“VERY controlled, secretive and full of rage”;; – those were the words used to describe RoseWest by a man with insight like no other.
She is considered among , having tortured and murdered 10 young women, , at their in .
In 1995, was after uncovered multiple mutilated female bodies buried in their garden, under their patio and in a sex-dungeon cellar.
Among them was their, the victim of violent sexual abuse by Fred, and wanted to impregnate her.
, Rose’s solicitor, had first-hand insight into the killer’s warped brain and tells The Sun the 71-year-old will “go to the grave with many secrets”;;.
He about Caroline Owens, a 17-year-old hired as a nanny for the , beaten and sexually abused.
Leo recalls: “Like Fred, in a lot of her she would deflect blame from themselves to the children.
“She would say things happened with Caroline but she was up for it, she wanted it... She says she was exaggerating. She’s making a fuss.
“Fred had this really warped idea that it was a father’s right to take his daughter’s virginity and that Heather was a lesbian. They claimed they just wanted her to have a good and somehow this shocking abuse would facilitate that.”;;
have come back in to the spotlight upon the release of new docuseries .
The harrowing crimes of the couple, who were branded “the epitome of evil”;; in , came to light in 1992 after their daughter Louise, 13, accused Fred of rape and .
The case collapsed when eldest daughter Anne Marie, who was abused by them from the age of eight, refused to testify but remarks by the West children raised serious concern with police.
They launched a major after hearing the youngsters were regularly threatened to be buried “under the patio like their sister Heather”;;, who vanished five years prior.
Collectively the Wests killed at least 12 women and girls – ranging from youngest victim, Rose’s stepdaughter Charmaine, eight, to the eldest Fred’s ex-wife Catherine ‘Reno’ Costello, 27.
Eight of the murdered young women were , some of whom lived with the couple. Others were employed as nannies and some schoolgirls were abducted from the street.
Fred never faced justice for his crimes, killing himself in HMP Birmingham before the couple’s trial, and Rose was among the few evil criminals to be sentenced to a whole life term – meaning she will never be released from .
Leo who represented Rose for 12 years from 1992, including her appeals, recalled she was a “sociable”;; woman, who “liked a joke”;; but there was a darker side simmering below the surface.
“She could also be very controlled and secretive sometimes, she would fly into a rage and shriek and spit,”;; he explained.
“I recall one witness described her as being ‘rough’ during a lesbian encounter. Rose insisted she was tender and got very upset.
“Another time, I’d be reading out a statement and asking her, ‘Were you with Fred in this van when you abducted Anne Marie?’.
“She’d trill and say ‘it’s nothing to do with me,’ even though she later admitted to it. It was a primitive human response.
“I don’t dispute that, in those moments, she would have been capable of extreme violence. She was, of course, complex and there was a maternal side to her too.”;;
‘Horrors locked away’
Leo believes Rose has “dissociated herself”;; from her unforgivable crimes and “locked the horrors of Cromwell Street away in a room of her mind”;;.
Instead of facing up to what she has done, Rose has donned a new mask – the homely, sewing ‘caregiver’ in prison, in a bid to distance herself from her evil wrongdoing.
“She’d much rather be the amenable, kindly old lady who likes to spend tea with a vicar’s wife who visits behind bars,”;; he says.
This dissociation maintains a chilling remorselessness from the killer, who Leo says he has only seen emotional on a handful of occasions, including after Fred admitted to killing their daughter Heather.
“It was one of the few times I saw Rose in a collapsed, inconsolable state,”;; he tells us. “Whether they were tears of self-pity or remorse, I’ll never know.
“I have no doubt, now, that she knew Heather was buried in their garden.”;;
Another followed her being convicted of 10 counts of murder. Leo recalls she “was in tears and muttering something about Fred”;; while sat in her Winchester County Court cell.
‘Tacit admission’
However, in a twisted and telling moment, there was no such emotion after discovering her husband had taken his own life – instead, she appeared to be happy.
Leo says: “She was different...There were mixed emotions but a certain warm glow – a sense of hope that this was the end of the case, as far as she was concerned.”;;
One of the last times Leo spoke to Rose in early 2003, when he believes her mask slipped because she subtly ‘confessed’ to her crimes, by acknowledging she would never be released.
She told him she no longer wished to appeal her convictions, leading him to ask: “Does this mean you’re admitting it?”;;
Leo continued: “She said, ‘No, I just don’t think there’ll be any life for me outside and I’m going to get on with my life in prison,’ which sounded like a strange thing to say to me.
“I wasn’t happy with that. I took it as a tacit admission yet she never admitted murder to me.”;;
Locked up with other lifers, in HMP Durham, Rose was able to keep her head down in prison and enjoy a quiet life but Leo says she had been targeted in an arson attack.
“Rose was on a female wing with lots of other women serving long sentences, women who just wanted to get on and have some peace and quiet, even though they’d been convicted of some serious offences,”;; says Leo.
“About two years after her conviction, in the late nineties, they had women serving shorter sentences coming into the wing.
“Rose was never scared of these women but she wanted her space and to get on with her life. Someone tried to set light to her cell and that was a total disruption for her.
“That was her home so to be moved out of her cell she found distressing.”;;
He also reveals the last time he acted on her behalf was when she asked him to write to the prison governor over sewing and cooking classes that had been withdrawn.
It’s believed Rose – who is now in HMP New Hall in Yorkshire – could shed more light on the crimes that took place at the ‘House of Horrors’ but the killer refuses to assist police.
Leo says: “Now she has, I believe, neatly compartmentalised her life and is wanting to see out her days in peace. There’s no doubt she’ll go to the grave with many secrets.”;;
Leo Goatley’s book, Understanding Fred and Rose West, is out now.
