Prison gang plan to murder serial killer Fred West in his cell revealed in archive tapes
West was hated as a child killer and child abuser by his fellow inmates
PRISONERS plotted to murder serial killer and 'house of horrors' Fred West by smuggling poisonous alcohol into his cell, it has been revealed.
Hidden documents to be revealed in a new book reveal that phone taps alerted officers at HMP Birmingham to a conspiracy to bring spirits and drugs into the jail in plastic water bottles.
Prison staff also overheard inmates planning to kill murderer West using poisons they had in their possession.
They learnt that the staff car park behind the mess at the prison, in Winson Green, west Birmingham, was being used for drops of drugs and spirits.
The plot would see a trusted inmate given access to the grounds collected the contraband and gave it to others working unsupervised as chefs and waiters in the officer's mess.
The inmates with the most privileges, called red bands, would then distribute the bottles throughout the jail, including alcohol spiked with poison to West's cell.
West was hated as a child killer and child abuser by his fellow inmates and was segregated from the rest of the prison population at Winson Green.
At the time of the plot, West was awaiting trial for the murders of 12 young girls, most of which were committed with wife Rosemary.
The plot was rumbled when officers searched the cells of all the inmates working in the officers mess plus West's own cell - in search of the poisoned booze.
The orderly who had been allowed limited access to the prison grounds was immediately sacked from his trusted post and given work back inside the prison.
West lived in fear of being killed but after being taken off suicide watch he hanged himself in his cell on New Year's Day 1995.
Professor Tom Clark, of Sheffield University, has been researching the prison files of Britain’s most notorious serial killers for a book due out next year called The Sociology of Evil.
He told the : 'Fred West loved his booze so the inmates had hit on the perfect plan to catch him off guard.
'West was seen as a hate figure on a par with Ian Brady when he was first on remand because a lot of his crimes involved children.
'Later things calmed down because he came across as so simple minded. They nicknamed him Digger and joked about asking him to lay a patio for them.
'But initially he was regarded as a high profile target and poisoning was probably the only way they could get at him.'
According to Parliament, although prison phone systems are designed to record all prisoners' calls, only about five per cent a day are actively monitored.
Prof Clark added: 'It was a total fluke the prison control room happened to intercept a call which caused the whole plot to unravel.'
Otherwise, the story could have ended very differently and caused an even bigger rumpus about jail security than West's eventual suicide did."
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