Fred and rose west victims compensation fund
Description of Innocence Cases
Larry Roberts
California — Conviction: 1983 , Charges Dismissed: 2024
Larry Roberts (pictured middle) was sentenced to death in 1983 for the murders of a fellow prisoner Charles Gardner and prison officer Albert Patch at California Medical Facility based largely on the eyewitness testimony of fellow prisoners. Although Mr. Roberts was sentenced to death, his co-defendant Larry Menefield, who was likewise found guilty in a joint trial, was sentenced to life without parole. In 1992, the California Supreme Court reversed Mr. Roberts’ conviction for Mr. Patch, as well as the multiple-murder special-circumstance finding. Years later, one of the state’s eyewitnesses admitted to perjury, explaining that he was threatened by investigators at the time of the incident, and information regarding the competency of another eyewitness, who had been declared insane by three court-appointed psychiatrists, was discovered to have been withheld from the defense. After a U.S. District Court ordered a new trial for Mr. Roberts, the California Attorney General said that a “retrial is not reasonably feasible” due to a lack of available witnesses, many of whom are deceased or of old age. On June 29, 2024 (filed July 1, 2024), the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California vacated his conviction and death sentence, making Mr. Roberts the 200 person exonerated from U.S. death row.
Kerry Max Cook
Texas — Conviction: 1978 , Appellate Acquittal: 2024
Mr. Cook, who was tried three times, was originally sentenced to death for the 1977 murder of Linda Jo Edwards. His original 1978 conviction was vacated by the U.S. Supreme Court and remanded to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, which then reversed the conviction in 1991. In 1992, a mistrial was declared during Mr. Cook’s second tri
The sinister story of Barry rapists Peter and Avril Griffiths
One victim described the officers as "friends" of Peter Griffiths, who himself told the victims he worked as a "special constable".
The victim told the court how the men would often "brag" about their jobs, using them as leverage over her and saying "no one" would believe her if she complained.
Often these events were organised through the South Wales Police social club.
The other victims too faced similarly harrowing ordeals.
One - aged 13 at the time - was raped by the couple while Avril Griffiths held her down, telling her: "Don't worry, it's not going to hurt."
The victim told the court that the couple were well-known in Barry and had earned a nickname based on another evil couple, serial killers Fred and Rose West.
She added: "I think if you ask most families in Barry, they'd hate them".
The court heard the couple had bought the girl cigarettes and alcohol and Avril Griffiths had dressed her in mini-skirts and heels to "make her look like her".
Throughout the trial, Peter Griffiths denied the claims, saying the victims were driven by a compensation culture.
But he was found guilty of eight counts of rape, two counts of taking an indecent photograph of a child and three counts of indecent assault.
Avril Griffiths was found guilty of five counts of rape, two counts of taking an indecent photograph of a child and two counts of indecent assault.
Peter Griffiths, 65, was sentenced to 21 years and Avril Griffiths, 61, was sentenced to 15 years.
Fred West: Police funding to blame for not searching cafe sooner, says Rose West's lawyer
12 May 2021, 18:00 | Updated: 12 May 2021, 18:22
Rose West's lawyer speaks to LBC about Gloucester cafe investigation
By Charlotte Lynch and Will Taylor
Police investigating Fred West's murders did not investigate a cafe, which could be the site of the remains of one of his suspected victims, because of a lack of funding, it has been claimed.
Leo Goatley, who was lawyer to the serial killer's wife Rose, said officers had previously considered the Clean Plate cafe in Gloucester could be where 15-year-old Mary Bastholm was buried.
She went missing on her way to catch a bus to visit her boyfriend in Gloucester in January 1968.
West, who tortured, raped and murdered an unknown number of women over a 20-year-period with Rose, died in prison aged 53 in 1995. He was suspected over Mary's disappearance.
Gloucestershire Police said it received possible evidence to suggest Mary's body was buried at the cafe after being called by a production company filming a documentary about the Wests' victims.
Speaking to LBC about why the cafe is only being investigated now, Mr Goatley said: "I think it's a problem with police resources, manpower, funding.
Read more: Fred West: Police search cafe for remains of girl, 15, feared to be serial killer's victim
Police search cafe for body of missing teen feared killed by Fred West
"I know the cafe was on the radar of the police 25, 26 years ago – there was a cursory excavation but they had a lot of other lines of enquiry as they were trying to quantify how many victims there were and how credible it was to actually secure the evidence to charge those victims.
"I suspect the hope was that the police could've returned to the cafe at a later stage because I think the police did believe they would be able to carry on with their inquiry because they thought there we
Appropriate Adult
This article is about the 2011 television series. For the legal term, see Appropriate adult.
2011 British TV series or programme
Appropriate Adult is a British crime dramatelevision film shown in two parts on ITV, on 4 and 11 September 2011. It is based on the true story of Gloucester serial killer Fred West and his wife Rosemary West. It dealt with the events between the Wests' arrests in February 1994 and Fred's suicide in Birmingham's Winson Green Prison on New Year's Day 1995. The series stars Dominic West, Monica Dolan and Emily Watson as the protagonists of the story, Fred and Rose West, and Janet Leach, respectively.
The series was named after the role of Janet Leach as an appropriate adult during the questioning of Fred West. The senior investigator wanted to ensure that there could be no suggestion that West did not understand any part of the process, so arrangements were made so that he had an "appropriate adult" present to ensure this at all times.
It was well received critically and received eight BAFTA television award nominations, with West and Watson winning the best actor and actress awards respectively, Dolan the best supporting actress award and co-producer Kwadjo Dajan the breakthrough talent award.
Plot
In Gloucester in February 1994, social worker Janet Leach is an appropriate adult, someone present during police interviews with children or vulnerable adults. She attends a police interview with Fred West, who confesses to killing his daughter, Heather, in 1987 and burying her in his back garden. Fred privately tells Janet there were more victims, but appropriate adults cannot share conversations. After the police find the remains of several women buried at the West home, Fred says that one of them is a lodger, Shirley Robinson, killed in 1978 when she was pregnant with his child.
Janet is given the opportunity to leave the case due to its distressing nature but resolves to continu