THE start of committal proceedings against Mrs Rosemary West will get
under way in Dursley, Gloucestershire, today.
The hearing is to determine whether the mother-of-seven will stand
trial at Crown Court.
Mrs West is accused of 10 murders, including those of her daughter,
Heather, 16, and eight-year-old step-daughter Charmaine. Her husband,
similarly charged, was found hanged in prison at New Year.
The remains of nine of their alleged victims were recovered in a
police dig last year at her house and garden at 25 Cromwell Street, in
Gloucester.
The murder charges cover a 16-year period to 1987.
She also is charged, jointly with named men, with two separate counts
of rape involving one girl, and of assaulting an eight-year-old boy.
The Dursley Courthouse will be the focus of media attention for at
least a week.
Its small courtrooms have been refurbished at a cost of #17,000 to
cater for the hearing.
0 The court building was mothballed about two years ago as more and
more cases were being heard at a more modern premises in Stroud.
However, it was pressed into service for Mrs West's hearing to prevent
Stroud and Gloucester magistrates' courts being clogged up by the sudden
demands of international media attention.
Just over 50 people will be allowed in the main court room, where
Chief Metropolitan Stipendiary Peter Badge will preside.
He faces the task of deciding whether the prosecution has established
that there is a case against Rosemary West which she should answer at a
Crown Court trial.
If Mrs West is committed, her trial is likely to be held at the Old
Bailey or at Winchester Crown Court in the autumn.
The Crown's legal team is headed by Mr Neil Butterfield QC, a leading
barrister on the Western Circuit, with junior Mr Andrew Chubb.
Junior London barrister Miss Sasha Wass will lead the defence case.
Legal aid rules mean her leader, Mr Richard Ferguson QC, will not be
present, although he has been supervising the case.
Miss Wass is being instructed by Gloucester-based solicitor Leo
Goatley, 39, who has repeatedly protested Mrs West's innocence.
Committal proceedings are covered by reporting restrictions and it
would be extremely unusual for these to be lifted. The restrictions mean
that the general public will know little of what happens inside the
court.
In an old-fashioned hearing such as this witnesses give evidence which
is written down as depositions.
In the Dursley hearing it is expected that much of the evidence will
be handed in a file to the examining magistrate, Mr Badge, and that only
a handful of witnesses will be called to give evidence and be
cross-examined.
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