Friends of Fred West abused children in Exeter
A husband and wife who were friends of the serial killers Fred and Rose West sexually abused 10 children over a 15-year period.
David and Pauline Williams were found guilty at Exeter Crown Court of a string of sex attacks on teenagers. The couple, from Bradninch, Devon, became friends of the Wests when they lived near their Cromwell Street home in Gloucester in the 1980s and 90s. They are due to be sentenced in November. The court heard David Williams, 56, boasted of his connections with the Wests who drank at the Prince Albert pub which he ran in Gloucester. The couple started abusing children in the late 1980s when they were running the Prince Albert. 'Appalling behaviour' They ran the Victoria Inn in Exeter after moving to the city in the 1990s, where they went on to abuse a string of teenagers. Judge Erik Salomonsen bailed the couple pending sentence next month but warned them they face long jail sentences. He said: "You have been convicted of appalling behaviour that you meted to these children over a long period of time. The judge said the couple had been convicted "on overwhelming evidence of a campaign of abuse simply for your own sexual satisfaction". David and Pauline Williams, 52, denied a total of 46 charges of sexual and physical abuse dating between 1989 and 2004. David Williams was found guilty of ten rapes, 13 indecent assaults, five counts of gross indecency, two of cruelty, and one of sexual activity with a child. Pauline Williams was found guilty of two rapes and five indecent assaults. They were found not guilty of eight other allegations involving two other complainants. Their friend Herman Simms, aged 49, of Torquay Road, Paignton, denied a single charge of rape and was found not guilty. Related Internet Links HM Courts and Tribunals