A new documentary is set to investigate if serial killer Fred West could have been stopped in Scotland before launching his infamous 20 year killing spree in England.
Sky TV will air Fred West: The Glasgow Girls next week. The three-part series will examine the lives of his first three victims and ask if vital clues about his violent nature were ignored.
It will try to find out if some lives could have been saved if the disappearance of his first wife, Rena Costello, her daughter Charmaine and Rena’s friend Anne McFall had been reported and investigated properly, reports Gloucestershire Live.
The team will investigate if West should have been locked up before he met Rose West, his accomplice. Rose helped evil West create the house of horrors. The couple murdered at least 12 young women over a 20-year period from 1967.
Starting on Sunday February 19, 2023 the documentary will explore what happened when he fled his home village of Much Marcle to escape abuse allegations.
West actually met his first wife Rena Costello in Ledbury but she returned to Scotland and was carrying another man’s child at the time they married in Ledbury in 1962. She gave birth to Charmaine in 1963 and had a daughter with West the following year.
But while they were living in Glasgow the future serial killer worked as a Mr Whippy ice cream van driver and was involved in a fatal accident. In November 1965, West ran over and killed a four-year-old boy in Castlemilk but was never charged.
He left Glasgow soon after and Anne McFall joined Fred and Rena as they moved around various caravan parks in Gloucestershire, including Sandhurst and Waters Meet at Brockworth. Rena left her husband but infatuated Anne stayed with Fred until his wife returned and they moved to a caravan site in Bishop's Cleeve.
In 1966 care workers are told that eight months pregnant Ann has returned to Scotland. She was never reported missing and her remains were later found buried in a field at Kempley.
After Rena left Fred again he met 15-year-old Rose West at at a bus stop in Cheltenham and they moved in together. Charmaine was just eight years old when she was murdered by Rose in 1971 while Fred was in prison.
Rena, 27, is believed to have been murdered to stop her asking too many questions when she arrived to pick up her daughter in August 1971 not knowing she had been killed.
According to production company IWC Media, the series will look at West's criminal behaviour and uncover the hidden lives and experiences of his first three victims. Some believe this period shaped West into the serial killer he would become.
Although Rose was only 15 when she met Fred, who was 27 and had already killed, psychologist Professor David Canter suggests Rose may have played a leading role in the relationship from the outset.
A description of the series, which will be broadcast on Sky Crime reads: "Led by a female creative team, this distinctive crime series poses questions that haven't been asked before on this subject. Why were repeated warnings about Fred West's abusive behaviour ignored?
"Why were these victims never reported missing? And crucially, how many lives could have been saved if Fred West had been stopped sooner, before he met Rosemary, before the horrors at Cromwell St?"
West hanged himself in Winston Green Prison, Birmingham, on January 1, 1995, just before facing a murder trial. Rose remains in jail after being convicted in 1995 of ten murders.
Poppy Dixon, Sky's director of documentaries and factual, said the series would ask uneasy questions about one of Britain's most notorious killers.
Don't miss the latest news from around Scotland and beyond - sign up to our daily newsletter here .
