Rose West 'can barely walk' and is shunned by fellow prisoners as her life behind bars is revealed

29 May 2025, 09:32 | Updated: 29 May 2025, 09:57

Rose West rarely leaves her cell, can barely walk and is ignored by her fellow prisoners, new accounts about the serial killer's time behind bars have said.

The 71-year-old is increasingly frail and isolated - eating tomato soup alone in her cell for breakfast.

New details of her life have revealed 30 years after she was jailed in 1995 for murdering 10 women and girls alongside her husband, Fred, in Gloucester.

Despite changing her name to Jennifer Janes by deed poll in 2020, all her fellow inmates know her real identity at the woman-only HMP New Hall near Wakefield, West Yorkshire.

A source told The Sun: “She’s in a disabled room now because she can barely walk.

“She never really leaves the wing she’s held on and is escorted all the time by prison officers if she goes anywhere.

“Sometimes she sits in the communal areas on her own.

“No one talks to her because everyone knows who she is and what she did, even if she has changed her name.

Read More: Liverpool crash suspect is 'pleasant family man with three young kids'

Read More: Two police officers who pepper-sprayed and tasered amputee, 92, in care home cleared of assault

“When I was there, she tried to make friends with the other women and gave them gifts, like vapes, but she was rejected.

“She likes to watch nature documentaries on the TV in her cell, especially ones about birds.”

From 1967 to 1987, Fred committed at least 11 murders and was assisted for at least nine of these by his second wife Rose - who he married when she was 16 and he was 28.

The Wests had a shared sexual sadomasochist interest that led them to go on to prey on vulnerable young women in the area of their Gloucester home. They would kidnap, torture, rape, kill and dismember their victims.

Rose West has been at New Hall prison for six years and is said to enjoy a comfortable life.

The special unit, Rivendell House, has 30 prisoners in an en-suite cell with communal areas, and chickens the prisoners can tend to.

Inmates can also take part in yoga classes, knitting circles and film nights.

In 2019, West wanted to take part in a knitting project making woollen "angel wings" for bereaved families who had lost their babies at birth.

The request was quickly rejected after being met with uproar.

However, inside sources said West will lash out at staff if she does not get her own way.

A source revealed: “She can be quite abusive to officers if she doesn’t get what she wants and she’s very set in her ways.

“If she asks for something and it doesn’t happen within five minutes, she’ll get the hump.

“No one wants to talk to her or be close to her. She sits in the social areas around everyone else just to annoy the other women, knowing they don’t want to be around her.

“Often she’s just in her cell on her own and the other prisoners can hear her talking to the TV if they walk past.

“Her hair is grey now and she’s put on some weight but she still looks the same and she still wears her glasses.

“She never gets any visitors but still gets loads of post and cards from sick admirers on the outside, which has to go through security checks before it gets to her.”

West has to travel around the prison with guards for her own safety.

She spent 11 years at Durham’s Low Newton before being transferred to New Hall. It is believed she was moved after fellow serial killer Joanna Dennehy threatened her.

Before Low Newton she was at HMP Bronzefield, in Ashford, Surrey. A plot to attack her with a sock full of snooker balls was revealed, so she was moved.

West still refuses to help police investigators find the remains of 20 other possible victims of her and her husband.

Watch the trailer for Fred and Rose West - A British Horror Story

Those who they killed were Heather West, Shirley Robinson, Alison Chambers, Thérèse Siegenthaler, Shirley Hubbard, Lucy Partington, Juanita Mott, Lynda Gough, and Carole Ann Cooper. Fred murdered Ann McFall and Rose killed Charmaine West.

Fred also murdered his first wife Catherine “Rena” Costello and killed himself in 1995 aged 53 while awaiting pretrial proceedings after admitting to 10 murders but not that of Ann McFall.

After various probes in the early 1990s, police eventually caught up with them and arrests were made following the excavation of their lawn at 25 Cromwell Street - where bodies were found.

The Fred and Rose unanswered questions

Why did it take authorities so long to properly investigate the Wests?

In 1992 both Rose and Fred were charged over the sexual abuse of one of their daughters after an anonymous tip of to the police.

However, the statement was retracted by the daughter, the charge was dropped, and it would be another two years before her parents were arrested.

Authorities failed to intervene at other previous occasions despite seeing the Wests’ children looking in poor health at school. But this is not much followed up in the documentary.

Will Rose West admit guilt?

Rose, now in her seventies, will never be released from prison.

Her daughter Mae West lives in hope that her mother might finally admit to being complicit. "She became quite high and mighty in prison, intervening in our lives...

"Her death will be the next thing, and I suppose she might make a deathbed confession."

"I just wish she'd tell the truth to the authorities, then we'd all know, wouldn't we?"

What happened to Mary Bastholm?

The 15-year-old cafe worker disappeared in 1968 but her disappearance remains unsolved.

Fred West has long been linked to her presumed death and is said to have admitted to it privately in 1994 - although he was said to have told many lies during this period.

Gloucester Police excavated the building in 2021 but no evidence was found.

Why did Fred West not admit to killing Ann McFall?

The police said Fred West never admitted involvement in the murder of Ann McFall but did show officers where she was buried.

He was convicted of her 1967 murder but, unlike his wife, did sometimes give police confessions of guilt. But he never admitted to what was the first killing in his spree.