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.