The daughter of depraved serial killers Fred and Rose West has revealed the terrible secret she carries with her every day, as well as a chilling letter her evil mother wrote to her from prison.
Mae West, 52, was subjected to vile sexual and physical abuse at the hands of her parents during her childhood in the murderous couple’s home.
She was also forced to sleep on the rotting bodies the couple had buried in the basement of their “house of horrors” at 25 Cromwell Street.
The famous couple were later convicted of the combined murders of 12 women at their Gloucester home between 1967 and 1987, including the death of Mae’s sister Heather.
And speaking on the 30th anniversary of her parents’ arrest, Mae revealed she had never told her son about her family’s infamous crimes.
Fred and Rose West (pictured) tortured, raped and murdered at least 12 young women and girls, including members of their own family.
Mae West (pictured), now 52, was subjected to vile sexual and physical abuse at the hands of her parents during her childhood in the home of the murderous couple (pictured in 1994).
And while serving her sentence, Mae received a letter from her mother cutting all ties she revealed (Rose pictured in 1995).
She said Sun that his youngest son “knows nothing” about his past and “has no idea.”
Although his priority is to live a “normal, everyday life,” he admitted that it was becoming increasingly difficult to hide the truth from him.
She told the publication: “He’s at an age now where he’s starting to ask questions.” The only thing I have told him is that my father is dead and I don’t talk to my mother.
‘As far as I’m concerned, it never will. At least not on my part.
Fred and Rose’s murder spree finally came to an end on February 25, 1994, when police began excavation work on the house.
Fred West took his own life a year later at HMP Birmingham on New Year’s Day 1995. Rose received a life sentence for ten of the murders.
And while serving her sentence, Mae received a letter from her mother breaking all ties she revealed.
She explained: ‘My mother and I stopped talking 16 years ago. We fought. It was her choice.
‘She wrote me a letter basically saying ‘It’s best if I leave you to it.’ In other words, she no longer wanted to see or communicate with me.
‘It made me question a lot of things at that moment, like whether I was with her or not. It’s strange that someone is your father and is alive but you don’t see him anymore.’
Rosemary West with her daughter Mae West as a baby
25 Cromwell Street in Gloucester, where the family lived and committed their crimes.
The basement of his house where many victims were stored.
While Mae has spent the last 30 years building a new life, she often thinks about her sister who was murdered, she said (Mae pictured in 1994).
She said in her recent interview: “I get terribly sad when I think about Heather, how old she would be now, what kind of life she would have had.” I love her so much’ (Mae and Heather photographed as children)
While Mae has spent the last 30 years building a new life, she often thinks about her sister who was murdered, she said.
She said in her recent interview: “I get terribly sad when I think about Heather, how old she would be now, what kind of life she would have had.” I love her so much.
‘Having parents like the ones I had has made me who I am. My challenge is to confront the effect they have had on me, rather than who they are.’
In an interview with the Daily Mail in 2018, Mae spoke about her fears of people “finding out who she was.”
She said at the time: “I’m worried about people knowing or finding out who I am.” And I have all these anxieties about my son finding out about his grandparents.
‘My daughter is older and knows it and has overcome it. She discovered that her uncle’s credit card had the name West on it, she put two and two together and Googled it. I wish he hadn’t found out that way.
‘And my son will be nine years old and…’ . .’ she sighs deeply, ‘all the old fears are surfacing again. My strategy is to quit. I won’t tell you now. I want him to have a childhood that is not ruined.
‘It’s always a problem being part of the West family. I know I can’t work with children, and it’s mostly about self-protection, because if something were to happen to a child in my care (if they fell and got hurt), I would be blamed for my record.
‘I once thought about escaping my past and going to Australia, but they wouldn’t let me enter the country because of what my parents did. And to think they used to deport prisoners from Britain!
Fred West took his own life at HMP Birmingham on New Year’s Day 1995.
Fred West walking in the garden of 25 Cromwell Street
Rose and Fred had eight children during their marriage, of whom Mae is the eldest surviving child (Fred at his daughter Anna’s wedding).
Fred had subdivided 25 Cromwell Street into a house where Rose worked as a prostitute in rented rooms.
The crimes of Mae’s parents, Fred and Rosemary West, were so heinous that they horrified and paralyzed the world.
In 1994, police searched the family home on a rough Gloucester street, searching for the remains of the Wests’ eldest daughter, Heather.
Fred had subdivided 25 Cromwell Street into a house where Rose worked as a prostitute in rented rooms. It became known as the House of Horrors after police excavations unearthed a series of dismembered female bodies in the basement and under the courtyard.
Among the remains were those of Heather, strangled seven years earlier, in 1987, when, at age 16, she had attempted to run away from home to avoid Fred’s predatory sexual advances.
Over the course of the preceding years, it was learned that Fred had committed at least a dozen more murders, most with Rose, his second wife.
The Cromwell Street victims: some teenagers; all women: they were tenants, babysitters, students, hitchhikers, runaways. They were subjected to brutal sexual assaults by Fred and sometimes by Rose as well. Some were mutilated; many were beheaded.
Rose and Fred had eight children during their marriage, of whom Mae is the eldest surviving child. None of them had any idea their house held such bloody secrets until their parents were arrested and charged after the bodies were exhumed.
Fred, it also emerged, had committed at least two more murders alone, while Rose was responsible for killing Fred’s stepdaughter, Charmaine, from his first marriage to Rena, who was also one of Fred’s first victims.
Fred admitted to this monstrous catalog of crimes, claiming that he had acted alone. He committed suicide on January 1, 1995 in his Birmingham prison cell, where he was being held on remand.
Rose has always professed his innocence, but the jury at his trial in November of that year did not believe him. Convicted of ten murders, she was sentenced to life imprisonment with a subsequent order from the Home Secretary that she should never be released.
