Curse of Fred & Rose West's children – from tragic suicide to paedo son who chillingly said ‘I have a bit of dad in me'

The Sun

03-06-2025

THEY grew up in the house of horrors where their twisted parents sexually tortured and murdered young women - including their own sister.
The children of Fred and Rose West lived with the threat that if they misbehaved they could end up buried under the patio like their sister, Heather, while the girls also had to fend off the disgusting sexual advances of their dad.
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The couple's evil crimes were only uncovered when the traumatised children told teachers about Heather's gruesome grave, sparking a police search that uncovered nine bodies buried in the garden and cellar of 25 Cromwell Street in Gloucester.
The rapist and serial killer couple shared ten children in total - including five they had together.
Charmaine and Anne-Marie were Fred's daughters from his first marriage, then there were Heather, Mae, Tara, Louise, Rosemary Jr, Lucyanna, Stephen and Barry.
Three of these children were conceived with clients Rose slept with while working as a prostitute, while Charmaine and Heather were killed by their parents after enduring years of abuse.
The surviving siblings have felt the curse of the Wests' depraved crimes over the years, as they struggled to come to terms with the lasting impact of their warped childhood.
Fred committed at least 12 murders and killed himself in January 1995 while on remand in prison. Rose was convicted of ten murders in November 1995 and sentenced to ten life terms with a whole life order.
Now, after The Sun revealed their paedophile son Stephen has had his eighth child - a daughter with his former glamour model fiancée Emma Bradley - we look at where the troubled West children are now.
Anne-Marie
Anne-Marie was Fred's second daughter from his first marriage to Catherine Costello, known as Rena.
Her mother and older sister Charmaine were both murdered by the Wests.
Anne-Marie is the oldest surviving child of the family and she was the only one of her siblings to testify about the abuse they suffered at Rose and Fred's hands in court.
In 1972, when Anne-Marie was eight years old, she was restrained and raped by Fred, while Rose watched and actively encouraged the abuse, even forcibly undressing her step-daughter.
After this first assault, Rose — who was sexually abused by her own father — allegedly told Anne-Marie: 'I'm sorry. Everybody does it to every girl. It's a father's job. Don't worry, and don't say anything to anybody.'
From the age of 13, Anne-Marie was forced into prostitution, telling clients who visited the house - where Rose was already selling sex - that she was 16. Anne-Marie ran away from home in 1979 when she was 15.
She later changed her name to Anne-Marie, and married husband Philip Davis. She later wrote a book about her ordeal at the hands of her parents called Out of the Shadows.
Now aged 61, she still lives in Gloucester but has sadly struggled with her mental health for years.
Last month her husband told the Daily Mail that she was estranged from her siblings despite them living in close proximity.
'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," he said.
"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."
Mae West
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Shortly after Mae was born in 1972, Rose started selling sex from an upstairs room at their Cromwell Street home, meaning Mae always grew up with a string of strangers coming in and out of the house.
Mae also suffered physical abuse at the hands of her mother, and was sexually abused by Fred.
After her parents' arrest, Mae initially denied that she'd been sexually abused, but later wrote about it in her 2018 memoir, Love as Always.
She also detailed her struggle to come to terms with the crimes her parents committed.
"Knowing your parents are regarded by most people as evil beyond belief is incredibly hard to live with, especially when your own experience of them has been more complicated and you've seen a side to them which makes them more than simply monsters," she wrote.
"Both of them had a side which seemed, at times at least, like other people. Mum could be tender and gentle with very young children; she had a sense of humour. Dad could be friendly and make us laugh.'
Even after Rose was convicted of 10 murders and sentenced to life in prison, Mae still believed she was innocent and continued to write to her and visit her in prison.
She told That's Life magazine: 'As the years passed though, I realised how controlling and manipulative Mum was. She'd been dubbed the most evil woman who had ever lived.
'I've read about Stockholm syndrome, where a person can become emotionally dependent on the person who is holding them hostage. I realised I was an emotional hostage to Mum. Now we no longer speak.'
Mae is now married and has two children, Amy and Luke. After Luke was born she became a recluse, terrified to leave the house in case she was recognised as a West.
But with the help of therapy she has come to terms with her past and has a job in retail.
Stephen West
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Stephen, now 51, lives in Gloucestershire with his former glamour model fiancée Emma Bradley just a few miles away from his childhood home, the Cromwell Street house of horrors.
