Witness describes assault at Cromwell Street on herself and naked girl. Miss A and the 'man in black'

suffering from hallucinations in which she was being followed around by

Frederick West.

Described in court only as ''Miss A'', she said she was brutally and

sadistically assaulted at the age of 15 in front of two naked young

girls at 25 Cromwell Street.

Miss A described how six weeks later she went with a can of petrol to

25 Cromwell Street intending to set fire to the building, but lost her

nerve.

She insisted she witnessed a similar sexual assault on one of the

young girls, whose age then she put at 13 or 14, before her own alleged

assault by both Frederick and Rosemary West.

The 13-year-old girl, a blonde, was clearly in pain and wept as she

was subjected to depraved sexual indignities, Miss A told the court.

When the Wests had finished with her, the witness said she was led to

the bed by Mrs West who bound her wrists and ankles in brown packing

tape.

Miss A told Winchester Crown Court she thought: ''God, I am next.''

She described how during the sexual attacks, Mrs West was a Jekyll and

Hyde figure. During the assault on the blonde girl, she spoke in an

aggressive voice. ''Next, it was as if she was being all motherly

again.''

Mrs West pleads not guilty to the murder of 10 young girls and women,

including that of her own daughter, Heather.

In cross-examination, Miss A admitted having a psychiatric background.

Over a number of years she had been treated for depression and had

received electro-convulsive therapy.

She denied the events she had described in court were a figment of her

imagination and that she had ever been diagnosed as schizophrenic.

Miss A did admit to having heard voices and having been followed

around by a man in black. She now knew that this was not real, but only

in her mind.

That man was Frederick West, found dead in a prison cell on New Year's

Day while on remand on 12 murder charges.

Miss A also admitted running away with Mrs West's younger brother, Mr

Graham Letts, when she was only 14 and having a full sexual relationship

with him one year before the alleged assault.

However, it was only last year she learned that Mr Letts and Mrs West

were brother and sister. As she began her evidence, Miss A, 33, wrote

her name on a piece of paper which was passed to the judge and jury. She

said she was taken into care at the age of 13 when her parents divorced.

She said a friend gave her an address as somewhere she could go if she

needed to. It was 25 Cromwell Street. She went there on eight or nine

occasions, the first just after her fourteenth birthday.

Asked how Mrs West appeared, Miss A replied: ''Very nice. She was like

a big sister-cum-young mum. She told me I could go there any time I

needed a shoulder to cry on. It felt as if someone really cared.''

She went to the address on Friday mornings between 11am and 1.15pm on

her way home to Tewkesbury for a weekend visit with her mother.

On the last occasion she went to 25 Cromwell Street, Mrs West answered

the door wearing a see-through blouse.

Miss A described being led into a front bedroom by Mrs West. There

were three other people in the room. Two of them were the two young

girls, both of whom were naked. Frederick West was dressed only in

shorts.

She said Mrs West started undressing her and saying things such as

''It is OK'', and ''We are all girls''. Mrs West undressed.

Miss A then described how the blonde girl's hands, wrists, and ankles

were taped. ''I could see from her face that she was hurting,'' said

Miss A. ''She was frightened.''

Mrs West committed sexual acts on the girl before Frederick West had

intercourse with her. Throughout Mrs West was asking: ''Are you enjoying

it, Fred? Is it turning you on?''

The witness said she was then led to the bed. ''God, I am next,'' she

said she thought. She wanted to scream, kick and cry but she did none of

that. She just felt numb.

All the time, Mrs West was telling her to relax and everything would

be OK. She said she was taped at the wrists and ankles, and then

described various sexual indignities she suffered, and of Mrs West

asking her husband if he was enjoying it.

She later hitched to Tewkesbury. She was crying, angry and upset. ''I

felt so ashamed. I just felt sick and felt stupid,'' she said. ''I felt

hate for Rosemary. I felt I trusted somebody and she had used me.''

She did not go to the police because she was in care and children in

care were regarded as being bad.

She described the visit to 25 Cromwell Street six weeks later when she

took with her a can of petrol and matches.

''I wanted revenge,'' the witness told the jury. ''I intended pouring

it through the letter box of their house and setting it on fire. But I

didn't. I stood there, just stood there. I wanted to do it so much.''

The witness said that she had never told anyone of her experiences

until the police came to her last year. Even then, she initially denied

she had ever been to Cromwell Street. It was only in August she finally

described what had happened to another officer.

Cross-examined by Mr Richard Ferguson QC, defending, Miss A agreed she

had signed a contract with a newspaper for #30,000 to be paid after the

trial for a story about how her life had been affected by the

experiences at Cromwell Street.

Mr Ferguson also said the witness had an unfortunate medical

background. She admitted she had been sexually abused by her father and

brother before being taken into care. On various occasions, she had

attended doctors saying she was pregnant, but tests proved negative.

Mr Ferguson insisted that she had fantasised over the events she

alleged had taken place at 25 Cromwell Street. ''It is a complete

figment of your imagination,'' he declared.

Miss A, who had wept throughout much of her evidence, declared: ''No

it isn't. I know what happened and so do they.'' The trial continues.