Friend of serial killer Fred West driven to suicide says wife

One of the most horrific serial killers cases in British history involved Fred and Rose West. They were responsible for the murders of 13 victims including three of their own children. Some of whom were buried under the patio at 25 Cromwell street on the outskirts of Gloucester, England.

But even to this day their horrifying legacy impacts innocent people. According to his wife Janet Bates in the Express, a former friend of Fred West was driven to suicide after the police refused to listen to his warnings some 20 years before his killing spree was stopped.  She says that in the 1970s he was shown gruesome images of body parts and surgical instruments used for illegal abortions undertaken by West.

She said: “Terry had been shown disturbing images and went straight to the police but when they didn’t do anything he felt responsible.

“He thought if he had been a more upstanding person at the time then the police would have had to listen to him.”

And when West was on the front of the newspaper in the early 1990s, the police still refused to listen to him. It wasn’t until Fred West was finally caught and stopped in 1994 did the killings end. West killed himself in 1995 before his trial

Ms Bates said: “Terry asked how many girls could he have saved if they had listened to him? He blamed himself and couldn’t handle the pressure.”

She alerted the Independent Police Complaints Commission in May this year claiming her late husband was “bullied and harassed” as part of a cover-up by officers’ involved with the Wests. The allegations are still under investigation.

She said yesterday: “We believe Terry is dead because of the way senior police misused their powers. I did not pursue it as I was afraid that what happened to Terry would happen to me.

“I had two young children at the time but now they are older and they want this mistake acknowledged. This is for them.”