How I forgave Rosemary West for my sister's tragic death.

(From Bristol Evening Post)

THE sister of a victim of serial killer Fred West has told how an initiative at Bristol Prison, in Horfield, has helped her to come to terms with her loss.

Marian Partington's sister Lucy went missing in 1973, but it was not until 20 years later that her remains were found along with those of other young women at 25 Cromwell Street in Gloucester.

Marian said: "That was when the shock and the numbness began.

"We felt this instinctive need to bury what was left of Lucy with the love and dignity that she deserved, which we were able to do a year later." Soon afterwards she made a vow to try to forgive Fred and Rose West for their terrible crimes. But it was not as easy as that and soon she felt herself gripped by a deep anger.

"The first thing I felt was this murderous rage, " she said. "It was a very physical, involuntary feeling. I wanted to scream, pull my hair out, claw the ground." Marian realised that she too was capable of murder.

She said: "At that moment I was capable of killing. In other words I was no different from the Wests." With this new insight she took an opportunity to meet people who had committed crimes.