STOOD in the kitchen of her smart home no one - even her own son - could imagine the horrors of Mae West's childhood.
The mum-of-two is keeping possibly the darkest secret imaginable from the teenager - the fact her parents are Britain's most notorious serial killers Fred and Rose West.
Mae grew up in the house of horrors at 25 Cromwell Street where she was subjected to vile sexual abuse at the hands of her mum and dad.
But even more chilling, she was forced to sleep on rotting bodies that had been buried in the cellar.
Her own sister Heather was murdered and dumped in the back garden - one of 12 of the couple's known victims.
Mae, now 52, somehow managed to escape a similar fate and now spends each day trying to fight of the demons that threaten to overwhelm her.
Speaking on the 30th anniversary of her parents' arrest, she told The Sun Online: "I am just trying to live a normal, everyday life - well, as normal and everyday as it can be.
"My life now is about protecting my children, especially the younger one. He knows nothing about my past. Not a clue.
"He’s at an age now where he’s starting to ask questions. All I’ve told him is my dad’s dead and I don’t speak to my mum.
“As far as I’m concerned, he never will. Not from me, anyway."
Mae's childhood was spent as the victim of violent beatings by her parents, who attacked and sexually assaulted their eight kids.
She was never read a bedtime story or tucked in - treats instead meant wearing the clothes of Fred and Rose's victims or managing to escape her dad's depraved sexual fantasies.
Instead of a Saturday job in a local cafe or shop, Mae was made to work as a secretary for her prostitute mum.
By the time she was even born in 1972, Fred and Rose had already killed two people - her half-sister Charmaine and her dad's previous wife Catherine "Rena" West.
Despite the horror surrounding her, she has now managed to create a normal life for herself with a husband and two children.
But the ghosts of her upbringing can never truly go away - despite how deep Mae tries to bury them.
She said: "Now, it feels like another life that was not mine. The years have helped. It’s true what they say, time heals.
“Sometimes it feels like a story you read and you had no part in it. At other times, you’ll be reminded of something from back then and you know you’re going to have a bad day.
“I don’t talk about it. No one in my life now, apart from my husband, knows who I am in terms of my connection to Fred and Rose. I suppose I’m wearing a mask now."
It’s best if I leave you to it.
Rose West in a letter to Mae from jail
As the couple's bloodlust grew, Fred and Rose expanded their pool of victims by luring lodgers to stay at their house of horrors.
They also enticed young women into their car with Rose's presence in the front seat used as a way to make them feel safe.
Once inside the home, they were bound, gagged, sexually assaulted and murdered.
Fred and Rose's killing spree was finally brought to an end on February 25, 1994, as police began excavation work at the home.
The apparent joke Fred made to his children about being "buried under the patio" like Heather if they spoke out was revealed as an actual threat when officers discovered a leg bone in the garden.
Further excavation work led police to nine more bodies in the home - with three more victims found buried elsewhere.
With a chilling cache of evidence against them, the couple were charged on June 30, 1994.
Fred took his own life in prison the following year, while Rose was handed a whole life tariff for ten of the murders.
While she was serving her sentence, Mae received a note from her mum effectively severing all ties.
Having parents like I’ve had has made me like I am. My challenge is coping with the effect they have had on me, rather than who they are.
Mae West
She said: “Me and my mother stopped speaking 16 years ago. We fell out. It was her choice.
"She wrote me a letter basically telling me ‘It’s best if I leave you to it.’. In other words, she no longer wanted to see me or communicate with me.
“It made me question a lot of things at the time, such as was I with her or not with her. It’s weird that someone is your parent and alive but you no longer see them."
Mae has spent the past 30 years building a new life for herself away from the horrific shackles of her childhood.
While she would previously speak about her hell, she now tells people she is "fine" and moves on.
Mae believes by throwing herself into family life, she has managed to cope - but there is still one part of her previous story she can't rewrite.
The mum was always close with sister Heather, who was murdered and dismembered after being subjected to years of vile abuse and torture.
