Rosemary West on joint murder charge

ROSEMARY WEST appeared at Gloucester magistrates' court yesterday, charged jointly with her husband with the murder of Lynda Gough, a 19-year-old seamstress who disappeared in the city 21 years ago.

Frederick West, 52, a builder, faces nine further murder charges, including those of his first wife, Catherine, and his 16-year-old daughter, Heather.

Ms Gough's remains were found at 25 Cromwell Street last month, the eighth of nine women's bodies to be exhumed from the semi-

detached house, which is to be bricked up this week.

Mrs West, 40, sat with her back to the public gallery throughout the four-minute hearing. She smiled as she left after being remanded until Friday.

She is already charged with raping an 11-year-old girl with William Smith, 67, between 1974 and 1976, raping the same girl with Whitley Purcell, between 1976 and 1980, and assaulting a boy aged eight, between 1972 and 1974.

Police today began searching the garden and an extension at 25 Midland Road in Gloucester, the home of the Wests in the early 1970s and a mile from Cromwell Street. Officers are understood to be looking for the remains of Charmaine, the daughter of Frederick and Catherine West, who vanished when aged eight.

A police spokesman said: 'We only intend to search part of the building. This will be an extremely difficult operation as large amounts of concrete and ballast were used to build the extension foundations. It is possible that what we are looking for could have been removed when builders were excavating prior to building the extension.'

As the Cromwell Street operation finishes, a police team is still digging at Fingerpost Field, Kempley, 15 miles from Gloucester, for the remains of a missing Scottish girl, Anna McFall. The body of Catherine West was found near by this month.