One of Britain's most heinous serial killers, Rose West, along with her husband Fred, committed the murder of 10 young women in their Gloucester house of terror.

In 1995, she was sentenced to life imprisonment when police unearthed a number of dismembered bodies buried in the garden, under a patio, and even within a sordid cellar.

Their 16 year old daughter Heather was among the victims, enduring appalling sexual abuse at the hands of Fred. He coerced her into watching explicit films with him and attempted to conceive a child with her.

Leo Goatley, West's former solicitor who witnessed firsthand the depraved psyche of the criminal, has revealed to The Sun that the 71 year old will "go to the grave with many secrets".

He shared with The Sun the abhorrent claims West made about Caroline Owens, a 17 year old nanny whom the couple drugged, beat, and sexually assaulted, reports the Mirror.

Leo recounted: "Like Fred, in a lot of her interviews she would deflect blame from themselves to the children.

"She would say things happened with Caroline but she was up for it, she wanted it... She says she was exaggerating. She's making a fuss.

"Fred had this really warped idea that it was a father's right to take his daughter's virginity and that Heather was a lesbian. They claimed they just wanted her to have a good marriage and somehow this shocking abuse would facilitate that."

The case has garnered renewed attention following the release of Netflix's new docuseries 'Fred and Rose West: A British Horror Story'.

The appalling crimes of Fred and Rose West came to the fore in 1992 when their 13 year old daughter Louise accused Fred of rape and Rose of cruelty. Although that case fell apart after their eldest daughter, Anne Marie – a victim from as young as eight – chose not to testify, what the children disclosed to the police set alarm bells ringing.

An extensive investigation ensued when the police heard the children were often threatened with being interred "under the patio like their sister Heather", who had disappeared five years prior. The full scale of the Wests' monstrous acts soon unravelled.

They were responsible for the murder of at least 12 women and girls; among them was Rose's stepdaughter Charmaine, merely eight years old, and Fred's former wife Catherine 'Reno' Costello, aged 27.

Mostly teenagers, their victims ranged from those living under their roof to hired nannies and schoolgirls kidnapped from the streets. Eight victims were merely teenagers who either lived with the Wests, worked as nannies, or were tragically caught off the streets.

Fred West never faced a trial for the atrocities he perpetrated. He committed suicide while awaiting trial in HMP Birmingham.

His wife Rose, however, did stand trial and is one of the rare criminals in Britain to be handed a whole life order, ensuring she will spend the remainder of her days in prison.

Leo Goatley, who was Rose West's legal counsel from 1992 to 2004, recollects a woman who, over the years, appeared sociable and could even be jesting on the exterior, but secretly harboured deep-seated and sinister anger.

"She could also be very controlled and secretive sometimes, she would fly into a rage and shriek and spit," he detailed.

"I recall one witness described her as being 'rough' during a lesbian encounter. Rose insisted she was tender and got very upset.

"Another time, I'd be reading out a statement and asking her, 'Were you with Fred in this van when you abducted Anne Marie?'.

"She'd trill and say 'it's nothing to do with me,' even though she later admitted to it. It was a primitive human response.

"I don't dispute that, in those moments, she would have been capable of extreme violence. She was, of course, complex and there was a maternal side to her too."

Leo is of the opinion that Rose has severed any link to the depravity of her past, mentally distancing herself from the crimes that shocked the nation.

He says she's "dissociated herself" from the atrocities at Cromwell Street, locking them "away in a room of her mind".

Instead, Rose has crafted a new persona for herself behind bars - shedding her monstrous past in favour of a new identity as a gentle, sewing-loving prison 'caregiver'.

"She'd much rather be the amenable, kindly old lady who likes to spend tea with a vicar's wife who visits behind bars," Leo states.

This split in personality has helped West remain disturbingly calm and remorseless, he adds - revealing she's only shown emotion on rare occasions, including when Fred confessed to murdering their daughter Heather.

Leo Goatley's book Understanding Fred and Rose West is currently available.