Free Rose West: The Making of a Monster by Jane Carter Woodrow Page A

lost this job too and money became scarce once again. Some time before the last child, Gordon, was born in 1960,
     Bill obtained a part-time evening job as a caretaker in the Order of Buffalo Hall behind the Kingsley Inn public house in
     Northam. Ironically, given Bill’s track record with his own children, he set up a youth club in the hall with his friend,
     Ronnie Lloyd. The two men played their favourite rock-and-roll records on Bill’s tape recorder and amplifiers. From Eddie
     Cochran and Gene Vincent through to Buddy Holly and Elvis, the recordings were all in mono. There was very little for teenagers
     to do in the village at the time, and these weekly rock-and-roll sessions soonbecame popular, even though only fizzy pop and crisps were allowed. As a local lady who attended the club as a young girl
     remembered, ‘Bill was always saying to the teenagers, “You’re not allowed to drink or misbehave.” He wouldn’t have any of
     it.’ Even so, he didn’t let his own teenage daughters attend it.
    Several months later, Bill fell behind with the rent on his council house. Rumour had it he had debts from a café and shop
     he’d once run with a friend in Redruth during his time at a naval airbase. He was also said to be spending what little income
     he had on himself, and buying modern recording equipment which he’d invite Joyce and her friends to sing into in the scullery.
     But whether Bill couldn’t or wouldn’t pay the rent, he began making claims to the council that his house was poorly maintained.
     When council officials called to see for themselves, Bill bolted the door and refused to let them in. At the same time, the
     youth club closed down amidst rumours in the village …

7
Plymouth Ahoy!
    I N THE COLD WINTER of February 1962, the family got up in the middle of the night, packed the few personal belongings they had and set off for
     their new home in the large, sprawling city of Plymouth, in south Devon. As Bill could not afford to hire a removal van, the
     family had to leave most of their furniture and belongings behind. Their leaving was not a surprise to everyone who passed
     number 57 in the following days, as one of the girls had told her friend Rita that the family were about to do a ‘moonlight
     flit’. But still it came as a shock to most of the neighbours at Morwenna as the Letts family had lived there for over a decade.
    Bill and Daisy told the children they were moving as there was no work in north Devon. This was partly true, but as well as
     owing rent on the house, there was another reason. As another neighbour said, ‘Social services stepped in and stopped the
     youth club, then they flitted off’, after rumours of Bill’s penchant for young girls began to circulate. Once more Bill appears
     to have been careful about the girls he selected, for both Rita Williams and Diane Glover, who lived with their parents in
     the same street as the family, recalled never having any problems with him or even being aware of any abuse going on.
    During his time at the repair shop, Bill had been making secret trips to Plymouth where, with his naval background, he’d found
     full-time work on ships’ radar at the naval dockyard in Devonport. This, though, as with most things connected to Bill,was not quite as important as he liked to make it sound and actually amounted to his working in the stores. But it was a job,
     nonetheless, and one which would provide for his large family, Bill having found accommodation for them in an area close to
     his works.
    If the family had been cramped in their three-bedroomed semi at Northam, they were now having to squeeze into a confined attic
     flat that boasted a tiny kitchen-cum-dining area, an even smaller middle room where they could watch TV, and an outside toilet
     serving the two families living there. Joyce came with them, but the flat only had two bedrooms, which meant the six growing
     girls and boys still had to share bedrooms and beds. Soon,