Hope for answers as Gloucester cafe torn is apart by drills

The noise of power drills could be heard coming from inside The Clean Plate in Gloucester on Wednesday as specialist police began excavation work in the cellar in the hunt for a victim of Fred West.

A favourite spot for locals looking for a fry up or a place to enjoy a coffee, city centre cafe has found itself at the centre of a major police investigation linked to the serial killer.

Specialist investigators are probing the site in the search for 15-year-old Mary Bastholm, who disappeared in the city in 1968, after receiving new evidence unearthed by a documentary crew.

Forensic archaeologists have confirmed there are a number of structural anomalies within the cellar of the cafe and six voids in the floor will also be examined after a piece of blue material was found by the TV production company.

The cafe at the centre of the police probe sits inside a Grade II-listed building which dates back to the mid-18th century.

It is located on 59 Southgate Street – one of Gloucester’s ancient streets where the south gate entrance to the city once stood – about 1.5 miles from the Bristol Road bus stop where Mary Bastholm was last seen and less than half a mile from Fred and Rose West’s “House of Horrors” at 25 Cromwell Road.

It has a longstanding history as a cafe, and was known as the Pop-In cafe when Mary Bastholm worked there as a waitress in the 1960s.

In a strange twist of fate, the cafe is now owned by the Nelson Trust, an addiction rehabilitation charity that also supports vulnerable women who are victims of or at risk of violence.

According to Historic England, the rear of the building was damaged by fire in 1994 – the same year Fred and Rose West were arrested and investigators began excavation work at their home in nearby Cromwell Street.

There are conflicting reports about whether Fred West was a regular at the cafe, whether he knew Mary, and what work he did at the property, if any.

Detective Chief Inspector John Turner, who is leading the investigation, said West was a regular at the cafe and knew Mary from her time working there.

The detective said there was conflicting evidence during the original House of Horrors inquiry as to whether West had carried out renovation work at the cafe in 1968 or later, in 1976.

But what we do know is Mary disappeared in 1968 at a time when builder West was abducting girls in Gloucester.

Leo Goatley, who was Rose West’s solicitor from 1992 to 2004, suggested it was unlikely Fred West would have been involved in much work at the cafe, where ones of the identified void is located within the floor underneath the toilet in the basement.

He told The Independent: “I think it less likely that he was instructed to put in toilets and mess around with drains in 1968. I mean he was 24 years old and he was a driver at that time, he was an odd jobs man at the campsite.

“It was only a year or two later that he became a full time maintenance man so this is pretty early on in his building career.

“He had local farm labourer skills – he knew how to dig a hole.

“Also he was known as an unreliable character so the idea that someone gave him the key to come in and out of the cafe at will.”

West is said to have confessed to killing Mary in conversation with his son, Stephen, but never admitted it to police.

Mr Turner confirmed police had visited Stephen West to speak to him, and officers could also question Rose West, who is serving a whole-life term at HMP New Hall.

But Mr Goatley suggested police had missed their opportunity to get his former client to speak about Mary’s disappearance.

“I don’t think Rose West is going to say anything,” he said. “My view is if she was involved – and I believe she was involved in Mary Bastholm’s disappearance – she would have been groomed by Fred.

“She would have been just 14 years old when Mary Bastholm disappeared.

“I think the opportunity is probably lost now, but it could’ve been explained to Rose that her involvement in that would have been almost as a victim, as an involuntary instrument of Fred West.

“Clearly that kind of explanation cannot possibly hold with later killings but I think that it would’ve been a mitigation, it might have even been some sympathy.”

Tony Triffitt is hoping police might get some answers for his wife Christine, who died never knowing what happened to her childhood friend.

The 76-year-old said his wife grew up with Mary and that the pair were best friends.

“Early teens they knocked about together, they went in this cafe together,” he said.

“Every time Christine went in there [after Mary’s disappearance] she felt a bit cold, a bit funny.

“If they do find her it will be for my wife looking down, she will get peace then.”

Richard Foster, manager of The Vape Joint, said he had been told the excavation work at the cafe next door could last several weeks.

“For the last week it’s been pretty quiet really, we’ve just seen them [police] going in and out and they’ve not made as much noise, apart from today they’ve obviously started doing the drilling,” said the 26-year-old.

“It’s definitely concerning that there’s possibly people who are buried in there and over half a century no one’s even known about it.”