Netflix’s newest documentary on Fred and Rose West includes several brand-new pieces of information.
The true crime series includes newly found recordings of police interviews as well as chilling video footage of Fred West showing police where to dig in order to find his daughter’s body buried under their patio.
That has not left it immune to criticism however, with several watching pointing out that the Netflix doc has omitted a key detail about the case.
Fred and Rose West’s arrests came after police were tipped off that the pair may have killed their daughter Heather and put her underneath their patio in the back garden.
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Fred and Rose West: A British Horror Story points to how the pair of infamous serial killers were found, namely a ‘family joke’ that made its way to police.
This joke featured Fred threatening his kids, joking that they would end up under the patio ‘like their sister’ if they misbehaved.
Whilst this is part of the story, it leaves out a key detail which has angered viewers.
In her two-star review of the series for The Guardian, TV critic Lucy Mangan slammed the series for its omission of a key detail regarding this.
She said: “The programme gives the impression that the children’s references to their missing sister Heather being buried under the patio had simply become too frequent for the authorities to ignore.
“In fact, suspicion was primed by the claim of rape of one of the children that led to most going into care, where they were found to have many signs of physical and sexual abuse.”
Anne Marie West, one of the West’s surviving daughters, gave a statement to police about the abuse she had endured and witnesses in their home, having at this point run away.
Speaking in her autobiography, Anne Marie said: "But there was one other thing I mentioned … in the hope [the police] might be able to help me.
"I told her about my missing sister Heather, and how I had looked for her since the day she vanished.”
Whilst she would later retract her statement, this brought police eyes onto the West’s following Heather’s disappearance seven years prior.
Comments made to social workers regarding Fred West’s jokes further prompted police, however the rape of Anne Marie and her tipoff is not included in the documentary.
This criticism has been further reiterated by viewers of the documentary.
One took to a Reddit community based around the true crime case of the West’s, where one comment was particularly brutal about the new doc.
It read: “I just finished it; there's way to much information omitted...I'm not surprised though it's typical Netflix bullshit.
“Doesn't help that they spend more time focused on the victim's families and there trauma instead of doing a deep dive on the killers and there backgrounds.
“Spin the narrative, change history, rise and repeat.”
Others, however, were much fonder of the doc. One comment on the same thread read: “I'm speechless. The documentary is filled with unseen and unheard footage.
“Probably the biggest surprise has been video footage of Fred's visits back to the patio to point out Heather's body, and then Shirley. Archival footage of home movies.
“An old interview with Janet Leach. The tapes have been cleaned up using AI.
“Just amazing. Calling this doc simply a must see would be an understatement.”
Fred and Rose West: A British Horror Story is available to watch on Netflix now.
The LADbible group have contacted Netflix for comment.
Topics: Netflix, True Crime, TV and Film, TV, Documentaries
Michael Slavin