Stephen may have been the first person Fred confided in about his crimes.
On the morning police began searching their infamous 25 Cromwell Street home, Fred reportedly told his son: 'Look son, look after mum and sell the house… I've done something really bad. I want you to go to the papers and make as much money as you can.'
Later, while in custody, Fred made chilling admissions to Stephen, including the horrifying revelation that as a child, the young boy had unknowingly helped dig the graves of his father's victims.
Stephen recalled: 'He [Fred] said to me: 'Can you remember helping me dig those holes in the garden when you were a kid?' I said I couldn't remember, but he said: 'We did it together, you know.' Then he said: 'That's where the girls were found, in the exact holes.''
Stephen struggled mentally and attempted suicide in 2002. Two years later, he was sentenced to nine months in prison after admitting to seven counts of having underage sex with a 14-year-old girl when he was 20.
He reportedly once remarked: 'There's a bit of my dad in me.'
Sources said Stephen and fiancée Emma are planning to tie the knot in August at the posh Celtic Manor hotel in Newport - against her family's wishes.
One family insider told The Sun: 'None of us support it. He makes us uncomfortable.'
Stephen, who is a grandad, has been married twice before and now has eight children.
The former builder is believed to be out of work and living on benefits, driving a motability car he gets for one of his daughters, who is disabled.
Last month he told the Daily Mail that most of the West children are estranged, explaining, "We 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."
Barry West
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Born in 1980, Barry was one of the West's younger children and claimed to have seen his parents murder his sister Heather when he was just seven years old.
He said: 'I heard my mum slap her, then I looked through the crack and saw my dad walk round behind her and put his leg out. Then he grabbed her neck and tripped her over.
'She went on to the floor. I could see her just a few feet away. Then my mum just booted her.
'She was kicking and kicking her and calling her a s**g. My dad still had her by the throat.'
He later branded his mother a 'psychopath' and said: 'I was happy when my dad committed suicide and now I think they should put my mum in a room with all the parents of the people she helped murder so they could tear her to pieces.'
Who are the UK's worst serial killers?
THE UK's most prolific serial killer was actually a doctor.
Here's a rundown of the worst offenders in the UK.
British GP Harold Shipman is one of the most prolific serial killers in recorded history. He was found guilty of murdering 15 patients in 2000, but the Shipman Inquiry examined his crimes and identified 218 victims, 80 per cent of whom were elderly women.
After his death Jonathan Balls was accused of poisoning at least 22 people between 1824 and 1845.
Mary Ann Cotton is suspected of murdering up to 21 people, including husbands, lovers and children. She is Britain's most prolific female serial killer. Her crimes were committed between 1852 and 1872, and she was hanged in March 1873.
Amelia Sach and Annie Walters became known as the Finchley Baby Farmers after killing at least 20 babies between 1900 and 1902. The pair became the first women to be hanged at Holloway Prison on February 3, 1903.
William Burke and William Hare killed 16 people and sold their bodies.
Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe was found guilty in 1981 of murdering 13 women and attempting to kill seven others between 1975 and 1980.
Dennis Nilsen was caged for life in 1983 after murdering up to 15 men when he picked them up from the streets. He was found guilty of six counts of murder and two counts of attempted murder and was sentenced to life in jail.
Fred West was found guilty of killing 12 but it's believed he was responsible for many more deaths.
He tragically died of a suspected overdose in 2020, aged just 40, while he was living in a supported hostel for adults coming out of rehab or prison.
Journalist Howard Sounes, who wrote a book on the depraved couple, met Barry and had stayed in touch. He said Barry was tormented by his childhood.
He said: 'He was totally haunted by his childhood. How do you overcome being the son of Fred and Rose West?
'The whole West story is littered with these really tragic stories, there was a lot of collateral of the West murder case.'
Tara West
Tara was born of Rose West's prostitution and her biological father was one of Rose's clients.
Tara, now 47, was named after the Tara Hotel in Gloucester, which Rose frequented with her clients.
In 1992, she was taken into care and forbidden contact with her parents or her older siblings.
She is now believed to be married and living in the north of England under a different name.
Louise West
Louise, now 46, was also taken into foster care as a child and is now thought to be living in the north of England.
She is believed to have intermittent contact with some of her sisters.
Rosemary Jr. and Lucyanna
Both Rosemary Jr, 42, and Lucyanna, 41, were fathered by clients of Rose.
They too had their names changed when taken into foster care in 1992 and have remained private under their new identities.
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