Dennis Waterman:
In the United Kingdom, most bodies in such murders are found close to the family home. Women tend to be asphyxiated, poisoned, or drugged. Men are more likely to be stabbed. Shootings, in fact, are rare. Fred and Rosemary West favored strangulation. Their individual signature. Decapitation after death, the amputation of fingers and toes. Anne Marie West is Fred’s daughter, Rosemary’s stepdaughter, she lived with Fred and Rose throughout their years of murder, 10 known victims spanning three decades. This was one of the most notorious and chilling cases of modern times. Ann Marie’s own mother, Fred’s first wife, was killed by the Wests. So were two of Ann Marie’s half sisters.
Ann Marie West:
I remember when Dad first brought Rosemary to see me, and she had a present for me. It was a doll that you pulled a string out the back and it crawled. She seemed very nice, and we all went home, and I just loved my dad so much, and Dad seemed so happy. My relationship with Rosemary, my stepmother, it’s difficult because there was only 10 years different in our age, and she was very young when I first actually met her. I was made to call her Mum, I didn’t used to, and my elder sister Charmaine, she was a year older than me, she used to aggravate Rosemary because she would say, “You’re not my mum, I’m not calling you Mum.” And I was very much a coward, really.
Ann Marie West:
I would cry at the slightest thing, and Rosemary did have a temper on her, and like I say, Charmaine would antagonize her, and I would get the brunt of it, and I would … anything just for a bit of peace and quiet, peaceful life. And as regards with dad, I was very much a daddy’s girl. I idolized my dad, whereas Charmaine really was a mummy’s girl. And I loved my dad to bits. We were very close, and jealousy came in when Rosemary came, and she actually put a wedge between us. She would say that I was doing things that I hadn’t, and then Dad would have a go at me, and the closeness did actually … there was a split in it, which was very sad.
Ann Marie West:
I remember a couple of occasions, Rosemary has got an awful temper, and one time she stabbed me in the arm with a knife because Charmaine had been annoying her and I got the brunt of it, basically. Another time we were at the sink, I was waiting to wash my cereal bowl up, and Charmaine was being awkward again, and Rosemary took the bowl off me, swore at me, and then hit me over the head with it, and I had a cut in my head. So it was a very, very hard situation, thinking back, because of the age Rosemary was, she was only a child herself, and she would have mood swings, temper, and I always remember, and it sounds awful, but when Rosemary got in a bad mood, she’d actually froth at the mouth and her eyes would literally roll, and also when you were told to do something, you never asked why. It was a case of, “Yes.” She told you to jump, you’d say, “Yes. How high?” And you never was allowed to have eye contact with her, she wouldn’t like that, and it frightened us, so we didn’t really.
Ann Marie West:
I remember Charmaine used to always say to Rosemary, “My mum’s coming back for me. I don’t like you. I don’t love you.” And the one day I went to school and Charmaine didn’t, and when I came home Rosemary was putting nappies out on the line, this was in Midland Road, and I said, “Where’s Charmaine?” I remember our bedroom. The door was locked and the key was always at the top, so I went and I opened the door, and I actually saw Charmaine tied to the bed, and I’ll never forget, she looked at me and she had pleading eyes, and I shut the door and locked it, and later when I went to bed she wasn’t there. And people say to me, “Well, didn’t you know anything was wrong? Why didn’t you do anything?” It’s difficult for me to explain that the way we were brought up you didn’t ask questions, and also on a regular basis myself and Charmaine were made to stand on chairs naked and we’d be hit with a belt.
Ann Marie West:
So it wasn’t an unnatural occurrence. That’s the hardest thing I try to get across to people, that I’m here, I’m sat here now, I’m a grown woman. I was only a child at the time, and I didn’t know any different. What actually come to light was the fact that because Charmaine went missing we were both on a register with social services, basically they couldn’t afford to have us both go missing, because Charmaine was, I’ll say the troublesome one, I class her as the brave one, they decided on her. Whereas they needed me to look after the children, and to I suppose put a front up.
