Fred and Rosemary West’s daughter describes what it was like growing up with serial killer parents

MAE West, the daughter of Fred and Rosemary West, grew up in Britain’s “House of Horrors,” where nine of her parents’ victims were buried.

THE daughter of notorious serial killer couple Fred and Rose West has opened up about life in UK’s “House of Horrors”.

Traumatised Mae West also revealed how she cut off her mum for not giving “straight answers’ about her role in the grisly murders.

Mae West has disowned her mother, saying ‘she is dead to me’. Picture: Rex Features

In 1995, Rose was convicted of 10 murders, while Fred took his own life while on remand in prison. He had confessed to killing up to 30 victims.

Nine of the couple’s victims — including their daughter Heather — were found buried in the cellar and the backyard of the family home in Gloucester.

Depraved couple Rosemary West and Fred West.

Cops discovered the sexually depraved couple would pick up or abduct girls from bus stops around Gloucester and imprison and torture them for several days before killing them.

Their sickening crimes began to unravel when Fred was accused of raping his 13-year-old daughter in 1992, and Rose was arrested for child cruelty.

They came to the attention of authorities when their children told childcare workers they “didn’t want to end up under the patio like (their sister) Heather.”

A young Mae with her sister Heather, who was found buried at the family home.

Speaking to The Daily Mail, Mae said: “When Rose wrote to me from prison — her letters arrived every week — and said she’d try to be a proper mum and tell me whatever I needed to know, I decided to ask her about Heather when I next visited her.

“And I watched her squirm. I thought: ‘She’s not going to give me an honest answer for all her promises.’ And she never has done. You never got straight answers. It makes it worse for the families of victims because she is the only one alive now who knows the truth — and yet she hasn’t told it.

“She stopped writing to me. I’m not on her visitors’ list any more. It was quite a relief to end contact with her. It had become a burden.”

The West family at the wedding of Ann, daughter of serial killer Fred and his first wife Catherine. Daughter Heather, who he is alleged to have murdered, is at far right.

“Her death will be the next thing (she is 64), and I suppose she might make a deathbed confession. I just wish she’d tell the truth to the authorities, then we’d all know, wouldn’t we?”

She also revealed how her mum stood by as her uncle raped her as a five-year-old — with her dad believing it was his parental duty to “break in” his daughters.

Anna Marie West was brutally raped by her father at the age of eight.

Mae told how her half-sister Anna Marie was raped by Fred as an eight-year-old — with Rose a participant in the assault.

She visited her mum in prison for ten years, pandering to her demands for cash and clothes until breaking contact in the mid 2000s.

Mae and Stephen West, the eldest surviving children of Gloucester mass murderers Fred and Rosemary West. Pic: Tim O'Sullivan.

Rose West is currently imprisoned at HMP Low Newton in Durham, where guards are protecting her from other inmates. She was the mother of three children — Heather, Mae and Stephen.

25 Cromwell St, Gloucester became known as the “House of Horrors”. It has since been demolished.

The victims of Fred and Rose West

Anna McFall

The nanny of Fred and Rena West’s children, McFall was believed to have been murdered in 1967. She was pregnant when she died, with West believed to have been the father. Her body was found in June 1994 in a shallow grave. Fred West denied murdering McFall but he is said to have confided to a visitor after his arrest that he stabbed her following an argument. This happened before Rosemary West met him.

Rena West

Rena West had two daughters with Fred and is thought to have been strangled to death.

Rena — who was previously married to Fred and gave him two daughters, Charmaine and Anna Marie — is believed to have been murdered by strangulation. Rosemary was not charged for this murder.

Charmaine West

With Fred in prison for the theft of car tyres and a vehicle tax disc, Rosemary was left to look after Charmaine and Anne Marie. The former, just eight years old, was Fred West’s stepdaughter from his previous marriage to Rena West.

Neighbour Tracey is said to have found Charmaine tied to a wooden chair with her hands behind a back with Rosemary standing with a large wooden spoon. Rosemary claimed the little girl been taken by her mother, but her skeleton was found at the Midland Road property, hidden and missing bones.

Fred and Rosemary West.

Lynda Gough

Ms Gough was the first sexually motivated killing conducted by the Wests. She moved into Cromwell Street in April 1973, having had affairs with several lodgers. The Wests later claimed she’d been asked to leave after hitting one of their children. Strangulation and suffocation were the likely causes of death.

Carol Ann Cooper

Ms Cooper was murdered in November 1973, aged just 15. On the night of November 9, she was allowed to spend the night at her grandmother’s house before a doctor’s appointment the next morning. She attended the appointment and then met her boyfriend, before somehow ending up on Cromwell Street. Her body was found more than 20 years later.

Lucy Partington

A 21-year-old medieval English student at Exeter University, she returned home for Christmas in December 1973. She left a friend’s house in a rush to get the last bus from Cheltenham to Gretton on 27 December, and it is believed she was abducted from this bus stop. She was found more than 20 years later, her dismembered body in the cellar of Cromwell Street.

Therese Siegenthaler

A 21-year-old Swiss sociology student at Woolwich Polytechnic. She had planned to hitchhike to Ireland in Easter 1974. Her family reported her missing having not heard from her for some time. Prosecution believe she was abducted before being killed, with Fred West later building a fake chimney over her grave.

Shirley Hubbard

Just 15 at the time of her death, Ms Hubbard is believed to have been abducted by the Wests. Her body was found following an excavation in the concrete and plastic membrane of the cellar floor.

Juanita Mott

In the summer of 1974, Ms Mott moved into 25 Cromwell Street but later went missing when she was living in Newent. Her body was found in March 1994, 19 years later, with West having concreted over the floor of the cellar.

Shirley Robinson

Fred West and murder victim Shirley Robinson.

The first victim buried outside the house, Ms Robinson had an affair with Fred West, and by autumn 1977, she was pregnant with West’s child. It was initially claimed she had moved to Scotland but her body was later found. When questioned, Rosemary West, herself pregnant with her daughter Tara at the time of the murder, claimed she did not remember her, which was described as “ludicrous” by the prosecution.

Alison Chambers

The last murder with a sexual motive established. She disappeared just before her 17th birthday, having been seen at 25 Cromwell Street throughout the summer. Her body was buried underneath the patio.

Heather West

The first child born to Fred and Rosemary West, there is no evidence she was aware of the killings. Sexually abused by her parents and having told friends, she suddenly went missing in 1987, with Rosemary claiming she had gone to Wales to be with a lesbian partner. The couple would joke to their other children that they would “end up under the patio like Heather” if they misbehaved. This, and their changing stories, led to the search warrants for the property, which led to their arrests.

— With The Sun