BUILDER Frederick West was charged yesterday with the murder of his
Scottish first wife Catherine West, nee Costello, who would have been 50
yesterday.
Mr West, 52, has already been charged with nine counts of murder.
Police in Gloucester confirmed that the human remains found buried in
a cornfield near the village of Kempley on Sunday were those of Mrs
West.
Scottish relatives of the dead woman, who has not been seen in her
home town of Coatbridge for almost 25 years, had feared the worst ever
since the police moved in to search Mr West's property at 25 Cromwell
Street, Gloucester.
Mrs West's cousin, Mrs Annie Graham, 69, of Daldowie Street,
Coatbridge, said yesterday: ''It's a terrible way for her to meet her
death. She didn't deserve to die like that. I never knew Frederick West.
I just knew that she had met him and got married.
''The last time I saw Rena was many, many years ago. She was a happy
girl, full of life. Although it's a terrible way for her to die, in some
ways it has eased my mind to know what has happened.''
Police will now continue the search for one of the Wests' two
daughters, Charmaine, who went missing when she was 14. Digging was in
progress yesterday at another field near Kempley.
Police, who have a warrant to search a section of the field, say they
have ''good reason'' to do so. However, they will not say whether they
are searching for another body.
Mrs West was last seen in Gloucestershire some time between 1969 and
1971 when she was in her mid 20s. Police confirmed yesterday that
Catherine ''Rena'' Costello married Mr West at the register office in
Ledbury in November, 1962.
They had two children -- Charmaine, born in March the following year,
and Anne Marie, who now lives in Gloucester, in July 1964. It is
understood that the couple lived in Bridgeton and Shettleston in Glasgow
before moving to Gloucester in the mid-60s.
Their marriage effectively ''terminated'' later, but the couple
maintained contact. Mrs West's disappearance was never reported to
police.
Frederick West is in custody already accused of murdering nine young
women over a period of 14 years up to 1987.
Their remains were all unearthed from the garden and the fabric of Mr
West's three-storey house in Cromwell Street.
Among his alleged victims is his 16-year-old daughter by his second
marriage, Heather, who disappeared in 1987. He is expected to appear
before Gloucester magistrates on May 5 when the Costello murder charge
will be put.
Meanwhile, the inquest into the deaths of the young women was formally
opened in Gloucester's Shire Hall yesterday. Coroner David Gibbons heard
that all nine were identified through a combination of dental and
medical records and a technique of superimposing still and video
pictures on the skull and jaw features of the remains. The hearing was
adjourned.
The evidence accepted by the coroner formally identified the nine
women as -- Mr West's daughter Heather, 16; Alison Chambers, 17, from
Swansea;Shirley Ann Robinson, 18, from Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire;
Swiss student Therese Siegenthaler, 21; Shirley Hubbard, 15, of
Droitwich; Lucy Partington, 21, of Cheltenham; Juanita Mott, 18, of
Newent, Gloucestershire; Lynda Gough, 19, of Gloucester; and Carol Ann
Cooper, 15, of Warndon, Worcester.
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