Ann Marie West:
When I was eight, I remember very well we had a basement, which was made into a play area, and I was told to go downstairs and to tidy the toys away, the children had been down. I went down, and my father and Rosemary came down, and I felt quite apprehensive, I just didn’t feel right, I felt frightened. I was told that I had to take my clothes off, and I, “Oh, why?” And I just thought, “Don’t ask questions, just do it.” And I was made to lie down, and suddenly these things appeared on the floor. There was a bowl, some towels, ripped sheets, and what I now know as being a vibrator. I asked what they were doing, and they said that all parents did this to their children when they got to that age, and it was to help me, and it would make me a better person, and a better mother and a better wife when I get older.
Ann Marie West:
I started to scream and squirm because it frightened me. So I was then gagged and I had my hands tied. I was still struggling, so Rosemary actually sat on my face, and I remember this excruciating pain. I can’t describe, absolutely horrendous, and I was struggling, and I moved my head to the side because I couldn’t breathe, so I was panicking, and I noticed this bowl and there was red stuff in it, and it was going on and on, and it seemed like an eternity, and then afterwards I was told to get upstairs and clean myself up, which I did, and Rosemary then took me into the bathroom and gave me a sanitary towel to put on. And they said to me that I shouldn’t say anything to anybody, because it was something that was done by all, but it was something that wasn’t spoken about.
Ann Marie West:
Really from then onwards it progressed, and by the age of 10 I was actually made to have sexual intercourse with a gentleman, colored gentleman. And I remember the one time I wasn’t allowed to speak or say anything and I just had to do as I was told, and the one time this gentleman was so big he actually ripped me, and it was so painful and so sore, and Rosemary run me a bath and put salt water in and … never made an issue of anything, so I didn’t … being told that it was happening, it was a norm, and I just accepted it.
Ann Marie West:
The abuse carried on from the age of eight up until I was 15. When I say abuse, I don’t just mean sexual abuse, it was mental and physical. That’s all in the same. I remember this one time I actually had my cycle, and it had been going on for about three months, and Rosemary eventually decided she better take me to the doctors. I went to the doctors, I was admitted to the hospital. Nothing was said to me, nobody spoke to me. Rosemary didn’t come and see me, my dad didn’t. I was there for a week and they told me that they were going to put me to sleep and have a little look in my tummy, and when I came round, I woke up, I had a drip in my arm, and I had metal clips along the base of my stomach, and it was only when the police with their investigations that I actually found out that I was pregnant off my father, and also I had venereal disease.
Ann Marie West:
What I find it hard to understand is why didn’t the hospital say anything? What were they told by Rosemary and my dad? It must have been something … All I can think is if maybe they said that I sleep around. I don’t know. It just seems a bit strange that nothing was said. When I came out of hospital I went back home, and Rosemary’s very much that you have to do things her way, and that’s including the cleaning. She would show you, and you had to do it that way. Well, I was dusting and I wasn’t doing it correctly, and this is two weeks after, I wasn’t doing it correctly, she got very angry and kicked me in the stomach, which I literally dropped to my knees. I vowed then that I could not take it any more, and I feel bad even now of leaving the children, and I was a coward when I left, I left in the middle of the night when nobody was around, and I just sneaked off and ran.
Ann Marie West:
What upsets me the most was the last time I saw Heather, my sister. She’d come up to see me, and she literally pleaded that I let her move in with me. I told her to wait until she was 16, then she could come and live with me. It was literally two days, two, three days later I had a phone call from my father saying Heather has left home. I just thought that she just wanted to break away and make a life for herself.
