Serial killer Rose West – who has spent the last 30 years behind bars for her depraved crimes – spends her days in isolation and has become increasingly frail, it has been revealed.
Rose and her husband Fred remain among Britain’s most prolific serial killers, after they carried out a campaign of abuse so vicious that they were branded ‘the epitome of evil.’
Between 1967 and 1987, the deviant couple tortured, raped, and murdered at least 12 young women in Gloucester, before Fred died by suicide and Rose was sentenced to life in prison in 1995.
Three decades later, Rose – who has since changed her name to Jennifer Jones – remains an inmate at women’s only HMP New Hall in West Yorkshire.
New details of her life in prison suggest that she spends her days alone in her cell knitting and watching nature documentaries, The Sun reports.
‘Often she’s just in her cell on her own and the other prisoners can hear her talking to the TV if they walk past,’ according to a source.
Although she ‘sometimes sits in the communal areas on her own’, fellow inmates do not talk to her ‘because everyone knows who she is and what she did, even if she has changed her name,’ the insider said.
It is also claimed that Rose has tried to befriend other prisoners by offering them gifts, but her efforts have been continuously rejected.
Rose West was convicted of the torture and murder of at least 10 women and girls, including her daughter Heather West and stepdaughter Charmaine West
Rose and Fred West collaborated on their heinous crimes but Fred escaped justice when he died by suicide while awaiting trial while Rose was sentence to life imprisonment
She will also repeatedly sit in social areas around other inmates just to annoy them, knowing that they do not want to be around her.
The convicted serial killer is also said to have resigned herself to dying in prison despite having maintained her innocence.
She is understood to be living in a disabled room because she now struggles to walk.
Rose has been described to be ‘very set in her ways’ and is allegedly ‘abusive’ to prison guards when things don’t go her way.
But despite being shunned by fellow inmates, the prisoner reportedly receives letters from twisted fans and admirers.
Rose and Fred’s sadistic story has returned to the limelight following the release of a Netflix true crime docu-series which re-examines the chilling case, including how cops unearthed the remains of their victims.
Over 20 years, the couple murdered at least 12 young women, including two of their own daughters, in their home on Cromwell Street in Gloucester.
It is thought the earliest of Fred’s sickening offences started in his younger years when he allegedly sexually abused his younger sister.
But when he met Rose, the pair fed off each other’s depraved desires and began a campaign of torture, sexual violence and murder.
Heather West (pictured), the eldest of Fred and Rose’s biological children, was murdered, dismembered and buried in the garden when she was 16
Police finally brought Fred and Rose’s killing spree to an end in February 1994 when they turned up at Cromwell Street with a search warrant.
They were later convicted of the combined murders of 12 women at their home in Gloucester between 1967 and 1987, including their daughter Heather, 16.
However, police might have discovered Heather’s bones two years earlier had they paid attention to a comment made by one of the West children when being interviewed in August 1992, according to the Cromwell Inquiry.
At the time, police and social services had removed the children from their home due to child protection concerns and moved them temporarily to Cowley Manor in Cheltenham.
Following the move, social services staff and police interviewed the children, which is when one referred to a family joke of ‘Heather being under the patio’.
It wasn’t until police discovered Heather’s bones under the concrete that the true meaning of the sinister ‘joke’ came to light.
The interviews conducted by police and social services took some time, with one lasting one day and a half.
During the lengthy interview, a West child made a fleeting remark about the family ‘joke’. However, the police officer did not remember the remark and instead focused on their immediate protection concerns.
Cromwell Street in Gloucester which was where Fred and Rose West lived
The house of horrors at 25 Cromwell Street was demolished
Stills of the victims, clockwise from L to R, Ann McFall, Catherine ‘Rena’ Costello, Charmaine West, Lynda Gough, Carole Ann Cooper, Lucy Partington, Therese Siegenthaler, Shirley Hubbard, Juanita Mott, Shirley Anne Robinson, Alison Chambers, Heather West,
At the time, Heather’s whereabouts were only of interest because she could have provided further information on her sibling’s safety for the investigation, meaning police did not have concerns about her well-being.
From then, there was no further mentions of Heather until one year later, in the early summer of 1993, when social workers started to notice the children’s comments on the ‘joke’ and their claims that a patio was laid when Heather went missing.
Because the West children made the comments infrequently, staff were initially conflicted on whether to take them literally.
However, by August of that year and after further comments, staff became certain that the police should be informed, and so a social worker and County Council legal executive reached out.
Police tried to locate Heather, but by early 1994, officers were still unable to find her.
Therefore, police decided that witnesses to the children’s comments regarding Heather should make formal statements.
Together with previous police enquiries, the statements provided the Gloucester Magistrates with sufficient evidence to issue a search warrant, allowing officers to search the West family home for evidence of Heather’s location.
On February 24, Detective Chief Inspector Terry Moore and Detective Inspector Tony James visited the West home and told Rose that her rear garden was to be searched in connection with the disappearance of Heather.
Fred and Rose West with their children
Undated TV still from Fred And Rose West: A British Horror Story. Pictured: Rose West and Fred West
That evening, Fred came home from work after the police officers had left and went to the police station voluntarily, which is where he told officers that he had seen Heather recently in Birmingham.
The next day, Fred admitted to police in his home that Heather was in the garden but that they were looking in the wrong place.
Police arrested Fred, who admitted to killing Heather but later retracted his statements, and Rose, who did not admit to the crime.
On February 26, police found remains of Heather’s body in the garden, as well as the remains of a second body.
Fred appeared at Gloucester Magistrates’ Court two days later, where he was charged with the murder of his daughter.
On May 26, Rose was charged with Heather’s murder between May 28, 1987, and February 27, 1994. She replied: ‘I’m innocent.’
The now-71-year-old was first incarcerated at HMP Bronzefield before being transferred to HM Prison Low Newton.
In 2019, she was transferred to HMP New Hall in West Yorkshire, where she remains.
Her move to HMP New Hall came after there were reportedly fears for her safety due to the presence of another serial killer on the premises.
