose West was given a whole life order, meaning she will spend the rest of her life behind bars, after police found several mutilated bodies buried in the garden, under a patio, and even in a sex dungeon cellar. Fred never faced trial for the atrocities he helped perpetrate, reports the Mirror.
He committed suicide while on remand in HMP Birmingham at the age of 53.
(Image: SWNS.com)
(Image: SWNS.com)
Since ceasing her appeal attempts in 2001, she seems to have accepted the inevitability of dying behind bars, where she has already served nearly three decades. Regular transfers are a part of her life due to violence threats from fellow prisoners.
Having spent six years at New Hall, she reputedly leads a comfortable existence. Yet, if things aren't to her liking, she's known to challenge staff members.
An insider revealed to The Sun: "She's in a disabled room now because she can barely walk. She never really leaves the wing she's held on and is escorted all the time by prison officers if she goes anywhere. Sometimes she sits in the communal areas on her own.
"No one talks to her because everyone knows who she is and what she did, even if she has changed her name. When I was there, she tried to make friends with the other women and gave them gifts, like vapes, but she was rejected. She likes to watch nature documentaries on the TV in her cell, especially ones about birds."
Aiming to separate herself from her notorious past, West is believed to have forked out £36 to legally become Jennifer Jones. It's believed that she altered her name via deed poll last December, claiming to acquaintances that it symbolises a fresh start.
Nonetheless, her notoriety precedes her at HMP New Hall, a female-only facility near Wakefield, West Yorkshire, where her true identity is no secret.
Some prisoners snub her overtures of friendship, leaving her to dine solo on tomato soup in her cell for breakfast, followed by long days largely confined to knitting and chatting to her television set due to her limited mobility.
West has been moved to a special section of New Hall prison called Rivendell House, where inmates enjoy the luxury of an en-suite cell and access to a laptop to order their groceries. Reports suggest that this part of the jail offers communal spaces that are "more inviting" than other areas.
The gruesome legacy of Fred and Rose West is revisited in Netflix's recently released documentary, 'Fred and Rose West: A British Horror Story', which aired earlier this month. This chilling three-part saga draws on over 50 hours of unearthed police interview footage from 107 interrogations and aims to shine a fresh light on the ghastly murders of at least a dozen women carried out by the couple from their ordinary-looking Gloucester home in the 1980s and 1990s.
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