Rose West

Paul Cheston has been a court reporter for 40 years and was court correspondent of the London Evening Standard.

My job was to be at the top court case in the country, and so that took in everything from the Soham murders to Rosemary West, the serial killer, and virtually every Al-Qaeda terrorist or jihadist.

It's now 2007, and Paul is sent to Woolwich Crown Court in Southeast London.

Woolwich Crown Court is a horrible place to get to, and it's very stark, very bleak.

cases, Martin.

And I think one that stands out to me is the coverage you did of the Fred and Rose West case.

Tell me how you first became

involved with that story.

And for her to think that All parents were behaving like that to her classmates and never knowing until years later that that wasn't a normal behavior of parents.

That's just beyond shocking.

What did you make of Rose West at the trial,

Martin? She was a bit of an enigma.

But before we start, I want to let you know that yesterday I chatted to top crime reporter and podcaster Martin Brunt of Sky News, and I'll be releasing this fascinating conversation on Sunday.

During our chat, Martin tells me about his time reporting on some major cases, including Fred and Rose West, the murder of Sarah Payne, and the murder of Jill Dando.

But that's on Sunday.

For now, let's quickly set some context for today's story with our Guess The Month and Year game.

I think I got to prison at about 5:00, and by the time... 'cause it's, like, a good two, uh, two, three-hour journey in that sweatbox from York to Durham.

I ar- arrived into Low Newton, which is a Cat A high-security women's prison that housed Rose West, uh, prolific murderer Joanne Dennehy, Baby P killer, Tracey Connelly.

So, you can imagine the type of people that I was surrounded by.

Joanne Dennehy's still in there, and supposedly Lucy Letby is there now.

She is a prolific murderer that went on a killing spree, and I believe, I'm gonna guess here, I might be wrong, so don't quote me on it, at least three people she murdered in one spree, and she got done for attempted murder on a couple that I don't think died.

She hated men.

She was actually in a relationship with Rose West before Rose West got shipped out to New Hall, which is down in Leeds in, gonna say West Yorkshire, is it? East Yorkshire?

How has it been around these sort of people-

This meant that she was held in a closed prison and spent a lot of her time in solidarity.

Sharon was moved to HMP Low Newton, where infamous child killer Rose West was incarcerated for a period of time.

Sharon didn't last long here, though.

Her violent tendencies were still very much there, and she attacked her cellmate with the goal of murdering her.

This one true crime episode messed it up for, uh, forever.

Uh, Fred and Rose West, they're this, uh, couple that killed together in y- like, one of the most disturbing, uh, serial killer stories I've ever come across, and I've come across so many and told so many.

Mm-hmm.

And this guy's life was so messed up.

amazing

so in the 1980s for almost a decade police across britain investigated the disappearances of young girls without realizing the same man may have been responsible it took one observant neighbor making a phone call to police in a quiet scottish village to uncover one of the uk's most complex child murder investigations and so today we unravel the case that changed british policing forever So when people think of British serial killers, names like Fred and Rose West or Harold Shipman come up.

Who do you think, if you were to talk about a British serial killer, who comes to mind?

I do think of the West a lot, but also the Molls murders.

Nice.

Yeah.

But they're the ones, aren't they? Rose West.

And do you know, when I lived in Cheltenham for a year, I wasn't really into true crime that much at that point.