section_path: Investigation and arrest
section_name: Investigation and arrest
paragraph_text: Investigation and arrest
  
  On 6 August 1992, Fred was arrested after being accused of sexually assaulting his 13-year-old daughter three times and Rose was arrested for child cruelty. This case against them collapsed on 7 June 1993 when their daughter refused to testify in court. All five of the Wests' younger children were removed from their custody to foster homes. This case brought to light the disappearance of Heather, who had not been seen since 1987 and triggered the major investigation that followed.
  
  After police found human remains and apparent signs of torture at 25 Cromwell Street, Rose, along with Fred, was arrested in February 1994. During her trial, Rose denied murdering any of the victims and insisted that her husband had committed the criminal acts alone. She also claimed to have tried to stop one of the sexual assaults her husband committed. Rose continued to profess ignorance of her husband's activities, but the circumstantial evidence that mounted against the couple was considered sufficient to prosecute her for ten murders: those of the young women whose bodies were found at Cromwell Street, and of Charmaine West. Fred was charged with two further murders committed before his association with Rose.
  
  After his arrest in February 1994, Fred confided to his appropriate adult, Janet Leach, that Rose had murdered Shirley Robinson and had assisted in her dismemberment, personally removing Robinson's foetus from the womb in the process. Found under the patio at Cromwell Street was the body of the Wests' daughter, Heather, who was murdered in June 1987 after being abused by her parents all her life. It is said that Heather began to tell her friends about the abuse occurring in her home. Barry, her younger brother, would later describe watching, as a seven-year-old, his mother kick Heather repeatedly about the head until she was no longer moving. The Wests told friends and concerned parties that she had left home to work at a Devonshire holiday village and on one occasion fabricated a phone call, supposedly from Heather, to allay her siblings' suspicions regarding her disappearance. Fred would even taunt his children when they misbehaved by jokingly stating, "If you don't behave, you'll end up under the patio like Heather." This was the last known murder that the pair committed.
  
  While on remand at HM Prison Birmingham, Fred killed himself by hanging on 1 January 1995.
  
  On 6 August 1992, Fred was arrested after being accused of sexually assaulting his 13-year-old daughter three times and Rose was arrested for child cruelty. This case against them collapsed on 7 June 1993 when their daughter refused to testify in court. All five of the Wests' younger children were removed from their custody to foster homes. This case brought to light the disappearance of Heather, who had not been seen since 1987 and triggered the major investigation that followed.
  
  After police found human remains and apparent signs of torture at 25 Cromwell Street, Rose, along with Fred, was arrested in February 1994. During her trial, Rose denied murdering any of the victims and insisted that her husband had committed the criminal acts alone. She also claimed to have tried to stop one of the sexual assaults her husband committed. Rose continued to profess ignorance of her husband's activities, but the circumstantial evidence that mounted against the couple was considered sufficient to prosecute her for ten murders: those of the young women whose bodies were found at Cromwell Street, and of Charmaine West. Fred was charged with two further murders committed before his association with Rose.
  
  After his arrest in February 1994, Fred confided to his appropriate adult, Janet Leach, that Rose had murdered Shirley Robinson and had assisted in her dismemberment, personally removing Robinson's foetus from the womb in the process. Found under the patio at Cromwell Street was the body of the Wests' daughter, Heather, who was murdered in June 1987 after being abused by her parents all her life. It is said that Heather began to tell her friends about the abuse occurring in her home. Barry, her younger brother, would later describe watching, as a seven-year-old, his mother kick Heather repeatedly about the head until she was no longer moving. The Wests told friends and concerned parties that she had left home to work at a Devonshire holiday village and on one occasion fabricated a phone call, supposedly from Heather, to allay her siblings' suspicions regarding her disappearance. Fred would even taunt his children when they misbehaved by jokingly stating, "If you don't behave, you'll end up under the patio like Heather." This was the last known murder that the pair committed.
  
  While on remand at HM Prison Birmingham, Fred killed himself by hanging on 1 January 1995.