Son of serial killers ‘felt abandoned’ before death
An inquest has revealed the youngest son of killers Fred and Rose West was living with extreme chronic pain and post traumatic stress disorder before he died at 40. Katie Heslop reports.
The son of serial killers Fred and Rose West felt he had been “abandoned” by health services before he died from complications after taking medication to relieve his “extreme” chronic pain, an inquest heard. Barry West, whose name was changed to Michael Moore, was the youngest son of the Wests, who abducted, raped and murdered young women before burying them at their home in Cromwell Street, Gloucester over a period of 20 years. Including two of their own children, the Wests murdered 12 people.
When aged just seven, Moore saw his elder sister Heather beaten to death by Fred and Rose. He was taken into care five years after his sister’s death, along with his siblings. The 40-year-old was found slumped over a table by his support worker at supported living accommodation in Maidstone on the morning of August 28.
An inquest, held in Maidstone this week, heard that Mr Moore had a “a complex medical and mental health history”, including an opioid addiction and a history of heroin misuse dating back 19 years.
He had also tried to take his own life in 2015 and medical records showed “many overdoses”, but did not make clear whether they were suicide attempts.
It emerged he was also suffering from post traumatic stress disorder, disassociation of identity disorder, anxiety and depression, and chronic pain in his shoulder and back.
During the inquest, aspects of the 40-year-old’s care were examined. Mr Moore had been referred to a supported living service at The Beeches, in St Andrew’s Road, after leaving mental health hospital, St Martin’s in Canterbury, on August 3.Numerous agencies, including KCC, the Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust (KMPT), drugs charity Change Grow Live as well as his GP and a private psychiatrist oversaw his wellbeing. Giving evidence, Nicholas Esson, KCC services manager at the Canterbury Mental
Health Team, said Mr Moore was having difficulty coping with his pain and also with his medication.
In a meeting with his social worker two days before he died, Mr Moore found it hard to differentiate between the roles of KCC and KMPT, didn’t understand the process of a review into his social care needs and “felt he had been abandoned” by the services.
The next day, he “reported he didn’t feel supported and he wasn’t getting much one to one engagement from the support staff at the residence.” Mr Esson said Mr Moore’s death sparked an internal review, which looked at how they could support people during the pandemic and how KCC works with KMPT.
He said: “We have looked at how we can stay in touch with people, due to Covid-19 there were significant challenges on how we could support people .... and we can’t do face to face work. We could have engaged with Mr Moore more significantly than by telephone.” He added that he spoke to
Moore’s partner four days before his death, which “really highlighted” Mr Moore’s “actual distress.”
“We could have done that a lot earlier,” he said.
He added they are looking at introducing a “tablet device” which enables people to have face-to-face contact.
Similarly, a serious incident review took place at KMPT following the death, with seven recommendations made. Coroner, Patricia Harding said it didn’t appear “there was a round table discussion between all of the professionals dealing with Mr Moore and a joint approach to his care.” Buba Cooper, from KMPT, said one of the recommendations from the review was that professionals dealing with patients with complex needs should have regular meetings. Ms Harding then said she was satisfied that a multi-disciplinary approach was being built into future care plans.
The inquest heard how Mr Moore clashed with his doctor over how to handle his chronic pain. He wanted to return to an
opioid treatment he was given while in rehab in Scotland, where he was the “happiest and pain-free he had ever been.” His doctor, however, said that the treatment would not mix well with the medication he was currently on and she wanted to find a long-term plan to deal with his “extreme” pain, rather than medication, which was a “cul de sac”.
She said: “There were many times he was very frustrated at our unwillingness to prescribe an additional opioid and he said life was not worth living.” It also emerged in the inquest that Mr Moore had told a friend on August 27 that he had been to Canterbury to buy some morphine patches, but it could not be established whether he had purchased any.
Ms Harding ruled death by misadventure and said Mr
Moore had died following “voluntary injections of pain relieving medication.”
This caused an acute lung injury and excess fluid in the lungs, which make it difficult to breathe. Shoulder and back pain was given as a contributing factor.
Following Mr Moore’s death last year, journalist Howard Sounes, who wrote a book about Fred and Rose West, said their son had led “a very difficult and tragic life”.
“He was a very complicated unhappy person,” Mr Sounes said. “I spent a lot of time with him and he was very badly damaged.
“He was totally haunted by his childhood. How do you overcome being the son of Fred and Rose West?”
The Wests had five children together, with Fred bringing
two with him from a previous marriage. During her time as a sex worker, Rose also bore three children, fathered by her clients.
They were charged with the murders in 1994. Fred killed himself while awaiting trial. His wife was jailed for life for her part in 10 of 12 known murders.
In 2002, Mr Moore gave a horrifying account of the night when 16-year-old Heather was beaten to death by his parents. He said: “I heard my mum slap her, then I looked through the crack and saw my dad walk round behind her and put his leg out.
“Then he grabbed her neck and tripped her over. She went on to the floor.
“I could see her just a few feet away. Then my mum just booted her.”