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HOUSE OF HORRORS
Footage show farmhouse where Fred West is suspected to have buried up to 20 more victims
FOOTAGE secretly shot inside a derelict farmhouse where Fred West is suspected to have buried up to 20 more victims has been seen by The Sun on Sunday.
The location of the isolated building was identified by Sir Trevor McDonald on an ITV documentary last year - but this is the first time access has been gained inside the serial killer’s potential new lair.
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And chilling video and pictures show that fresh concrete has been laid on floors – meaning builder West could have used it to cover the graves of young female victims.
In one room at deserted Berkeley Mill Farm, Gloucestershire, a modern-looking raised concrete slab has been attached to flooring in one disused room.
The grisly footage also shows how concrete has been used to fill in gaps in the walls of the deserted property, which experts believe evil Fred West and wife Rose used to torture and kill more victims.
West killed himself aged 53 on January 1, 1995 in prison awaiting trial for 12 murders between 1967 and 1997.
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His wife Rose West was convicted in November 1995 of 10 murders and is serving a whole life order.
Many victims – including the couple’s 16-year-old daughter Heather - were buried at their ‘House of Horrors’ home at 25 Cromwell Street, Gloucester.
But our revelations show a new house of horrors is likely to lie at the farm outside the town of Berkeley, Glos – where labourer West was known to have worked alone on drainage systems.
They come after ITV documentary Fred and Rose West Re-Opened identified the farm as a likely burial ground, which presenter Sir Trevor McDonald urged police to excavate.
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The show’s makers did not gain access to the dilapidated and boarded up farmhouse which stands in fields off a countryside back-road.
But our source – who did gain entry to the building with his partner – said: “It needs to be investigated urgently, and we left certain that it is a burial ground for the Wests’ female victims.
“There is fairly fresh concrete on the floors which is totally out of keeping with the rest of the farmhouse, which has not been touched for decades or centuries.
“There are footprints in some of the concrete and there are concrete patches in the walls, which could have been used to cover cracks caused by manacles.
“And there is a huge concrete slab on the floor in one room, which we could not remove with crowbars.
“The concrete looks 20 or 30 years old, which would fit in with when the Wests were killing people and it is definitely much newer than the rest of the building.
“It is like a fortress and is literally in the middle of nowhere.
“Parts of it are boarded up and parts are bricked up, and it is off a single village lane that you would never go down unless you were looking for the farm.
“If they were using it to take victims there, no-one would hear or see anything for miles around.
“It is the perfect lair for Fred West; and we had the feeling that we were the first people to visit the farm since he had been there. It was truly chilling.”
Fred West is said to have told his son Stephen – who informed police – that he murdered women and girls who he buried at Berkley in prison visits before he died.
And Janet Leach, a social worker who was Fred West’s “appropriate adult” during police questioning, said that he had told her there were many more bodies of young women and girls buried at “the farm”.
In her witness statements – revealed by the programme – she said: “Fred told me there were another 20 bodies to be found after the 12, some in fields, the rest in the barn.
“Fred said some of the victims’ bones were missing because it was a ritual thing and they did something with the fingers so there was no way of finding out who they were.”
And a pair of West’s former employers, Wendy and Derek Thomson, claim that he had told them he had “done something in Berkeley”.
Sir Trevor – who led the ITV investigation with ex Met Police DCI Colin Sutton - has urged police to investigate and excavate the site, saying that “there is still much more to the murderous campaign of Fred and Rose West.”
West abducted, tortured and killed at least 12 young women over a 20-year period between 1967 and 1987 – with most carried out alongside evil wife Rose, 69.
But he worked around the country and gaps in his known offending suggest there could be many ‘forgotten victims’ as he targeted vulnerable girls, many of whom were in care.
He is suspected of killing Mary Bastholm, 17 who disappeared from a bus stop in Gloucester in 1968.
Four young women – including Margaret McAvoy who West knew from working on an ice cream van – disappeared during his time living in Glasgow.
Colin Sutton – and ex-detective with more than 30 years’ experience – told The Sun on Sunday: “This is a very likely site that needs looking at.
“It is highly significant if there’s something there that is odd or inconsistent. It definitely raises suspicion.”
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A Gloucestershire Police spokeswoman said: “There are currently no active enquiries in relation to the Fred and Rosemary West case.
“If any new and compelling information comes to light it will be reviewed.”
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