“In the simplest of terms, assisted by her husband, she starved him to death, thereby securing for herself and her family the windfall she craved” - Oliver Saxby QC, Reading Crown Court, January 2020
One of the men reached into his pocket to get out the money to pay. He pawed at a wedge of £10 notes. The cashier noticed a large gold ring on one of his fingers and saw what she thought was blood above his knuckles. Maybe he had been fighting? The cashier then glanced up. There was no break in their polite conversation. The customer had not noticed her looking, or perhaps the shopper did not even know his hand was bloody...
PLEASE LISTEN TO ‘SEASON 6 - EPISODES 1, 2, 3 & 4’ FOR THE PREVIOUS PARTS OF THIS FIVE-PART CASE. On Tuesday, November 21, 1995, after two days of deliberation, the jury had finally made some progress on the murder charges they were considering. There were 10 in all, but so far, jurors were only able to reach verdicts for 2 of them. The accused, Rose West, stood in the dock. Tears hung heavy in her eyes. It felt like the onlookers in the public gallery were in a state of suspended animation — no movement, no sound, other than the voice from the foreman of the jury... (Part 5 of 5)
PLEASE LISTEN TO ‘SEASON 6 - EPISODES 1, 2 & 3’ FOR THE PREVIOUS PARTS OF THIS FIVE-PART CASE. Born towards the end of September 1941 to parents Walter and Daisy West, Frederick Walter Stephen West was raised in the rural village of Much Marcle, surrounded by green rolling fields on the border of the tranquil south-Herefordshire countryside. Both his parents were seen as pleasant, hard-working people. From the outside in, Fred’s life was idyllic — time spent playing in the fields where his father made ends meet... (Part 4 of 5)
PLEASE LISTEN TO ‘SEASON 6 - EPISODES 1 & 2’ FOR THE PREVIOUS PARTS OF THIS FIVE-PART CASE. A great deal of anger in the media was directed at Rose West after her husband’s death. There was a sense that Fred West had escaped justice by taking his own life, and now, he would not have to answer for his crimes. The anger towards his widow was not tempered when it was reported that a unit of Winchester prison had been purpose-built for Rose while she would stand trial... (Part 3 of 5)
PLEASE LISTEN TO ‘SEASON 6 - EPISODE 1’ FOR PART ONE OF THIS FIVE-PART CASE. Each passing day, the increasing crowd of bystanders observed scene-of-crime officers, carrying box upon box of evidence out of the garden of 25 Cromwell Street, their boots heavy with mud, marking the tarmac outside... (Part 2 of 5)
When asked if they wanted to visit the property on Cromwell Street, the jury were unanimous in their decision. They were transported to the scene by bus...
PLEASE LISTEN TO ‘SEASON 5 - EPISODES 47 & 48’ FOR PARTS ONE & TWO OF THIS THREE-PART CASE. The waters of the River Aire were in the process of being searched by divers from The West Yorkshire constabulary. Excavation work also continued around the flats where Stephen Griffiths lived in Holmfield Court on Thornton Road in Bradford. A collection of crossbow bolts, two crossbows, numerous bags and electronic equipment had been recovered from his home… (Part 3 of 3)
PLEASE LISTEN TO ‘SEASON 5 - EPISODE 47’ FOR PART ONE OF THIS THREE-PART CASE. Stephen Griffiths was the man who ended Suzanne Blamires’ life. That was not something he could argue as he had been filmed on CCTV executing her with a crossbow. Suzanne’s remains were later found in the River Aire. Griffiths was also suspected of killing Susan Rushworth and Shelley Armitage. Their whereabouts were currently unknown… (Part 2 of 3)
The footage captured by a CCTV camera around 2:30 am, early that Saturday morning is grainy. It pictures a corridor on the third floor of a building. A male and a female are walking side by side. They enter one of the flats through the front door. Minutes later, the door flings open, and the woman is seen running as fast as she can... (Part 1 of 3)
Love, betrayal, jealousy and greed are themes that are as old as time. These emotions can dominate someone's thoughts and lead them to murder. But if they take a life, they seldom get away with it. So focused on the spoils of their ill-gotten gains, they think scarcely about the person that is gone or how the death will negatively impact the lives of the victim's loved ones. However, after their arrest, the murderer will have decades to think about what they have done in their prison cell, never seeing the financial or romantic gains they set out to attain…