West was arrested in 1994 for murder and he immediately confessed to being a serial killer, even providing gruesome details as to how he had killed at least a dozen women and girls. However, he took his own life before the trial could begin. His wife Rose West aided him with some of these murders and committed at least one by herself. She was arrested at the same time, but maintains her innocence to this day. She was convicted of ten murders in 1995 and is reportedly serving out the rest of her life sentence in New hall jail, Wakefield. In 2019 podcast series, ‘Unheard: The Fred & Rose West Tapes’, journalist and author Howard Sounes presented his original interviews conducted at the time of the police investigation – alongside some new ones.

He made a shocking discovery about West’s criminal past when looking through the local police records. He found in November 1961, when West was 19, he went to trial. He had been charged with the sexual abuse of a 13-year-old girl. 

The discovery became even more horrifying when Mr Sounes interviewed one of West’s elderly relatives called Edna Hill. She confirmed he had been in trouble with police over this accusation and said: “It was his own sister. Kitty West.”

Mr Sounes revealed when West was questioned by police, he acknowledged the accusations that he had abused his sister. The journalist heard West said: “‘Well, doesn’t everybody do it?’”

The police subsequently charged him with “having unlawful carnal knowledge of a child”.

Mr Sounds explained: “When the case came to court, Kitty refused to name her abuser. The trial collapsed. Fred walked free.

“There was one more very sensitive detail of Fred’s alleged abuse of his sister. Kitty became pregnant, though she didn’t bear the child.

“What happened to Kitty is among the saddest in the West case. She refused to speak to me or indeed any press. When detectives went to interview her about Fred in 1994, she got her doctor to write a note to demand that they leave her alone.”

Mr Sounes then explained West’s sister died in 2006. Her husband Mr Poole told Mr Sounes: “That’s what killed my wife.”

The journalist commented: “I knew what he meant. The publicity of her brother’s murder case, the attention of the police and people like me, asking difficult, intimate questions. There was pain and suffering in the family long before Fred’s murders were uncovered.”

 Ms Hill spoke to Mr Sounes when he was reporting on the West case back in the Nineties. She also explained how much the 13-year-old girl had changed immediately after the traumatic event. “Kitty was a nice little girl, but since all this, she’s just sort of turned.

“She doesn’t seem the same girl. She seems quiet. She doesn’t want nothing to do with nobody.”

Ms Hill confirmed at the time that it was “quite a scandal” and everybody knew about West’s actions. West’s mother Daisy West was “disgusted with it, really” according to Ms Hill, and she threw him out of the house. He then went to live with his aunt, Violet Clark. 

However, when Mr Sounes rang West’s aunt, she said: “What do you want to write a book about Frederick West for? He was one of the best boys, he loved his auntie Violet and his uncle Bernie.

“I can say that up until the day I die. And that’s all I’m going to tell you.”

She added: “He’d do anything for me.”

Ms Clark also said that she didn’t think he committed such a crime against his sister.

West’s mother Daisy appeared as a defence witness at the trial in 1961 and the local doctor Brian Hardy, the Wests’ family GP, also provided evidence.

He said West had suffered head injuries in his youth, and as a result West “could be epileptic and therefore might not be responsible for his actions”.

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The podcast revealed West fell down the stairs in his youth when he tried to put his hand up a girl’s skirt.

When the girl turned and hit him, he fell down the fire escape. The podcast host added: “Fred was out cold, apparently.”

This was the second head injury West sustained in his youth. West was also in a motorbike accident which made him unconscious for a week. His family believed it changed him forever.

However, when Mr Sounes phoned the doctor in question, he said he could not remember the facts of the case and whether or not West had epilepsy. 

West met his future wife Rose West when he was 27 and she was 15.

They eventually married and had several children together. They are believed to have killed West’s first wife and one of his daughter’s from that marriage, before going on to kill many more girls and women throughout their time together.

The Wests’ killing spree remained undetected until police discovered the remains of one of their children in their back garden.

The police launched an official investigation and discovered more victims buried at 25 Cromwell Street, which soon became known as ‘The House of Horrors’.

Unheard: The Fred & Rose West Tapes is available weekly on Apple, Spotify and all podcast providers.

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