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In January 1979, Irish woman Kathleen Richards, now aged 65, left 25 Cromwell Street with her nephew and sister and never looked back. It wasn’t until 15 years later, in August 1992, that the early morning departure would take on a heart-stopping significance.
Now, almost half a century later, the Dubliner has written a memoir, Under Their Roof, that details her time living with the notorious serial killers Fred and Rose West.
Kathleen and her sister Deidre were lodgers in the Wests’ house in Cromwell Street from November 1977 to January 1979 after their mother, who had eight other children, needed more space at home.
Kathleen’s first impression of Fred was that he was “a dirty old man”. She added: “Fred West was an idiot, he seemed harmless, a bit silly, always thinking he could get away with things. At first I quite liked him. He was friendly, nice even. But I didn’t like him touching me, so living there got very intense because I was trying to keep away from him,” reports Daily Express.
There were certainly warning signs, but Fred always insisted he was “just having a bit of fun”. She said: “There were things that didn’t sit right, and when he got into bed with me I remember thinking, ‘This isn’t right’. But you also think, ‘He’s just being silly. It’ll stop. I’ll just keep avoiding him’.
Recounting the day she found out Fred and Rose had been arrested on suspicion of multiple murders Kathleen remembers making dinner for her two young children, John, then 11, and Stephen aged five when she heard the news on the radio. She said she was in shock and felt sick”.
She added: “I couldn’t believe it. You can’t believe he’s actually murdered people. The word evil didn’t cross my mind. Even though he touched me and I hated it, I still thought it was my fault. You feel ashamed, like maybe it is you who’s done something wrong.”
After extensive investigations by police, Fred West was found guilty of committing at least 12 murders, the majority with the help of his wife. Fred West took his own life in prison in January 1995 aged 53, but Rose, now 71, remains behind bars.
Looking back, Kathleen thanks her mother for keeping her safe – even if neither of them realised it at the time. “She used to pop by Cromwell Street with bread or milk. Or she would send her sister or brother round, she had practical ways of showing love. At the time, we were almost annoyed… ‘Oh, they’ve come again, why can’t they let us be independent’.
“But when we found out what the Wests had been doing we were so glad she came around, as it told the Wests someone would miss us if something happened to us.”
Kathleen’s daughter, Hannah, aged 28, encouraged her finally to tell her story. Kathleen said: “It was painful. Things came up I hadn’t thought about in years. But talking really does help. Being able to say certain things in front of people I trust, especially my daughter, was freeing. The weight you carry for so long – it starts to lift.”
The full horror was soon uncovered, their youngest victim was Rose’s stepdaughter Charmaine, just eight, and the eldest was Fred’s ex-wife Catherine ‘Reno’ Costello, 27.
West is now being held in a special unit at New Hall known as Rivendell House, where 30 prisoners each have an en-suite cell and are allocated a laptop which they can use to order food from. The communal areas are also said to be “more inviting” than other blocks in the prison, according to inspection reports.
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