Lawyer of Rose West calls on the notorious serial killer to finally tell the truth about the spate of murders she carried out with her husband Fred, as ‘there is an awful lot she knows but hasn’t revealed’
- Rose West is serving ten life sentences and will turn 70 in November
Serial killer Rose West is still maintaining her ‘total innocence’ after spending 30 years behind bars for torturing and murdering at least nine young women with her husband Fred.
Now her own lawyer is urging the sadistic killer to finally confess, believing ‘there is an awful lot’ that she knows but she hasn’t revealed.
Leo Goatley, 67, who represented West for 12 years after she was first arrested in 1994 alongside her husband, has told her to ‘find redemption’ by confessing, The Mirror reported.
West is serving ten life sentences in jail in HM Prison New Hall, in Flocton, West Yorkshire, and will turn 70 in November.
Mr Goatley used to visit West regularly in prison but lost touch in recent years, he says she is now overweight, reclusive and in poor health.
However, the lawyer still hopes she will provide the families of victims closure with new information, particularly about the disappearance of Mary Bastholm, 15, in 1968.
Speaking to The Mirror, he said: ‘There isn’t much that Fred did that she wasn’t aware of. If her inner journey has really gone anywhere since she has been in prison there are things she should say that would help the families of her victims.
‘This blanket pleading of total ignorance of everything that happened is just daft at this point.
‘Also she could very simply clear up if there are other victims we don’t even know about.’
He is ‘certain; West is still hiding detail and believes Fred West used her to get Mary into his car before killing her.
The killer is currently one of very few female prisoners in the UK serving a life tariff.
West and husband Fred, abducted, tortured and raped innocent women over a 20 year period at their house in Cromwell Street, Gloucestershire, where they resided from 1972 until their arrests in 1994.
The pair even killed their eldest daughter Heather in June 1987.
Fred, who confessed the killings, committed suicide in his cell while on remand at HMP Birmingham on New Year’s Day, 1995.
Other victims included Alison Chambers, 16, Shirley Robinson, 18, Juanita Mott, 18, Shirley Hubbard, 15, Theresa Siegnethaler, 21, Lucy Partington, 21, Carol Ann Cooper, 15, Lynda Gough, 19, Rena Costello (Fred’s ex-wife), 27, Charmaine West (Fred’s daughter), 8, and Anne McFall, 18.
It has long been suspected that they were connected to more killings such as Mary Bastholm.
Mr Goatley added: ‘The way I feel is whatever process she has gone through in prison, while trying to project this image of a mellowed old lady, means if she really has become like that she would want to find some kind of redemption.’
