'It will cause unimaginable distress': Fred West's daughter condemns ITV drama about the serial killer


  • 'They just want to make money,' says Anne Marie Davis

Fred West's daughter says she feels 'physically sick' at the prospect of a TV drama about the serial killer.

Anne Marie Davis has broken a ten-year silence to condemn the controversial ITV programme about the mass murders.

She believes the TV dramatisation will revive deeply traumatic memories for the families of Fred and Rose West's victims.

Appalled: Anne-Marie Davis, daughter of Fred West, has spoken out for the first time in a decade to condemn a new ITV drama about her father

Appalled: Anne-Marie Davis, daughter of Fred West, has spoken out for the first time in a decade to condemn a new ITV drama about her father

Anne Marie, whose own mother Rena Costello and half-sisters Charmaine and Heather were murdered, said: 'I felt physically sick when I heard about the plans to turn the tragic events which devastated so many people's lives into a TV drama.

'I haven't spoken about this for ten years and the only reason I am speaking now is because I want ITV to realise they will be causing unimaginable distress to the families of the young girls who were murdered.

'No-one should kid themselves, the object of this drama is to make money.

Fred West
Rose West

Killers: Fred and Rose West murdered at least ten people at their home in Cromwell Street, Gloucester, before their arrest in 1994 

'But the programme makers have to recognise that a lot of vulnerable young women died.

'They were real people and their loved ones are real people too who are still suffering and their wounds will only be reopened by a TV drama like this.'

The three-hour drama Appropriate Adult focuses on the period between the Wests' arrests in 1994 and Fred's suicide in Birmingham's Winson Green Prison on New Year's Day 1995, as he awaited trial for 12 murders.

Actor Dominic West, the British star of the US police drama The Wire, will play the Gloucester builder, and Monica Dolan has been cast as Rose.

Drama: Actor Dominic West works on 'Appropriate Adult' in Manchester. In this scene he is taken to the place West buried his first wife

Drama: Actor Dominic West works on 'Appropriate Adult' in Manchester. In this scene he is taken to the place West buried his first wife

Mother-of-eight Rose, 57, is currently serving life in Low Newton prison, near Durham, after being convicted of ten murders in 1995.

Yesterday  Anne Marie, 46, said: 'If the story is scripted from my father's arrest it will cover the time when all those poor victims were found.

Resemblance: Dominic West starred as detective Jimmy McNulty in The Wire

Resemblance: Dominic West starred as detective Jimmy McNulty in The Wire

'I will never forget the images of police officers carrying their remains out of 25 Cromwell Street in crates.

'I was only six when I lost my mother Rena after my father murdered her. I was so young I never really got to know her, but I still miss her.

'The following year in 1971, my eight-year-old half-sister Charmaine disappeared and Rose told me she had gone away with my mum.'

In 1987, Fred West strangled his daughter Heather, 16, and dismembered her body before burying her remains beneath the garden patio at 25 Cromwell Street.

Anne Marie said: 'I was like a little mother to Heather, changing her nappies when she was a baby.

'I'm still devastated by the loss of Heather because I just didn't realise how much danger she was in. That is always in my mind.

'I know how traumatic my own losses have been, but I cannot possibly imagine the pain the other families have suffered and are continuing to suffer.'

The programme's title was chosen after voluntary worker Janet Leach was selected to sit in on Fred West's interviews with detectives as an independent appropriate adult as a safeguard, because police chiefs were concerned by his low intellect.

ITV claim their intention is to produce 'a sober, thought-provoking drama based on a true story" with the events unfolding through Janet Leach's eyes.

Mrs Leach told Winchester Crown Court West had told her he had made 'a pact' with Rose to take the blame for the killings and he had also claimed there were 'another 20 unknown victims'.

Caroline Roberts
Lucy Partington victim of murderer Fred West, Lucy went missing in 1973 after visiting friends in Cheltenham

Victims: The West's former nanny Caroline was raped and survived a murder attempt, while Lucy Partington was killed by them in 1973

During the horror: Fred West and wife Rose with Ann Marie at her wedding in 1986

During the horror: Fred West and wife Rose with the serial killer's daughter Anne Marie at her wedding in 1986

Yesterday mother-of-two Anne Marie, who still lives in Gloucester, said: 'One newspaper report claimed Janet Leach "won my father's confidence", but this was never the case.

'She was merely a toy, an audience to his sickness, someone new to manipulate. She was completely out of her depth dealing with a master of manipulation and deceit.'

Anne Marie, who was first sexually abused by the Wests when she was just eight and ran away from Cromwell Street aged 15, said: 'I knew Fred and Rose were dangerous people, but I didn't realise how dangerous.

'I knew they were involved in incest and paedophilia, but I thought it was confined to me.

'This TV drama appears to be attempting to define characters. These are not fictional characters, but extremely complex individuals who only shared their darkest secrets with each other.'

Serial killer: West eats Christmas lunch with friends and family members at the House of Horrors in Gloucester

Serial killer: West eats Christmas lunch with friends and family members at the House of Horrors in Gloucester

Anne Marie has declined ITV approaches to assist with the production,and  is already concerned about the accuracy of the programme-maker's research.

Retired Detective Superintendent John Bennett, who led the West inquiry, is also concerned the ITV drama should be an accurate portrayal of the investigation.

Horror: Workmen begin work to demolish the scene of the mass murders at 25 Cromwell Street which was the burial scene for nine young women

Horror: Workmen begin to demolish 25 Cromwell Street, where the bodies of nine young women were found

He said: 'Janet Leach was Fred West's appropriate adult and signed a confidentiality agreement. But she entered into a deal to reveal Fred West's conversations with her for commercial gain.

'If the ITV drama portrays her role accurately it will have to show how she perjured herself in court by denying she had received any remuneration and came very close to causing the collapse of the trial of Rosemary West.'

Anne Marie, who works in a supermarket, said: 'I have had customers come up to me and say 'Is there anything you can do to stop this programme - or anything we can do?'

'All I can say is that a lot of women and young girls lost their lives in desperately tragic circumstances and they deserve to be remembered - not to be seen as mere public property.

'Listen to their families and realise what is best for all.'

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