Police quiz Fred West’s son as Mary Bastholm probe continues

126

View
comments

Fred West’s son is helping police after six ‘anomalies’ were found at a cafe where missing Mary Bastholm is feared to be buried.

Detectives searching for the remains of 15-year-old Mary in the cellar of the the Clean Plate café in the serial killer’s home city of Gloucester were given the new information after interviewing his son Stephen yesterday.

Mr West is understood to have told the officer his father confided in him that he murdered Mary, as well as other women, whom he buried in a well in a remote cornfield opposite the Berkeley nuclear power station in Gloucestershire.

A police source told MailOnline that Mr West explained he had given the information to chief superintendent John Bennett, the now-retired officer who led the murder investigation into his father and mother, Rose West, back in 1994, but was not believed.

It comes as officers are preparing to excavate the basement of the cafe in the centre of Gloucester, where Mary used to work and where West is understood to have carried out building work. 

Ground penetrating radar has uncovered six voids under the cafe’s basement, including one which looks to contain blue material, prompting fears it could be the blue jacket Mary was last seen wearing.

Mary is feared to have been one of West’s first victims after she went missing from a bus stop in 1968. Her body has never been found.

The police source said: ‘Officers spoke with Stephen West yesterday and asked him to go back over what his father had told him back in 1994 when he visited his father in prison.

‘Mr West explained that he had told Chief Supt Bennet, who led the police investigation, that his father had told him that he had killed numerous women and buried them under a well in a remote field near the Berkeley nuclear power station.

‘He also said that his father had admitted to murdering Mary Bastholm but didn’t want to reveal where she was.

‘However, Mr West said his information was apparently brushed off at the time because Chief Supt Bennett considered his father to be a liar and someone who could not be trusted to tell the truth. 

‘Mr West told officers that when his information wasn’t acted on he travelled to the location himself to see if his father was telling the truth and found the well, which he described as being in ‘the middle of nowhere’.

‘In light of the current investigation at The Clean Plate cafe, Mr West’s information on what his father disclosed to him from prison is being treated with much more seriousness.’

Last week Mr West confirmed to MailOnline that his father had admitted to him that he had murdered Mary and had done work on the cafe where she worked, which was then known as the Pop-In cafe. 

He said: ‘He didn’t go into how he killed Mary but it was his usual MO, grabbing vulnerable women alone on the street. 

‘I said to him, ‘Did you do it? You’ve always denied it.’ He said ‘yeah, I did do it. I did take her’.

‘I told him that he had to tell the police as he had nothing to lose as he couldn’t be in any more trouble than he already was but he was adamant that he wouldn’t.’

Mr West added: ‘He talked to me about another 20-30 victims on top of what the police found. He said he lost count, forgot victims’ names. 

‘There were a number of other locations that my dad told me he’d buried his victims. I told police this back in 1994/5.’

Fred West hanged himself on New Year’s Day 1995 while awaiting trial for the murders of 12 women. He was never investigated over Mary’s disappearance but has always been the prime suspect.

The potential new leads being investigated in the cafe were uncovered by a documentary team, led by Sir Trevor McDonald, who brought in dogs trained to find dead bodies that became agitated when in the basement.

They also used a scanner able to penetrate stone which picked up a ‘suspicious object’ under the concrete floor.

Forensic archaeologists have discovered six ‘voids’ – around 2ft at their deepest – in the cellar toilet area of the cafe. A camera placed through a hole in the floor found a piece of blue material beneath.

Mary was wearing a blue coat, blue and white dress and was carrying a blue bag on the day she went missing on January 6, 1968.

Detective Chief Inspector John Turner said officers were today due to commence excavation work, which will take around two weeks to complete.

He said police would consider their options following the dig but an ‘obvious’ line of inquiry would be interviewing serial killer Rose West.

The 67-year-old is serving a life sentence at HMP New Hall in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, after she collaborated in the torture and murder of nine young women and her eight-year-old stepdaughter with her husband.

DCI Turner said: ‘If we were to find something I will then consider other investigative opportunities.

‘One of the obvious ones would be speaking to Rose West.

‘We found six voids within the basement. It could be water … it could be something decomposing.

‘They have drilled a hole in the ground to vent the area and at that point the search dogs with them have indicated some kind of interest. 

‘An endoscope has then been put into the void and they had seen what they have described as a blue bit of material.’

Mr Turner said of West himself: ‘If Fred were alive, undoubtedly he would be interviewed around the disappearance of Mary.

 

‘He is the only one who really knows if he had involvement in Mary’s death.’ 

Mary’s disappearance in 1968 was at a time when builder West was abducting girls in Gloucester. 

Detectives have recently spoken to Stephen West, Mr Turner said.

Mary’s body was not found during the 1994 excavation of the Wests’ home, now known as the House of Horrors, on Cromwell Street in Gloucester.

The detective said there was conflicting evidence during the original House of Horrors inquiry as to whether West had carried out renovation work at the cafe in 1968 or later, in 1976.

‘Since then there has been a lot of rumour and folklore about Mary and Fred’s link with the cafe and the decision was made that there was insufficient evidence at the time to excavate the site,’ Mr Turner said.

‘I met the Bastholm family on Monday and spoke with them at length about what we were going to do and the plan moving forward.

‘Clearly since 1968 the family haven’t known what’s happened to Mary.

‘There has been some speculation that she may have been linked to Fred West at that time and there was conflicting information within the investigation around that.

‘But it is really important to them that we do actually now search for the truth and find out once and for all if Mary is buried under the basement.’

In a statement, Mary’s family said: ‘We are extremely happy Gloucestershire Police is continuing to try and search for Mary and this gives us a chance to potentially put her at rest after all these years.

‘We hope this is a chance to finally get closure for Mary and would like to continue to ask for privacy whilst the excavation is ongoing.’

West is said to have told his son Stephen that he killed Mary while in custody, just weeks before killing himself in January 1995. 

Detectives have already interviewed Stephen to investigate the claims.

Police had received information that West was responsible for renovations in 1968 to the basement of the cafe, then called the Pop-In.

But contradictory statements that West had not carried out building work there led police to rule out an earlier search.

A petition in 2012 led then-Gloucestershire chief constable Tony Melville to review the investigation for Mary. But he said they would not conduct a further search unless ‘new and compelling’ evidence came to light.

West, one of Britain’s most notorious serial killers, is known to have murdered at least 12 young women, eight of whom were raped, tortured and mutilated.

The remains of nine victims were discovered buried in the back garden at the Wests’ home in Cromwell Street, Gloucester, in 1994.

West killed himself while awaiting trial at Birmingham’s Winson Green prison. 

Mary was on her way to play Monopoly with Tim Merrett in nearby Hardwicke when she went missing. 

Last week Mr Merrett, now 72, said he has no doubt West killed Mary but doubts she is buried under the cafe. 

He said: ‘To me it doesn’t make sense that she is there but I would urge the police to keep looking for her. 

‘I’ve never forgotten Mary, she was my girlfriend for about six months when she just disappeared. 

‘She was coming up to her 16th birthday. 

‘When Fred West was caught it was obvious to me that Mary was one of his victims. 

‘He didn’t give up the names of everyone he killed and I believe Mary was one of those.’