Anna McFall
The nanny of Fred and Rena West’s children, McFall was believed to have been murdered in 1967.
She was pregnant when she died, with West believed to have been the father. Her body was found in June 1994 in a shallow grave.
Fred West denied murdering McFall but he is said to have confided to a visitor after his arrest that he stabbed her following an argument.
This happened before Rose West met him.
Charmaine West
With Fred in prison for the theft of car tyres and a vehicle tax disc, Rose was left to look after Charmaine and Anne Marie.
The former just eight-years-old, was Fred West’s stepdaughter from his previous marriage.
A neighbour Tracey is said to have found Charmaine tied to a wooden chair with her hands behind her back with Rose standing with a large wooden spoon.
Rose claimed she’d been taken by her mother, but her skeleton was found at the Midland Road property, hidden and missing bones.
Rena West
Fred's first wife Rena is believed to have been murdered by strangulation.
Rose was not charged for this murder.
Lynda Gough
Lynda Gough was the first sexually motivated killing conducted by the Wests.
She moved into Cromwell Street in April 1973, having had affairs with several lodgers. The Wests later claimed she’d been asked to leave after hitting one of their children.
Strangulation and suffocation were the likely causes of death.
Carol Ann Cooper
Cooper was murdered in November 1973, aged just 15.
On the night of November 9, she was allowed to spend the night at her grandmother’s house before a doctor’s appointment the next morning.
She attended the appointment and then met her boyfriend, before somehow ending up on Cromwell Street.
Her body was found more than twenty years later.
Lucy Partington
A 21-year-old medieval English student at Exeter University, Lucy returned home for Christmas in December 1973.
She left a friend’s house in a rush to get the last bus from Cheltenham to Gretton on 27 December, with it believed she was abducted from this bus stop.
She was found more twenty years later, her dismembered body in the cellar of Cromwell Street.
Therese Siegenthaler
A 21-year-old Swiss sociology student at Woolwich Polytechnic.
She had planned to hitch-hike to Ireland in Easter 1974. Her family reported her missing having not heard from her for some time.
Prosecution believe she was abducted before being killed, with Fred West later building a fake chimney over her grave.
Shirley Hubbard
Just 15 at the time of her death, Hubbard is believed to have been abducted by the Wests.
Her body was found following an excavation in the concrete and plastic membrane of the cellar floor.
Juanita Mott
In the summer of 1974, Mott moved into 25 Cromwell Street but later went missing when she was living in Newent.
Her body was found in March 1994, 19 years later, with West having concreted over the floor of the cellar.
Shirley Robinson
The first victim buried outside the house, Robinson had an affair with Fred West, and by autumn 1977, she was pregnant with his child.
It was initially claimed she had moved to Scotland but her body was later found.
When questioned, Rose West, herself pregnant with her daughter Tara at the time of the murder, claimed she did not remember her, which was described as “ludicrous” by the prosecution.
Alison Chambers
The last murder with a sexual motive established. She disappeared just before her 17th birthday, having been seen at 25 Cromwell Street throughout the summer.
Her body was buried underneath the patio.
Heather West
The first child born to Fred and Rose West, there is no evidence she was aware of the killings.
Sexually abused by her parents and having told friends, she suddenly went missing in 1987, with her mum claiming she had gone to Wales to be with a lesbian partner.
The couple would joke to their other children that they would “end up under the patio like Heather” if they misbehaved. This, and their changing stories, led to the search warrants for the property, and subsequently to their arrests.
Mae said: "I do get terribly sad when I think about Heather, how old she’d be now, what kind of life she’d have had. I love her so much."
But she continued: "Having parents like I’ve had has made me like I am. My challenge is coping with the effect they have had on me, rather than who they are.
“I’m 52 now, just a year younger than my dad was when he died. That has made me think about things a lot lately. I’d never kill myself, but as an age it has significance for me, makes me consider my own mortality, I guess.
“But you keep going. There’s nothing else you can do, is there?
“I rarely think about Dad. I’ve trained myself not to think about him.
“As for Rose, I do not let myself go back to those times. It’s nothing you can change."
