I want to get justice for the girls who didn't make it, because I feel
it was my fault
Caroline Owens
A WOMAN who was abducted and sexually assaulted by Frederick and
Rosemary West broke down in the witness box yesterday and blamed herself
for the killings at 25 Cromwell Street, Gloucester.
''I want to get justice for the girls who didn't make it, because I
feel it was my fault,'' 39-year-old Caroline Owens blurted out before
she collapsed in tears.
She was assisted out of court by an usher.
In the dock, Mrs Rosemary West, who denies 10 counts of murdering
young women and girls, remained impassive.
Mrs Owens's breakdown came as she was asked a final question in
re-examination by Mr Brian Levenson, QC, prosecuting. He simply asked
why she had come to court.
During heavy cross examination it had been alleged Mrs Owens had
embellished her story to make it more marketable for newspapers. It was
an allegation she denied.
The jury had previously heard from a statement Mrs Owens had made to
police that she was blaming herself for the deaths.
In the statement, read out by Mr Richard Ferguson QC, defending, Mrs
Owens made it clear she believed that if she had pressed a rape charge
against Mr West in 1973, they might not have happened.
''When I became aware of the women that had been murdered and the
alleged involvement of Fred and Rose West, in 1994, I felt anger,
frustration, guilt . . . I felt that if I had gone to court on my rape
case, I could have stopped it,'' Mrs Owens said in the police statement
made last October.
Both Rosemary and Frederick West did plead guilty to charges of
causing actual bodily harm and sexual assault on Mrs Owens, the jury has
been told.
They were each fined #50.
Yesterday Mrs Owens said that after she was sexually assaulted by the
couple in 1972 -- an ordeal which involved abduction, being bound, and
gagged -- police told her that while the Wests would plead guilty to the
lesser charges, Frederick West would deny rape.
''At the time I was told by police that I would be cross examined in
the witness box and that it would be hard to handle,'' Mrs Owens said in
her statement. ''I felt that I could not cope with this.''
As a consequence she elected not to pursue the rape charge in 1973.
In her police statement, Mrs Owens described how she had been mentally
scarred by her experiences.
''After the abduction and rape in 1972, I was very depressed and had
low self esteem,'' she said in her statement. She was prescribed Librium
tablets by her family doctor and other mild tranquilisers by another
doctor.
She said she took an overdose in 1976 when she was working in a hotel
at Weston-super-Mare. An ambulance was called and she was rushed to
hospital.
''My stomach was pumped out,'' the statement continued.
Mrs Owens told police that she was receiving counselling for the
trauma. Thus far she had had 14 sessions.
''I have been very sensitive to people being close to me and cuddling
me since being abducted by Fred and Rose'' she told police. ''I am wary
of other adult females, even friends.
''I have a terrible feeling of worthlessness.''
The statement also detailed her sex life during the few weeks she had
stayed at 25 Cromwell Street, weeks before the Wests abducted and
assaulted her.
She described how late one evening she went into the room of Mr Ben
Stanniland, a lodger in the house.
''It was late at night, I don't remember if we were drinking or
smoking anything, but we could have,'' Mrs Owens statement declared. ''I
may have taken some drink that affected my judgment but I cannot clearly
remember the events of the evening.''
Mrs Owens admitted having had sexual intercourse with Mr Stanniland
and afterwards had sex with Mr Alan Davies, another lodger.
''This was a one off occasion,'' Mrs Owens continued in her statement.
''This was in the early seventies, the hippie era when people were
generally very friendly.''
Her boyfriend at the time, Mr Tony Coates, would also come and stay
for a night with her at Cromwell Street.
The only other male visitor she had sex with at that address was an
old boyfriend who visited her there, the day before her birthday.
Mrs Owens told the court that she had been promised #20,000 from the
Sun newspaper for her exclusive story. She had already received #9500 of
that sum, she told Mr Ferguson.
Mrs Owens described how after the assault by the Wests she failed to
report immediately the rape to the police.
''It was what Mrs West did,'' she said. ''I hadn't come across
anything like this before and it shocked me.
