Couple who knew Fred and Rose West convicted of abusing 10 children

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/oct/15/couple-fred-rose-west-convicted-abusing-children

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A couple who once ran a pub frequented by Fred and Rose West have been found guilty of multiple counts of physical and sexual abuse against 10 children following a six-week trial in Exeter.

David and Pauline Williams began their campaign of rape and sexual assault in the late 1980s when they ran the Prince Albert pub in Gloucester, where they befriended the Wests.

The couple subjected six girls and four boys to rapes, sexual assaults and beatings when their victims were as young as seven. In some cases the abuse continued until they were teenagers.

The pair used violence to bully their victims into compliance, beating some with sticks or strangling them. The abuse continued when they moved to Exeter and Tiverton in Devon in the 1990s and 2000s.

During the trial at Exeter crown court, the jury heard how David Williams was both an abuser and a voyeur, who liked to film his wife having sex with pub customers and friends.

The couple, of Bradninch, Devon, denied 46 charges of sexual and physical abuse between 1989 and 2004.

David Williams, 56, was found guilty of 10 rapes, 13 indecent assaults, five counts of gross indecency, two of cruelty and one of sexual activity with a child.

Pauline Williams, 52, was found guilty of two rapes and five indecent assaults. They were found not guilty of eight allegations involving two other complainants.

The pair denied that any abuse took place but accepted they had known the Wests. Williams told the jury: “I did not threaten anyone by telling them about the Wests. Absolutely not. There was nothing frightening about my conversations about them.”

The judge Erik Salomonsen told the couple they faced lengthy jail terms when he sentences them next month. He said: “You have been convicted on overwhelming evidence of a campaign of abuse simply for your own sexual satisfaction. This is very serious sexual offending which has damaged the lives of the children.”