Wests 'seemed happier' after girl vanished

WILL BENNETT

Rosemary and Frederick West seemed very happy the day after Cromwell Street lodger Shirley Robinson - who was pregnant by Mr West - disappeared, Winchester Crown Court was told yesterday.

They claimed that 18-year-old Shirley, who had said that she had become frightened of them, had gone to live in Germany. They later said they were keeping in touch with her and that her baby had been born.

The remains of Shirley, who disappeared in May 1978, and those of her unborn child, were found at the Wests' home in Cromwell Street when a murder inquiry began 16 years later.

Details of Shirley's last known movements were given to the court yesterday by Elizabeth Brewer, a friend and fellow lodger at 25 Cromwell Street, who shared her bedroom there with Shirley for a time.

She was giving evidence at the trial of Mrs West, 41, who denies murdering 10 girls and young women whose remains were found at Cromwell Street and at the Wests' previous home in Gloucester. Mr West, who was charged with 12 murders, was found dead in his prison cell on 1 January this year.

Mrs Brewer said she had let Shirley use her bed while she slept on the couch, because Shirley was pregnant and had told her that "things had become strained with the Wests".

She said: "Shirley was becoming very emotional about Mr West. She was frightened of the Wests and she wanted to keep away from them. She wanted to stay in my room."

One day Mrs Brewer went to meet some friends. She said: "I asked Shirley if she wanted to come along but she was far too tired. She was about eight months pregnant at the time."

When Mrs Brewer returned that afternoon, Shirley had gone and she thought that she might have patched up her relationship with the Wests and moved out of the bedroom.

The next morning, she met the Wests at the bottom of the stairs. Mr West told her that Shirley had left partly because she was visiting relatives in Germany and also because she had been fantasising about lesbian sex with Mrs Brewer.

Mrs Brewer said: "Mrs West was looking over his shoulder nodding and agreeing with everything he was saying. They appeared very happy."

Brian Leveson QC, for the prosecution, asked who had been at the house the day Shirley vanished. Mrs Brewer replied: "I think the two other lodgers worked but I can't be certain about that. I think that Mr West would have been at work and the Wests' children would be at school."

Mr Leveson asked: "Who looked after the little children?" Mrs Brewer replied: "Mrs West." She added that she could not recall Mrs West ever going out in the daytime, although she did in the evenings.

Mrs Brewer said: "I was led to believe that they were keeping in touch with Shirley in Germany and I would often ask if she had had the baby. They said yes and that it was a baby boy and she had called him Barry."

She was told that Shirley was planning to return to 25 Cromwell Street and that Mrs West was going to look after the baby.

During cross examination by Richard Ferguson QC, defending, Mrs Brewer said that both Shirley and Mr West had told her that Mrs West was jealous because the girl was expecting his baby.

She said that when Mr West told her that Shirley had had lesbian sexual fantasies about her, "I almost felt glad that she had gone".

Mrs Brewer admitted that she had signed a pounds 10,000 contract with a newspaper for her story.

Jane Bayle, a cousin of Mrs Brewer, who used to visit 25 Cromwell Street, told the court that Shirley had slept in the Wests' joint bedroom for a time. She said: "She was having a sexual relationship with both of them."

Claire Rigby, another lodger at Cromwell Street, said that about a week or two after Shirley disappeared, she saw Mrs West bundling clothes into bags in the missing girl's own bedroom. She presumed that the clothes were Shirley's.

Health records read to the jury showed that Shirley had had a positive pregnancy test on 18 October, 1977 and that the child was due to be born about 11 June, 1978. She was last seen at the health centre on 2 May, 1978.

Gillian Britt, who also lived at 25 Cromwell Street, told the court that she met Alison Chambers at the Cromwell Street house in the summer of 1979. Alison's remains were found at the house.

Alison, 16, absconded from the Jordansbrook children's home in Gloucester on 5 August, 1979 and was never seen again. She was a rebellious girl from a broken home who had arrived at Jordansbrook in late 1978.

Enfys Davies, a worker at the home, said in a statement that Alison was an intelligent girl prone to exaggeration and was so insecure that she wanted constant attention.

The case was adjourned until Monday.