''When Fred raped me it was all over in a couple of seconds.''
Initially she had wanted the rape charge pursued, but afterwards could
not face the thought of going to court.
At the time she was not quite 17 years of age.
Twenty years on she saw television reports of the police investigation
at 25 Cromwell Street. After her initial shock she contacted the police.
Before being interviewed last year she had written down her memories
of the 1972 attack. She did this because she felt she would be too
embarrassed to go into details with the officers.
Mrs Owens had told the court that the account she had prepared for
police of the assault was shown to a Sun journalist, but a page
containing details was withheld.
''You were using it to bargain with -- to up the price, so you would
get more money,'' said Mr Ferguson.
''In a way,'' said the witness. She also said she had received other
sums of money from the media.
A diary she had kept in 1973 showed that she continued her practice of
hitch hiking, even after the assault.
''I knew the police had been to them and they would not try to pick me
up again,'' she said. ''I've never had any problems hitch hiking
before.''
In re-examination Mrs Owens said that during the attack Mrs West had
done nothing which suggested she was not acting willingly, nor had she
done anything to prevent her husband from assaulting her.
Defence counsel had suggested Mr West got out of control that night,
Mr Levenson said. Mrs Owens said on the contrary he seemed quite calm.
Asked how Mrs West appeared, the witness said: ''She was grinning and
laughing. She looked evil to me''
Another witness, the mother of one of the girls whose remains were
recovered from 25 Cromwell Street, described how she shuddered when she
passed the murder house while out searching for her missing daughter.
''I shuddered, I don't know why I shuddered,'' said Mrs June Gough,
mother of Lynda Gough, who disappeared in 1973, aged 19.
Mrs Gough described how two weeks after her daughter had left home her
inquiries took her to Cromwell Street where the door was answered by a
woman wearing Lynda's slippers.
She also saw some of her daughter's clothing on a washing line. The
woman insisted, however, that Lynda was not there and had gone to live
in Weston-super-Mare.
Mrs Gough said Lynda was the eldest of three children.
Before going to work as a seamstress with the Co-operative in
Gloucester she had attended a private school in Midland Road.
The jury has been told that the Wests had at one time lived in a flat
in that road and it is alleged that the body of eight-year-old Charmaine
West, who was born in Coatbridge, was buried there.
Mrs Gough said her daughter was a cheerful, happy, friendly girl, who
was not withdrawn and did not isolate herself.
She seemed to get on with most people quite easily.
As she got older, around 18, she began to become quite rebellious.
''Like a lot of teenagers in those days as well as today,'' said Mrs
Gough.
Lynda left home on Thursday April 19, 1973. ''It is something that has
always stayed in my mind,'' said Mrs Gough. ''It is not something I am
ever likely to forget.''
Her daughter had left a note saying that she had found a flat and had
moved. She had taken all her possessions with her.
''Please don't worry about me,'' the note declared.
Two weeks previously Lynda had said she was going out in the evening
with some friends for a drink. Afterwards a woman arrived at the door to
collect her.
The Crown allege that this was Mrs West.
Lynda had indicated in her note that she would be in touch with her
parents.
However, they became worried when they did not hear from her. They did
not think she was earning enough to keep herself in a flat.
The parents had assumed she would not stay away long. She would soon
be back when the money ran out.
''I was just anxious,'' said Mrs Gough. ''I wanted to know where she
was, where she was living, whether she was happy'' she told the court.
Her inquiries took her to 25 Cromwell Street. There she was met by the
same woman who had called two weeks before to take Lynda for a drink.
She was joined by her husband at the door.
All they would say was that she had gone to Weston-super-Mare and had
left some of her belongings behind.
She continued her inquiries in Gloucester and in Weston-super-Mare.
However, Mrs Gough said she never saw her daughter again.
The crown allege that she was buried under the floor of a bathroom in
Cromwell Street when her mother was at the door.
She had passed the address at Cromwell Street on several occasions.
However, after feeling the shudder she never went back.
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