15 Jul 2011

Sex attack investigated at Fred West’s house

Police are investigating an alleged rape at the house where serial killers Fred and Rosemary West began their murder spree.

Police investigate rape claims at Fred West's house and arrest three on suspicion of sex trafficking (Image: Getty)

The woman, who is understood to have been illegally trafficked into the UK, told police she was raped while being held by a pimp at 25 Midland Road in Gloucester.

The house, pictured below, has a grisly past as the address where the Wests’ eight year old daughter Charmaine was murdered and buried under the kitchen floor in 1971.

The couple later moved to 25 Cromwell Road which became known as the House of Horrors after the remains of nine bodies were found under the patio and in the cellar.

The rape allegation was made to vice squads investigating a suspected sex trafficking ring involving the UK and the Czech Republic, a source said.

Trafficking charges

Three people – Iveta Viragova, 43, Votjech Virag, 25, and Ludmila Nistorova, 52 – have been charged with trafficking women into the UK for sexual exploitation, Scotland Yard said.

Viragova and Virag, both from Tooting in south-west London, are due to appear at City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court while Nistorova, of Raglan Court, Gloucester, is appearing before magistrates in Cheltenham later today.

They all face five charges each, including conspiracy to traffic for sexual exploitation and immigration offences.

Three men arrested in the Czech Republic are currently subject to extradition proceedings.

It is understood the investigation started after one victim escaped from the gang and reported them to police.

The Wests tortured, raped and murdered an unknown number of women over a 20-year period.

Fred West was found hanged in his prison cell on New Year’s Day in 1995 after being charged with 12 murders. His wife Rosemary was convicted in the same year for the murder of nine young women, including her own daughter Heather and her husband’s stepdaughter Charmaine.

She was sentenced to 10 life terms, with the judge recommending she should never be released.

The House of Horrors has long been demolished, bulldozed down in October 1996.

Fred and Rose West's house in Gloucester is now the focus of sex attack allegations (Image: Getty)