Woman who escaped serial killers reveals horrifying clue she found that led to her getaway

Warning: this article discusses sexual abuse which some readers may find distressing.

A former lodger of Fred and Rose West has recalled how she narrowly escaped from becoming one of the killer couple's many victims.

Kathleen Richards was just 17-years-old when she and her older sister, Deidre, had sought temporary accommodation in Gloucester, after their mother - who had another eight children - claimed she needed more space. Deidre, 18, had also welcomed a baby boy.

Desperate, the Richards sisters heard of a room being free for rent in 25 Cromwell Street.

Little did the pair know at the time that the home belonged to a couple who would go on to be branded two of the most notorious serial killers in British history.

During their time living with Fred and Rose West, the couple claimed the he'd ceaselessly molest them - including by squeezing the teenagers as they passed him on the stairs. On one occasion, Kathleen claims Fred climbed into her bed at night.

Fred West had reportedly molested Kathleen on several occasions (Mathieu Polak/Sygma/ Sygma via Getty Images)

14 months later, in January 1979, Kathleen and Deidre packed up their few belongings, as well as the latter's baby boy, and walked out of the West's front door for the final time.

"We had escaped – but at the time, we didn’t know what from," Kathleen, now 65, recently claimed.

She admitted, however, that she and Deidre simply thought of Fred as 'a dirty old man' when they made the decision to leave his home, having had no idea of his murderous potential.

"Fred West was an idiot, he seemed harmless, a bit silly, always thinking he couldn’t get away with things," Kathleen continued.

"At first, I quite liked him. He was friendly, nice even. But I didn’t like him touching me and I would then avoid him, so living there got very intense because I was trying to keep him away from him."

Rose West remains in prison (Universal History Archive/ Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

She added: "I didn’t know he was doing the same thing to others."

One instance involved Fred watching the girls at night through holes he'd drilled into their bedroom wall.

In response, the Richards sisters scrunched up pieces of newspaper and shoved them into the holes in a bid to block his view, only to find the newspaper balls lying on the floor the following morning.

This, Kathleen says, was one of the strongest clues hinting at the extent he'd go to to invade their privacy.

It would take a further 15 years for Fred and Rose's heinous crimes to come to light, however,

In 1992, the former landlord and his wife were arrested on suspicion of multiple killings - news that Kathleen heard directly on the radio whilst feeding her two young children.

"When I first heard what the Wests had done, I was in shock and felt sick. I couldn’t believe it," she admitted. "The word evil didn’t cross my mind. Even though he touched me and I hated it, I still thought it was my fault.

Kathleen and Deidre lived in 25 Cromwell Street for 14 months (Avalon/Getty Images)

"You feel ashamed, like maybe it is you who has done something wrong."

Looking back, however, Kathleen recalled some indicators that things weren't as they seemed in the house, including the odd noises and undercurrents that could be heard rattling from the basement, where odd-job man Fred undertook DIY projects.

"In houses today you can hear everything, but there you couldn’t always tell where sounds were coming from," she explained.

Eerier still was the 'eccentricity' of the couple, which included Fred one day introducing tenants Kathleen and Deidre to pregnant 17-year-old Shirley Robinson, his 'lover'.

Several weeks after Shirley had moved into the property, she suddenly vanished, leaving behind a pile of baby clothes. Fred allegedly claimed she'd flown to Germany.

"I was thinking, 'How could she go an aeroplane?'" Kathleen recalled. "She had no money. It made no sense and I worried terribly about her."

The remains of several victims were found in the Wests' garden (Ian Cook/Getty Images)

It was around this time that the Richards sisters had grown tired of the molestation they suffered at the hands of Fred.

"When you've been abused as a child, like I was, by a school caretaker and then by my own grandfather, you grow up thinking you're not worthy," Kathleen explained.

"You think it’s just how the world works for you. Who am I to make a fuss? It’s only when you get much older that you realise it’s not normal."

In 1994, the dismembered remains of Shirley Robinson and her unborn baby were found by police buried deep in Fred and Rose West's garden.

It was later ruled that the couple had murdered a further 11 teenage girls.

The following year, 53-year-old Fred West took his own life whilst awaiting trial in prison. Rose West, 71, remains in prison to this day.

"When it came out that Shirley had been murdered, I was quite ill for a long time with sickness, headaches and fits," Kathleen claimed this week.

"I kept trying to work out if I’d been in the house when she died. We were both 17.

Shirley Robinson's remains were found in the garden (Mathieu Polak/Sygma/ Sygma via Getty Images)

"I couldn’t stop thinking, 'Should I have done something? Could I have helped?'"

The mother-of-three continued: "I wasn’t relieved when I found out what Fred had done. I was devastated. I kept thinking, 'Why not me? Why them?' Shirley... she was lovely. She didn’t deserve that. None of them did."