Fred West could have used secret tunnels to carry out his murder spree

A 22-mile network of tunnels under Gloucester could house the last horrifying secrets of Fred and Rose West’s killing spree (Picture: SWNS)

Serial killer Fred West may have used a web of ‘secret’ tunnels to help carry out and cover up his sickening crimes.

The murderer watched anxiously from an upstairs window as police dug up his back garden in search of his missing 16-year-old daughter Heather.

Police soon found her body along with the remains of eight other women at 25 Cromwell Street, an address dubbed the ‘House of Horrors’ by the press.

Thirty years since the gruesome discovery at Fred and Rose West’s home in Gloucester, locals fear he used subterranean chambers just yards away from the now-demolished property to aid in his reign of terror.

The existence of a web of tunnels under Gloucester sparks speculation they may have been used by serial killer Fred West, but no firm evidence exists (Picture: Gloucester Paranormal Investigation Service/SWNS)

The blocked up entrance to one of the tunnels under Gloucester (Picture: Gloucester Paranormal Investigation Service/SWNS)

Urban explorers appear to have uncovered 22 miles of interconnected tunnels linked to many of the city’s major sights, including the Cross Keys, the Fleece Bar, the Monks Retreat, and around the cathedral.

This makes sense given Gloucester’s history stretching back to Roman times, according to Paul Cowmeadow, of Gloucester Paranormal Investigation Services, who said the presence of the tunnels was not in doubt.

He said: ‘It’s believed that the tunnel system was used for several purposes over the centuries, ranging from smuggling to the English Civil War, and then later in World War Two it is rumoured that the secret services and military also made use of them.’

But one explorer made an eerie discovery, claiming to have found ‘spongy’ ground in a tunnel they entered from a bar’s basement near where West was known to have done construction work.

They said: ‘We went down there and it opened up into a massive cellar. We noticed a spongy floor at the end of the tunnel by jumping up and down on it.

‘We did not know much about Fred West’s connections to the place, but it felt like there was something under that ground.

‘We were looking at going back but it was set on fire and you can not get into it anymore.

‘We thought it was odd but it was only when we mentioned it later to someone in authority, they turned white.

‘It was then feared Fred West could have used it for bodies.’

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The builder-turned-butcher had detailed knowledge of the ‘underground world’ thanks to work contracts that would have granted him access to the sprawling network, according to locals.

A sinkhole exposed near Cromwell Street by a recent storm ignited speculation about the dark secrets hiding underground.

But that’s not the first time such rumours have circulated.

It previously happened in 2021 when the basement of Clean Plate Café on Southgate Street was excavated during an investigation into the unsolved case of Mary Bastholm, a local girl who vanished in 1968.

Blue fabric and parts of a school exercise book believed to belong to her, were recovered from a hidden space behind one of its walls during the police investigation into West and his wife Rose in the 1990s.

The void was found mysteriously filled in, preventing further investigation, when the site was re-examined by investigators in 2021.

One local said: ‘No one knows when it happened, but there are a lot of question marks, about when it was bricked up. It must have been a coordinated effort to close it all up.

‘Maybe that was Fred’s job to seal up the tunnels and he used it to hide or put things away.

‘It is all speculation but it has to be on the table as a possibility.

‘The fact in Gloucester we can not have an open conversation makes it all the more unnerving. What are people afraid of?

‘I think it will all be exposed and happen naturally. One of the tunnels will collapse.’

The 10 girls and women murdered by Fred and Rose West (Picture: REX/Shutterstock)

West was said to have been contracted to carry out various building and construction work in the basement of the café, along with previous excavations at that site.

But some authorities have refused to acknowledge the tunnels’ existence, and the alleged blocking up of entrances has led some to speculate the city is trying to ‘whitewash’ its grisly association with the Wests out of fear of opening a ‘huge can of worms’.

One long-serving council employee, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: ‘There are a lot of people high up that are very, very twitchy about the tunnels.

‘There are plenty of reasons for it too, but I’m pretty sure the main one is to do with Fred West. He did a lot of work under the city – a lot of work.

‘And it’s anyone’s guess what could be down there. It’s a can of worms, and no one wants to touch it.’

Another local said: ‘They don’t want this place under the glare or spotlight and a lot of this has been managed.

‘People don’t want our city to be most famous for Fred West but you can not escape what has happened.

‘You can not whitewash history and pretend it never happened.

‘It is still so shrouded in mystery. How can authorities deny the tunnels exist when so many people have seen them?

‘Everyone knows they are there.

‘Whatever the reason only fuels the local speculation. Entrances are blocked up but if there is nothing to be seen, then let us down there.

‘A lot of cities have tunnels, it is not usual, but why are Gloucester’s shrouded in secrecy.’

West never did mention tunnels in Gloucester in any police interviews, according to his biography Geoffrey Mansell, who ‘listened to them all’.

He doesn’t rule out the possibility the ‘monster in plain sight’, who was ‘innovative in disposing of his victims’, used the tunnels.

But he questioned whether the ‘opportunistic’ killer actually knew they existed.

Geoffrey said: ‘It was once memorably put to me by a police officer that you can not dig up the entire county of Gloucestershire in a search for more bodies.

‘I don’t think we’ll ever fully know what Fred did, besides the ones we already know about. There are likely many more victims.’

West was charged with 12 murders but took his own life in prison in 1995, aged 53, before his trial. Rose West was convicted of 10 murders in November 1995 and is serving a life sentence.

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