Desperate last moments of Rose West's victims confirmed by horror cellar finds

Daily Mirror

9 hours ago

WARNING: DISTRESSING CONTENT Sadistic killers Fred and Rose West deliberately transformed their foul-smelling basement into a sordid sex dungeon, where they would carry out depraved acts against their victims
Before killing their victims, Fred and Rose West would subject them to unthinkable abuse in the dark, dingy cellar that the depraved couple had transformed into their sex dungeon.
Between the years 1967 and 1987, the Wests brutally tortured and slayed at least 12 vulnerable young women and girls at their Gloucestershire 'House of Horrors', 25 Cromwell Street. As detailed in the recent Netflix documentary, Fred and Rose West: A British Horror Story, after unearthing human remains from beneath the Wests' patio, the search expanded to inside the property, and in particular, the couple's foul-smelling basement.
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Janet Leach, who acted as an appropriate adult to Fred, accompanied the killer to the cellar where he marked out the burial sites to investigating officers. Speaking in the doc, she recalled: "When I went to sleep at night, I could smell it."
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It was here that, beneath the floor, further bodies were recovered. A disturbing picture of the victims' final moments began to emerge, with the remains showing signs that extreme sexual abuse had taken place prior to death. As was later noted in court, the scarf used to gag Thérèse Siegenthaler, one of the deceased, had been tied into a bow, in what was viewed to be a "feminine" touch.
READ MORE: Fred and Rose West's hidden secrets - 'sex cult, paedo brother and more bodies'
Investigators also discovered tools Fred and Rose had used to torture their victims, forensic psychologist Dr Julian Boon previously told The Guardian: "The thing that haunted me the most was a mask that had nothing but two nose holes, so the person could breathe but couldn't see or hear. As a consequence, they could have anything done to them, and that is very frightening."
Although mere minutes away from a busy shopping centre, the side entrance of 25 Cronwell Street and the lack of street lighting meant victims could be lured in without attracting notice. Criminal profiler, Dr Paul Britton, said: "These aren't people who looked like predatory psychopaths, they looked ordinary. Their activities were out of plain sight. They were able to take their victims, bind them, gag them, break their teeth.
"They were able to put tubes into them to keep them alive for days and suspend them from hooks because of the nature of the building. They were shielded, and no one knew what was happening."
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Fred died by suicide on New Year's Day, 1995, taking with him to his grave many of the dark secrets of what happened in that cellar. The following autumn, Rose stood trial alone at Winchester Crown Court, where prosecutor Brian Leveson asserted: "[The victims'] last moments on earth were as objects of the sexual depravity of this woman and her husband".
Rose, now 71, pleaded not guilty to the harrowing charges and attempted to paint herself as a wife who'd been tricked by her husband's duplicity, having had no clue that her home had become a graveyard. Her version of events ultimately did not convince the jury, and she was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Meanwhile, in life, diabolical Fred had a warped view of what had unfolded, making the following comment during his police interview: "Yeah, see, you've got the killing all wrong, no, nobody went through hell, enjoyment turned to disaster, well, most of it anyway."
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Sadly, many of those who fell victim to the Wests' sadism lie dead and buried, unable to tell their stories, but there are those whose shocking accounts shed light on what these vulnerable girls and women were subjected to in their final hours.
Giving evidence during the trial of Rose, Caroline Owens wept as she recalled how she had been seized by the Wests, who gagged her with tape, bound her and took her to Cromwell Street. It was here where was raped and sexually assaulted.
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Caroline had initially been offered a job as nanny to the Wests' children, but quit after just five or six weeks, going back to live with family in Cinderford, Gloucestershire. However, in the winter of 1972, she ended up back in their clutches after they lured her back into their car, beginning a vicious 12-hour ordeal that left her fearing for her life.
Speaking from the dock during the trial, Caroline recalled: "I think that is when Fred said 'what are her t*** like?'. She started to grab hold of me grinning and laughing, not a nice laugh. Then she started to grab me between the legs. He pulled up and turned round in his seat and we were struggling with each other and I was trying to get her off and he turned round and started punching me and calling me names like 'b****'."
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It was then that she was knocked unconscious. She continued: "When I came round, my arms had been tied behind my back with a scarf and they had tape around my head all the way round my mouth and the back of my head. It was a gag. Rose was holding me, and Fred was putting the tape around."
Thankfully, the then 16-year-old managed to flee the House of Horrors, and went on to make a police report. The pair were charged with indecent assault.
Caroline's testimony ultimately proved crucial in putting Rose West behind bars. She later went on to detail her ordeal in the books The Lost Girl and The One That Got Away.