Ann Marie West:
1992 there was a court case and it was to do with children, with the children being abused. I agreed to give evidence, and I asked the police if they wold protect me, because at that time I was on my own with the children. They said they couldn’t, so I withdrew my statement. I then had a telling off from the police, but I did actually mention that I’d been trying to find Heather and could they maybe help, and that’s when they went through dental records, last time she went to the doctors, national insurance number, and there wasn’t any. And what was quite strange was that, and it sounds really awful, but there was a family joke that the children would say amongst themselves, if you don’t behave you’ll get buried in the patio like Heather.
Ann Marie West:
And I mentioned about this joke, it sounds awful, and I remember the one day there was a knock at the door and the police lady come in and she said, “Oh, Ann Marie, we can’t find Heather. We’re looking in the house, garden now.” And I said, “Oh, yeah, yeah.” And it was as if they were asking my permission, just in case it went wrong, there was nothing, and I didn’t think nothing of it. And then for them to come back and say, “Well yes, she was buried in the garden.” And where she was buried, they’d built a barbecue on top.
Ann Marie West:
When they started recovering remains at the house and the garden, it was as if it was a bad dream. Even now I can’t accept that Dad and Rosemary had done these … so awful. I find it hard to believe that anybody can hurt another person. I couldn’t, and to hear and read and see that they’re on about, I suppose your own flesh and blood, your family, it’s very hard. And I remember with the media it was horrendous for myself and my family, my own family. I was being hounded, and the police round all the time wanting statements, and I lost my life. It was just so overpowering. I started to drink, it was like my release, my friend, because I did have friends at the time, and when I turned round they’d gone.
Ann Marie West:
So maybe they were only acquaintances, I don’t know, or maybe the scale of it, they were frightened. And I was literally being taken pieces out from here, there, and everywhere, I would go up town, I would get spat at, I’d be called a slut, nigger lover, and I had my children with me. It was very, very hard. And I would basically go around in a daze.
Ann Marie West:
I suppose in a way, it will always seem as if it’s a dream. I do tend to find myself sometimes, it’s as if I’m above myself looking down onto me. I’m still trying to come to terms with accepting that my father and Rosemary are murderers. It’s very hard to deal with, and to take in, and some people say that I deal with it very well. I don’t cry for me, I cry for the loss of the families, their children, and I know in every tear I may shed, it’s not going to change anything, but I can honestly say I know how they feel, because even though it was my dad and stepmum, I lost loved ones. I lost my mum, I lost my sisters. So I can say I know how they feel, and maybe some people say I haven’t got a right to say that, but I do. I feel I can see it on both sides, so to speak, and if I have offended anybody by saying that I’m so sorry. I haven’t meant to.
Ann Marie West:
But a lot of people don’t know as such what happened to me, they didn’t take it in. They’ve just read the headlines about the murders. So they tend to focus on just that side of things, and me being a daughter, the eldest daughter, I have no right to have any feelings, or even have a life. I go to work, I do enjoy my job, I do the best of my ability, I come home, and some nights I’ll sit and cry and I will drink, and that’s nothing to be proud of, I know. But you are always … I have problems sleeping, so partly I drink and I go to sleep, and I do go to work, but the way I feel inside, the pain, I would never ever want anybody to feel. It’s, I can’t even describe how I feel.
Ann Marie West:
In life, I would say maybe there is only two fear I have. One is if my partner left me, and the other is Rosemary. She said that if she ever saw me again she’d kill me. Rosemary’s going for an appeal, and this sounds absolutely horrible, but if she ever come out, then I would go. I would sooner take my own life than let her, because there would be nothing left of me. I have that much fear for her, but yet in another way I miss her. So, that is confusing in itself. Also, people find it difficult to understand why I say I love my dad still, and I can’t really answer that. I mean, at the end of the day, he was my dad, and he was all I had when I was growing up. I was young, very young before he met Rosemary. There was that bond, and I think that is so strong, it’s deep, and you can’t change it. But I also look upon the fact that my dad was not very well. He couldn’t have been for what he done and Rosemary done. They couldn’t have been well people.
Dennis Waterman:
The Wests managed to keep their hideous crimes undetected for years, but most relative murders are discovered much more quickly.