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Survivor’s Account Links Shirley Robinson’s Disappearance to Wests’ Grooming Pattern

Police later confirmed the lodger’s murder, underscoring a wider pattern of predatory control.

Overview

  • Kathleen Richards recalls Fred West introducing teen lodger Shirley Robinson as his “lover” in front of Rose West.
  • Richards says Shirley was pregnant with Fred’s child and regularly shared the couple’s bed, with no bedroom of her own.
  • Fred told others Shirley had returned to family in Germany, exploiting assumptions in the late 1970s that missing girls had run away.
  • Richards reports she escaped the house at night in her pajamas after Fred suggested they watch a “special video.”
  • 1990s investigations found West murdered Shirley and concealed her body, confirming a grooming pattern; Fred died by suicide in prison in 1995 after multiple murder convictions, and Rose remains serving a life sentence.