Builder is accused of 10th killing

(First Edition)

FREDERICK WEST, 52, a Gloucester builder, was accused of a tenth murder yesterday when police charged him with killing his first wife, Catherine.

The remains of the first Mrs West, from Coatbridge, Lanarkshire, who had been missing for 23 years, were unearthed in a cornfield at Kempley, Gloucestershire, on Sunday, Detective Superintendent John Bennett, the man heading the inquiry, said.

In addition to his first wife, Mr West is alleged to have murdered nine young women over a 14-year period to 1987. The bodies of all these victims were recovered from his home in Cromwell Street, Gloucester. They include his daughter Heather, who disappeared in May 1987, aged 16.

Det Supt Bennett told a news conference in Gloucester that Mr West would face the 10th murder charge when he appears before the city's magistrates on 5 May. The couple were married at Ledbury Register Office on 17 November 1962 and had two daughters, Charmaine, born in 1963, and Anne Marie born in 1964.