Conviction
Although she did not confess, the circumstantial evidence against Rosemary West was overwhelming. She went on trial in October 1995, nine months after her husband's suicide. He had hanged himself in Winson Green Prison with a knotted bed-sheet on January first of that year, despite being on suicide watch.
The jury was unanimous. On November 22, 1995, West was found guilty of 10 murders. The judge, Mr Justice Mantell, sentenced her to life imprisonment, saying, "If attention is paid to what I think, you will never be released."
The Lord Chief Justice later decided that she should spend at least 25 years in prison, but in July 1997 Home Secretary Jack Straw subjected West to a whole life tariff. This was only the second instance, in modern times, of a British woman being condemned to die in prison. The other was serial killer Myra Hindley, who has since died. At the start of her sentence, West was held at the same prison as Hindley.
In 2001 West announced her intention not to appeal, while maintaining her innocence.
In 2003 West and Dave Glover, bassist with glam rock group Slade, announced their engagement. The engagement was called off shortly afterwards and Glover was fired from Slade.
The house at Cromwell Street (along with the adjoining property) was demolished in 1996. The site is now occupied by a public walkway.
Read more about this topic: Rosemary West
Famous quotes containing the word conviction:
“... the truth is hidden from us. Even if a mere piece of luck brings us straight to it, we shall have no grounded conviction of our success; there are so many similar objects, all claiming to be the real thing.”
—Lucian (c. 120–c. 180)
“What can be more soothing, at once to a man’s Pride, and to his Conscience, than the conviction that, in taking vengeance on his enemies for injustice done him, he has simply to do them justice in return?”
—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849)
“It is my conviction that in general women are more snobbish and class conscious than men and that these ignoble traits are a product of men’s attitude toward women and women’s passive acceptance of this attitude.”
—Mary Barnett Gilson (1877–?)