Rosemary West is one of only four women in Britain to be given a whole life order. Amid new reports of her life in prison, the Mirror takes a look at how the UK’s most reviled woman passes the time behind bars
Notorious serial killer Rose West spends most of her days in her prison cell watching TV alone, according to insiders.
West, now 71, raped, tortured and killed at least 12 women and girls with husband Fred at their Gloucester home of horrors between them, from 1967 to 1987. Their horrifying crimes didn’t come to light untill 1992 when daughter Louise, then just 13, accused Fred of rape and Rose of cruelty. That case collapsed after eldest daughter Anne Marie — abused from age eight — refused to testify, but what the children told police raised red flags.
Officers launched a huge investigation after learning the kids were constantly threatened with being buried “under the patio like their sister Heather”, who had vanished five years earlier. 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.
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In 1995, Rose West received a whole life order, for life, meaning she will die behind bars after police discovered a series of mutilated bodies buried in the garden, beneath a patio and even in a sex dungeon cellar. Fred never stood trial for the horror he helped unleash. He took his own life while on remand in HMP Birmingham agd 53.
Since she abandoned her attempts to appeal her conviction in 2001, she is understood to be resigned to dying in prison, where she has already spent nearly 30 years. She has regular transfers due to threats of violence from other inmates. She has been at New Hall for six years and enjoys a cushy life. But insiders said she sometimes lashes out at staff if she does not get her own way.
It has been reported that a large part of her days are spent in her cell alone watching TV. A source told The Sun: “Rose is in a disabled room now because she can barely walk. She never really leaves the wing she’s held on and is escorted all the time by prison officers if she goes anywhere. Sometimes she sits in the communal areas on her own.
“No one talks to her because everyone knows who she is and what she did, even if she has changed her name. When I was there, she tried to make friends with the other women and gave them gifts, like vapes, but she was rejected. She likes to watch nature documentaries on the TV in her cell, especially ones about birds.”
Some inmates spurn her attempts at friendship, and she often eats tomato soup in her cell alone for breakfast, before spending most of her time in her cell knitting and talking to the TV, because she can barely walk.
In the hope of distancing herself from her evil crimes, West reportedly paid £36 to change her name to Jennifer Jones. It’s understood she changed her name by deed poll in December last year and told friends it’s her way of moving on.