A cousin of Cromwell Street killer Fred West was beginning a four-year jail term last night after being found guilty of raping one teenage girl and indecently assaulting two others.
William John Hill, 45, was convicted by a jury of sexually abusing the schoolgirls in the late 1970s and early 80s in or near his then home in Much Marcle, Herefordshire.
Birmingham Crown Court heard the father-of-three had visited West's Gloucester home frequently at the time of the offences, only ceasing the visits there when he married in 1985.
During the same period, Fred and Rosemary West were pursuing their campaign of violent sex at 25 Cromwell Street.
West Mercia Police, who conducted the Hill investigation, and Gloucester Police, who undertook the Cromwell Street inquiry, were keen to play down the connection between the two men.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article