As a child, I was attractive to paedophiles. I suppose being indecently assaulted when I was 13 years old should have warned me that there were some weird and dangerous men out there, but I had got over that episode in my life.

That high pitch scream emitted by Rose made me wince! Her ear bursting howls would stun me into silence as much as it silenced the eldest child in their home, eight-year-old Anna-Marie.

I had forgotten the fact that I had been raped, something no one would understand, how could anyone forget something as traumatic as being raped?

The police still found this earlier omission in my statement hard to understand, but they weren’t the ones who had been the victim of the Wests, how could they have understood?

I knew I hadn’t been the most innocent of victims, but I didn’t deserve this. DC Smith stood and grinned at me as he thanked me and left the room, leaving me to cry and to ponder on his not very adept handling of the situation.

I left the court feeling sure that Rose West would never walk free again. That thought made me happy.