What Happened To Rose West After Her 1995 Trial & Where She Is Today

Netflix’s Fred and Rose West: A British Horror Story walks through the heinous crimes of the titular individuals, but does not reveal too much about what happened to Rose West after her 1995 trial. Owing to this, many viewers may be curious about her fate after the trial and where she is now after being convicted of ten counts of murder. Although many aspects of her life after the 1995 trial remain shrouded in secrecy due to the sensitive nature of her crimes, a few concrete details have emerged over the years.

After it was released on Netflix on May 14, 2025, the Netflix true-crime documentary earned wide acclaim for not taking a sensationalist approach towards true crime like many similar documentaries on Netflix. Many also appreciated how it portrayed a well-rounded coverage of the central subject matter by presenting everything from audio to video recordings. However, one common complaint about the series was that it glossed over several details surrounding the aftermath of Rose West’s trial. Therefore, many viewers might want to know where Rose West is today after the series’ events.

Rose West Was Found Guilty Of 10 Murders & Sentenced To Life Imprisonment In 1995

The Jury’s Decision Was Unanimous

Rose West was arrested for child cruelty on August 6, 1992. However, when Fred and Rose West’s daughter refused to testify against them in court, the case was dropped. On January 1, 1995, Fred West died by suicide at HM Prison Birmingham. A month later, Rose pleaded not guilty to 10 charges of murder. Seven weeks after her trial began at Winchester Crown Court on October 3, 1995, the judge reminded the jury that regardless of how involved an individual is in a crime, they are considered guilty by law if they have assisted, encouraged, or permitted the crime to take place (via Ocala Star-Banner).

The judge also told the jury that circumstantial evidence is enough to convict a criminal. The jury’s final decision came on 21 and 22 November 1995, concluding with a unanimous guilty verdict for all ten murders. With this, the judge sentenced Rose West to life imprisonment and announced that she should never be paroled (via Howard Sounes’ Fred and Rose: The Full Story of Fred and Rose West and the Gloucester House of Horrors).

Although the Lord Chief Justice later said she should spend at least twenty-five years in prison, Home Secretary Jack Straw imposed a whole-life tariff on her. After serial killer Myra Hindley, Rose West was the second woman in the UK to be subjected to a whole-life tariff.

Rose West Initially Tried To Appeal Her Conviction, But Announced Her Decision To Stop In 2001

Her Application Of Appeal Was Not Heard

Soon after she was found guilty, Rose West turned to the Court of Appeal and filed an appeal against her ten murder convictions. In her appeal, she claimed her husband had committed all the murders by himself. She also added that she, too, was one of Fred’s victims and even claimed to have tried to prevent one of the sexual assaults. However, to her dismay, her appeal eventually went nowhere. The Court of Appeal did not even consider her appeal to be heard and officially declined it on March 18, 1996 (via Independent).

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Rose West finally gave up and announced her decision not to lodge further appeals against her convictions in September 2001. However, at the same time, she continued to maintain her innocence.

Rose West Is Currently Incarcerated At HM Prison New Hall In West Yorkshire

She Was Initially Sent To HM Prison Bronzefield

After the final conviction, Rose West was incarcerated at Middlesex’s HM Prison Bronzefield as the highest security Category A prisoner. Later, she was moved to HM Prison Low Newton in County Durham, before she eventually ended up in HM Prison New Hall in West Yorkshire. Reports (via Metro) suggested she was moved from Low Newton to New Hall because serial killer Joanna Dennehy had threatened to kill her in the Durham prison.

West was reportedly “gutted when she had to leave” because she had spent over a decade in the prison and was an elderly woman. However, the officials from the prison took Dennehy’s threat seriously and packed West’s things to move her to the New Hall prison. As of May 2025, Rose West is 71 years old and is still serving her life sentence without the possibility of parole at HM Prison New Hall. After the events portrayed in Netflix’s Fred and Rose West: A British Horror Story, she remains one of the few female prisoners in the UK to be handed a whole-life tariff.