Rose West's cold response to her husband's suicide revealed
Rose West was emotionless when she was told her husband Fred had killed himself, her former prison officer has revealed.
Vanessa Frake-Harris, a former prisoner governor, broke the news to West while she awaited trial in 1995 for her role in the rape, torture and murder of at least 12 women and girls.
Ms Frake-Harris said West 'held a glazed stare' upon hearing the news, but may have had a 'glint in her eye' because she believed her husband's suicide would give her the opportunity to pin their crimes entirely on him.
She told The Sun: 'I told her, along with the duty governor, that Fred had committed suicide and there was no emotion. She blinked a couple of times and then said, 'Oh right'.
'She didn't even flinch – nothing had altered in her expression.'
Her level of control was staggering, Ms Frake-Harris added.
She continued: 'I firmly believe she felt that with Fred dying, she would get off all of the charges.
'There was almost a glint in her eye as if to say, 'OK, he's dead – he can take the rap for it. I'm happy to plead to the lesser charges'.'
But West was handed life sentences at Winchester Crown Court in November 1995 for each of her 10 known victims, which included her daughter Heather, 16, and her eight-year-old step daughter, Charmaine.
Fred was charged with all 12 murders but had hanged himself on Jan 1 that year in his cell while on remand at the age of 53.
A three-part Netflix series, titled Fred and Rose West: A British Horror Story, will now re-examine the case, which horrified the British public and turned a street in Gloucester into a 'media circus'.
The remains of nine of Rose West's victims – Lynda Gough, 19, Carole Ann Cooper, 15, Lucy Partington, 21, Therese Sigenthaler, 21, Shirley Hubbard, 15, Juanita Mott, 18, Shirley Ann Robinson, 18, and Alison Chambers, 17 – were found buried at the couple's home at 25 Cromwell Street, Gloucester in 1994.
Charmaine's body was found the same year at their previous home on Midland Road, Gloucester. West murdered the child while Fred was in prison for the theft of car tyres and a vehicle tax disc in 1971.
West, now aged 71, will die in prison after Jack Straw, the former home secretary, imposed a whole life tariff on the serial killer in 1997.
It was only the second time the tariff had been used on a female prisoner after serial killer Myra Hindley in 1990, who West would later go on to have a romantic relationship with while at Durham Prison.
Ms Frake-Harris, who spent three months with West, described her behaviour as charming but always with the underlying threat of manipulation, lack of empathy and no remorse.
West was compliant, charming and did not cause problems for staff during her time at Holloway Prison in north London, according to Ms Frake-Harris, who has written a book about her experience called The Governor: My Life Inside Britain's Most Notorious Prisons.
West has been at HMP New Hall since 2019, where her pattern of non-disruptive but manipulative behaviour has continued.
According to reports from prison guards, West is overweight and struggles with stairs. Her eyesight is also failing.
The serial killer, who has never shown remorse at any point during her incarceration, reportedly enjoys going to the prison's chapel.
But Ms Frake-Harris has no doubt that she will revel in the notoriety of a Netflix series, adding that some women 'just love to kill'.
'Gone are the days when we thought women were mad and not bad,' she said. 'There are bad women just as there are bad men.'
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