bloodrayne
12-06-2004, 09:03 AM
Fred West's Son Jailed In Sex Case
The judge said West had had "a terrible childhood"
The son of serial killers Fred and Rosemary West has been jailed for nine months for sex with a girl of 14.
At Worcester Crown Court, builder Stephen West, 31, admitted seven counts of under-age sex with the girl.
Judge Michael Mott told him: "You had a terrible childhood and the tragedy is that you have done a great deal to live that down."
Fred West committed suicide at Winson Green Prison in Birmingham while on remand charged with 12 murders.
His wife Rosemary remains in prison in Durham. She was convicted in November 1995 of 10 murders and is serving life.
Stephen West, from Stroud, Gloucestershire, denied an additional charge of sexual activity with a child which will lie on file.
Instead of coming to your senses... and owning up, you took her secretly to the clinic to have an abortion
Judge Michael Mott
The judge added: "You have led a hard-working life, you have not got yourself into any trouble with the law."
He said he did not consider that West had groomed the girl for sex, and it was "quite clear" that she felt she was in love with him.
But West, he said, should have realised the relationship was wrong.
"She (the victim) was a child and quite clearly a virgin. You were her first sexual experience.
"You allowed yourself to have intercourse with her in such a way that you got her pregnant.
"Instead of coming to your senses... and owning up, you took her secretly to the clinic to have an abortion.
"You continued to have sex with her. That, frankly, I think, is one of the worst features of the case."
Childhood trauma
The judge also imposed a five-year prevention order on West, which forbids him taking any job working with children, not living at any place where there are 13 to 16-year-old girls present other than his own children, and not contacting his victim until she is 16.
The teenager said she loved West and felt she was "betraying him" by talking to the police.
The court had heard West was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder because of the events that took place at 25 Cromwell Street in Gloucester, where he was brought up.
He was also undergoing psychotherapy to deal with his severe childhood trauma.
The judge said West had had "a terrible childhood"
The son of serial killers Fred and Rosemary West has been jailed for nine months for sex with a girl of 14.
At Worcester Crown Court, builder Stephen West, 31, admitted seven counts of under-age sex with the girl.
Judge Michael Mott told him: "You had a terrible childhood and the tragedy is that you have done a great deal to live that down."
Fred West committed suicide at Winson Green Prison in Birmingham while on remand charged with 12 murders.
His wife Rosemary remains in prison in Durham. She was convicted in November 1995 of 10 murders and is serving life.
Stephen West, from Stroud, Gloucestershire, denied an additional charge of sexual activity with a child which will lie on file.
Instead of coming to your senses... and owning up, you took her secretly to the clinic to have an abortion
Judge Michael Mott
The judge added: "You have led a hard-working life, you have not got yourself into any trouble with the law."
He said he did not consider that West had groomed the girl for sex, and it was "quite clear" that she felt she was in love with him.
But West, he said, should have realised the relationship was wrong.
"She (the victim) was a child and quite clearly a virgin. You were her first sexual experience.
"You allowed yourself to have intercourse with her in such a way that you got her pregnant.
"Instead of coming to your senses... and owning up, you took her secretly to the clinic to have an abortion.
"You continued to have sex with her. That, frankly, I think, is one of the worst features of the case."
Childhood trauma
The judge also imposed a five-year prevention order on West, which forbids him taking any job working with children, not living at any place where there are 13 to 16-year-old girls present other than his own children, and not contacting his victim until she is 16.
The teenager said she loved West and felt she was "betraying him" by talking to the police.
The court had heard West was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder because of the events that took place at 25 Cromwell Street in Gloucester, where he was brought up.
He was also undergoing psychotherapy to deal with his severe childhood trauma.