Daughter tells of incest and brutality was made pregnant

Rosemary West trial: Eldest girl says she was made pregnant at age of 15

WILL BENNETT

Frederick West, who was idolised by his eldest daughter, made her pregnant when she was 15 years old, Winchester Crown Court was told yesterday.

Giving evidence, Anne Marie Davis said her stepmother Rosemary West regularly assaulted and humiliated her, and on one occasion laughed and sneered at her after Mr West had kicked her in the mouth with steel-capped boots.

Mrs Davis told the jury about her brutal childhood on her second day in the witness box .

Mrs West, 41, denies murdering 10 girls and young women whose remains were found at the Wests' house, 25 Cromwell Street, Gloucester, and at their previous home in the city. Mr West, who was charged with 12 murders, was found dead in his prison cell on 1 January this year.

Cross-examined by Richard Ferguson QC, for the defence, Mrs Davis told the court; "When I was young I used to tell my dad that I would marry him." She said Mr West regularly had sexual intercourse with her and made her pregnant when she was 15. The court was later told that she had suffered a miscarriage.

Mr Ferguson said: "You were devoted to your father."

Mrs Davis replied: "Yes, I did love my father."

Mr Ferguson asked: "You would have done anything for him." She replied: "I would have done anything for both Rosemary and my father."

Questioned by Brian Leveson QC, for the prosecution, she said that when Mrs West became part of the family she felt that a wedge had been driven between herself and her father, adding: "Rosemary would make sure that me and my father did not have time together."

Mrs Davis said her stepmother repeatedly assaulted and humiliated her. She would punch and kick her and hit her with implements including a saucepan, a broom and a belt.

"She would call me names and just hit me for no reason and she would do things to me. I remember on one occasion I was made to undress when the children were young and they had fingerpaints and they were painting on my body." Mrs West also drew on her, and she was made to stay in that condition until Mr West came home.

On another occasion, when Mrs Davis tried to intervene in a family row, her father knocked her to the ground and kicked her in the mouth with steel-capped boots. She recalled: "I looked up and she [Rosemary West] was laughing and said, 'That will teach you to try and be so cocky'."

Mrs Davis admitted having a contract with a newspaper, for which she had been paid pounds 3,000, and an arrangement for a book about her life. She said that when she was first approached she thought the cash was "blood money".

Mr Leveson told the court that Mrs West had been interviewed by detectives during a separate police inquiry in 1992. Questioned about the disappearance of her eldest daughter, Heather, whose remains were found at 25 Cromwell Street in 1994, she told police: "She has not disappeared, she has made a conscious decision to leave." She added: "Heather was a lesbian and she wanted a life of her own."

The trial was adjourned until Monday.