IT’S been 30 years since I studied Rose West at close quarters during her trial for the murder of ten young women.
She wouldn’t have looked out of place pottering around the local garden centre, yet this dumpy, bespectacled woman was evil personified.
PAI studied Rose West at close quarters in court and Netflix’s documentary failed to cover one crucial thing[/caption]
This sheer ordinariness not only enabled her and equally evil husband Fred to carry out their terrible crimes undetected for so long, but also gripped a nation that struggled to understand how a woman could be involved in such sadistic acts.
And it seems the public fascination is undimmed by the passing of time — with the new Netflix three-parter Fred And Rose West: A British Horror Story currently sitting at number one in the streaming giant’s UK top ten.
Back in 1995, while the Sun news team reported on court proceedings, my job was to provide what we in the newspaper trade call “colour”.
In other words, to study Rose — who was facing trial alone after Fred took his own life while on remand — and write about her expressions, her demeanour, her appearance.
My prolonged interest clearly displeased her and she took to glowering back at me from dead eyes behind wide- rimmed glasses, perhaps in an attempt to intimidate.
It didn’t work. But the sickening evidence, and the knowledge that many of their victims initially trusted Rose because she was a woman, got under my skin.
So much so that, ever since, I have avoided taking part in, or even watching, the many documentaries about the Wests, feeling it was purposeless and unnecessarily voyeuristic when the crimes were already solved.
But now three decades have passed and, having been asked to give my opinion on the Netflix documentary, I watched it.
Heinous crimes
Did I learn anything new? No, and I feel it was a missed opportunity not to focus on the psychology of Fred and Rose’s co-dependent dynamic, their 13-year age difference and the role they each played in carrying out their heinous crimes.
It also failed to delve deeper into the unforgivable judicial failing that led to Fred escaping prosecution for rape long before he and Rose went on to murder more victims.
But that aside, it reminded me that if we don’t make such programmes and let the crimes of Fred and Rose West fade away, then their victims get forgotten too.
And given the role of various relatives in this documentary, they clearly want to keep their murdered loved ones in our collective consciousness.
PA:Press AssociationI feel it was a missed opportunity not to focus on the psychology of Fred and Rose’s co-dependent dynamic and their 13 year age difference[/caption]
Equally, there were many opportunities to scrutinise the Wests long before their arrests in 1994, but they were missed by police, social workers and even neighbours who dismissed any misgivings rather than, as they saw it, poke their nose in to someone’s business.
So it also serves as a lesson that terrible evil can flourish behind closed doors when everyone else takes supposed “normality” at face value.
ALL ON READ ALERT
AUTHOR Anthony Horowitz reckons his Alex Rider novels are probably too long for the majority of today’s young readers.
“I worry [if] it would find an audience because this is to do with attention spans, to do with social media, to do with smartphones, to do with the way that children’s minds are being rewired almost, by modern society,” he says.
Indeed.
When I volunteered to read with Year 6 children (mostly boys) who were falling behind in literacy, they were allowed to choose a book they brought with them.
With one or two exceptions, it was always a cartoon-style book (like Diary Of A Wimpy Kid) with short bursts of large type and lots of pictures.
And afterwards, when I asked these mostly 11-year-olds what they wanted to do when they left school, the answer was nearly always, “gamer” or “YouTuber.”
Sigh.
Aww, she’s all on her Louanesome
EPAI wonder why France’s explosive Eurovision entry Louane wasn’t invited to the Cannes Film Festival’s Women In Motion awards?[/caption]
NICOLE KIDMAN, Dakota Johnson, Halle Berry and Daisy Edgar-Jones were all guests at the Cannes Film Festival’s Women In Motion awards.
Though quite why French singer Louane wasn’t invited after her, ahem, explosive performance at Eurovision is anyone’s guess.
Liggerypokery
THE organisers of Cannes Film Festival have banned attendees from wearing “naked” dresses on the red carpet.
Like the whole class getting punished for one brat’s actions, perhaps Bianca Censori’s almost-naked stunt at this year’s Grammys has spoiled it for everyone.
For me, what people wear is less of an issue than the fact that some of those showboating on red carpets these days have nothing whatsoever to do with the genre being celebrated.
Some have even been known to pose for photos at the front of an event then sneak out the back before the opening credits.
To my mind, that’s more questionable than the occasional flash of nipple.
FINEST SUSSEX CHEESE
@meghan / instagramMeghan Markle shared this post on Instagram to mark her and Harry’s seven-year anniversary[/caption]
THE Duchess of Sussex has celebrated her wedding anniversary by posting a mood board of privacy-invading family photos entitled “Our love story”.
Like everything in Meghan’s life, it’s been carefully curated and includes snapshots stretching from 2016, when she and Prince Harry first met, to the present day.
Surprisingly, given that Harry is always banging on about his children’s privacy, there are photos showing them as babies and even an ultrasound scan of Archie in the womb.
Thankfully, we are spared a photo of the couple in a post-conception snuggle, but there’s always next year.
To accompany her smorgasbord of schmaltz, Meghan writes: “Seven years of marriage. A lifetime of stories.”
You can say that again. There were several tall ones in the Oprah Winfrey interview alone.
PM ALL AT SEA
WHILE the Prime Minister was shamelessly handing over our fishing rights in a one-sided deal with the EU he could, at the very least, have insisted that France agree to take back all migrant boats that head to the UK from its shores.
As it stands, the law of the sea is that it’s considered too dangerous for our Navy to push back any small boats from whence they came.
But if we could rescue them and immediately return them to France, the message would soon spread that it’s pointless getting in one of these fragile vessels in the first place.
Then, rather than killing people in the Channel (another migrant drowned on Monday) it would instead kill off the illegal boat gangs who continue to make a fortune out of human desperation.
GOLDEN BAWLS
GettyBrooklyn Beckham was in London filming a huge new campaign with posh fashion company Moncler[/caption]
BROOKLYN Beckham was reportedly in central London on Monday filming a highly lucrative campaign with swanky ski brand Moncler.
His father David was just down the road at Chelsea Flower show but, given the notorious no-show of Brooklyn at his dad’s various 50th birthday celebrations, it seems the pair didn’t meet up and the reported estrangement continues.
Curiouser and curiouser.
Whatever has caused the alleged rift, let’s hope it’s resolved soon – not least for 13-year-old Harper, who must miss her older brother.
In the meantime, one wonders whether it crosses Brooklyn’s mind that the reason he has a big brand deal is largely down to the Beckham name?
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