'I'm pregnant - and my brother did it' Girl's horror confession about Fred West
This was the same Fred West who would later become one half of the most infamous serial killer duo in recent memory - a monster who sexually assaulted, murdered and mutilated young women for his own perverse pleasure, then dismembered their corpses.
But long before he and Rose West gained notoriety for their House of Horrors at 25 Cromwell Street, Fred was already embarking on a very dark journey.
Author, television producer and former Mirror journalist Howard Sounes was the first to report on the West murders for the Mirror in 1994 and subsequently became a leading authority on the case. He recently conducted numerous interviews and accessed over 100 hours of West's police interrogation recordings for his new book, The Fred West Tapes: Secrets of the Fred and Rose West Murder Investigation.
Here, in Day Two of our exclusive serialisation, he unveils the forbidden family secrets that contributed to the creation of the beast.
As a teenager, Fred West was regarded as one of the 'handsomest' lads around. He was seen as prime husband material in a rural area where many girls aimed to marry young for fear of being 'left on the shelf'.
However, even from his earliest years, there was a darkness within him. One of his darkest childhood secrets was the tragic tale of his sister Kitty, who was six years his junior.
Their parents Walter and Daisy West were impoverished, barely literate agricultural labourers who lived according to the seasons and could seem almost as simple as the livestock they cared for. They resided in the Herefordshire village of Much Marcle, merely thirty minutes' drive from Gloucester, yet a location frozen in time with an air of isolation.
There were eight offspring, two of whom perished in early childhood, leaving: Fred, John, Daisy, Doug, Kitty and Gwen. "We were a very happy family ... Very close," Fred informed police during the murder inquiry in 1994, as disclosed in the fresh transcripts. "We all protected each other."
Few who knew them - such as Kitty's school companion Jean Korbi - would concur with that assertion. In truth, Fred's mother wore a heavy leather strap which she employed to thrash her children, a practice Rose West subsequently embraced.
His harsh mum also forbade romantic relationships until he reached 21, though his father provided contrasting guidance: "Whatever you enjoy, do. And make sure you don't get caught doing it, you know?" Fred's daughter Mae subsequently alleged: "He [Dad] said it was a father's right to break his daughters in. According to him, that is what his father had done." Fred West, aged 18, with sisters, Daisy, Gwen, Kitty and Doug. A year later, in 1961, Kitty told friends he was the father of her unborn baby. Kitty's schoolfriend Jean Korbi
Speaking publicly for the first time regarding her companion Kitty, Jean discloses the day she discovered a horrific truth. "I'm pregnant," Kitty, then 13, declared to a circle of friends. They were unaware that Kitty had a romantic partner. "Oh, it's not a boyfriend, me brother did it. Fred." Fred, who was 19 at the time, was seen as quite a catch. "He was one of the handsomest," Jean reminisces. "He had a lovely smile, a nice wide smile, it lifted up his face. I had a schoolgirl crush on him."
However, she was shocked to discover that this 'nice' lad had impregnated his younger sister. Jean had always thought the Wests were a bit peculiar, but this revelation was startling. "I mean she [Kitty] was a bit Dolly Dimple," Jean comments. "The whole family seemed a bit odd [but] I'd never heard of anything like incest, and then she proceeded to tell us how it was done, where it was done."
Kitty confessed that she and Fred had been intimate in her bedroom, and it happened "lots of times". She admitted to being nervous initially. "'But Fred said because I'm his sister I wouldn't get pregnant'", Jean recalls Kitty saying. Her friends suggested that Kitty should have rebuffed Fred." She said, 'I wouldn't do that ... I quite like it', Jean adds. "She seemed quite nonchalant about it, 'It's normal, haven't you done it?' sort of thing." Jean has never forgotten that conversation, adding: "I remember it to this day, even where we were when she said it, because we were all in shock."" TV Producer Howard Sounes cover the case for the Mirror in 1994 and is Senior Producer of Netflix's Fred & Rose: A British Horror Story. His new book, serialised in the Mirror, features a never-before-seen photo of Fred West in prison on the cover. Howard Sounes covered the story for the Mirror in 1994 before becoming an author and TV producer (Image: Glynn Griffiths)
The tale reached local constabulary, and in June 1961 a detective questioned Kitty and West. "Well, doesn't everyone do it?" West enquired of the officer. By the time West appeared before a magistrate, charged with incest, he entered a not guilty plea, Kitty declined to give evidence and West was acquitted. The consequences were devastating. Kitty was thrown out of school and underwent a termination. She never recovered and passed away in 2006, tormented by her history.
Moreover, Fred discovered that he could perpetrate a sexual crime and escape punishment, even when police became aware. Soon afterwards, he started courting a 14 year old, who cannot be identified for legal reasons.
Despite impregnating his own sibling, he remained well-regarded. "[Fred] was still liked," recalls Jean. "All the teenage girls, his age group, they were all drooling ... a lot of girls were after him."
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When his new partner reached 15, Fred stopped whilst driving her home one evening and assaulted her. "He pushed me on the bank and raped me," the girl subsequently informed police. The girl felt stunned. "[I] just didn't know what to say." Shortly following this Fred violated her again, at a flat. However, she didn't inform police until the murder inquiry in 1994. Once again Fred slipped through the net without facing any consequences. His twenties would descend into even greater darkness. He became infatuated with Scottish teenager Catherine 'Rena' Costello, who was already expecting another man's baby, wed her, relocated to Glasgow, abandoned her to work as a prostitute to help pay the bills - and secured employment driving a Mr Whippy ice cream van. Fred and Kitty's parents, Walter and Daisy West. (Image: George Phillips) Walter and Daisy West took their children to Barry Island for a holiday in the late 50s. Front row: Kitty and Gwen (in buggy); middle row, from left: Doug, Daisy, Fred and John
In 1965 he was doing his rounds when he struck and killed three year old Harry Feeney. His relatives remain convinced that it wasn't an accident as officers had concluded at the time. But whether deliberate or not, at merely 24, Fred had become a murderer, a rapist, and had nearly fathered his sister's child. Two years afterwards, his 18 year old lover Anne McFall vanished whilst eight months pregnant. Her remains - along with Fred's unborn child - wouldn't be discovered for 27 years.
Yet again it could have ended there - but it didn't. It subsequently came to light that Fred had confessed to his father. He revealed to Walter that he had buried Anne's remains at the woodland's edge and even led him to the location. "I couldn't go up there on me own at that time," Fred later told his solicitor. "So he walked up there with me. He said, 'Look, son, I'm your father, I'm not going to turn you in. If you can live with it then I'll say nothing.'" Walter informed his wife Daisy, who subsequently revealed to his brother John: "Freddy's killed the girl [Anne] and buried her in Kempley Woods!"
However, nobody contacted the police.
Had they done so, Anne McFall might have been his sole victim.
Instead, Fred stayed free.
And then....he encountered Rose.
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