Kathleen Richards, now 65, has broken her silence about the 15 months she spent living at 25 Cromwell Street, the home of Fred and Rose West. In a new memoir, Under Their Roof, she details the abuse she suffered at the hands of Fred West and the red flags she ignored. Richards escaped the house in 1979 after waking up to find West on top of her, but never told police about the assaults until now.
Richards moved into the Gloucester house as a 17-year-old lodger. She quickly noticed the couple's dark side but felt trapped. 'I felt like the walls were closing in. All I could see was Fred West's face,' she recalls. Despite giving crucial evidence at Rose West's trial, she kept the full extent of Fred's abuse secret for decades, fearing she would not be believed.
The memoir also explores Richards' traumatic childhood in Dublin, where she was sexually abused by a factory caretaker and her grandfather from the age of 10. She was paid a penny for each assault, which she used to buy sweets. When she told her mother, she was dismissed. This early abuse, she believes, made her vulnerable to the Wests.
Fred West took his own life in 1995 while awaiting trial for 12 murders. Rose West was convicted of 10 murders and is serving a whole-life sentence. Richards hopes her story will help other victims of abuse come forward. 'I want people to understand why victims stay silent,' she says.
