Why did Fred West have an “appropriate adult” allocated to him whilst he was interviewed by police?

[Snooks1971]

And would this happen now?

You can listen to him here and it's obvious that he simple minded.

%3D

The interesting thing about this (to me) is that most people our age feel like the 90s were ‘only yesterday’ rather than a lifetime ago.

It was the 1990s, not the 1890s!

Probably every couple of years. Why do you ask?

There was an ITV drama specifically about his appropriate adult, it was a very interesting watch.

It’s not a stupid question OP. I’m way out of step with current safeguards but know from my (ancient!) degree I know that the appropriate adult requirements originate from the 1984 legislation responding to previous miscarriages of justice and recognising that learning disabled people can be vulnerable and for eg more prone to false confessions or not understanding process. If anything it feels more shocking to me that lots of basic process was only codified in the mid 80s like recording police interviews and reading people their rights.

You can see the need for it eg from a quick google I found this article and I’m fairly certain learning disabled people are over represented in the criminal justice system.
https://amp.theguardian.com/law/article/2024/sep/11/appeal-court-clears-man-with-severe-learning-difficulties-of-1990-london

@NoSquirrels glad you find it funny I end up in police custody every so often. I have MH and ND issues. I was also under the old SIM model that criminalised people in MH crisis.
Someone on a bridge who was at their breaking point... gets taken to hospital. Me... arrested.

I assume Fred West had a solicitor at questioning, as well as his appropriate adult.

Fred West was a monster. The level of his depravity was off the scale.
Educate yourself
His depravity shook the entire population.

My Auntie had recognised learning difficulties and she would be 85 if she was still alive, she lived at home but had manual jobs like cleaning. She was vulnerable but everyone looked out for her. It wasn't talked about as much as now but it was recognised, I remember fundraising on Blue Peter in the 1970s for adults with learning difficulties!
You were perhaps unaware because there was nobody in your family or street but that doesn't mean they weren't recognised.

How rude. Are you new to the internet?

I am older than you and learning difficulties have been recognised all my life.

Dominic West was brilliant in that role. Emily Watson nailed it too.

How does someone become an AA? Anyone know?

His learning issues were recognised then and would have been long before. My mother was a special needs (called remedial originally) teacher in a comprehensive school.

Well I think they were🙄
special needs schools have been around since 1970

He had had a head injury at some point in his early life iirc.

Sorry if I’ve missed someone saying this but there’s actually a whole series (dramatised) on itv x called Appropriate Adult about with with Dominic West playing Fred West. It’s very interesting. The lady who was assigned to be FWs appropriate adult was quite traumatised by everything she heard (understandably) but continued because she felt she owed it to the families of the victims. (He confessed a lot of things to her).

Why do YOU care what OP asks? Rude!

I was an AA for a few years before having my son, from memory the person in custody would be seen by a doctor & they would decide an AA was needed. It could be because of a learning disability or a mental disorder (but not severe enough to be detained under the Mental health act). The role was to make sure the person was being treated fairly & understood the process. The person still had a solicitor. If I remember rightly the AA changed after the Fred West case & I remember I had to be very clear that any confession etc would be shared with the police (unlike solicitors who do not have to share). It's a really interesting role & was voluntary, I work for the local authority

We are aware of this. That is not the point of the discussion.

The police knew this was a huge case, the man wanted to talk about his crimes and the police wanted to be sure that his defence team couldn’t later claim that he hadn’t understood the proceedings. They weren’t obligated to provide an appropriate adult but it gave them an independent witness that the confession wasn’t coerced in any way.

Indeed - while there may have been special schools, there was little understanding of the neurology behind learning difficulties.

And those schools were really only for children with extremely visible conditions. Plenty of children with dyslexia or dyspraxia, adhd, or autism went through school labeled as 'thick' or 'disruptive' or 'clumsy' or 'shy'.

I was born in 1970 and I've worked in care all my career. By the early nineties there was much more awareness of learning disabilities. The sector had some regulation although nothing like CQC

The op nor anyone else on the thread has suggested that he was a top bloke. Your angry comment is unnecessary.

He wasn’t a monster, he was a man. A horrible man who did terrible things. Monsters don’t exist.

I read up on both of Fred and Rose’s early lives. I was shocked by the extreme dysfunction involved.

Some people are so prickly on here today.