ROSEMARY West was a quiet, bespectacled, somewhat plump housewife seemingly carrying on a normal life. Yet next week the grisly tale of her alleged involvement in Britain's worst case of serial killing in decades will finally start to emerge.
The quiet cathedral city of Winchester is preparing itself for a media invasion, for a story which in many ways mimics the trial of O. J. Simpson, but which will be far, far, more gruesome in its telling.
When police dug their way through the floors and garden of 25 Cromwell Street in Gloucester last year, and tore up nearby fields in their search for the remains of a series of young women apparently killed by builder Frederick West, the local community, indeed most of Britain, was aghast at what they found.
Frederick West, 52, hanged himself in jail on New Year's Day but now his wife Rosemary also stands accused of 10 murders, including the killings of two of her own seven daughters. She denies all charges.
He alone faced further charges of murder - those of his first wife Catherine 'Rena' Costello, 25, and a former baby-minder, Scots girl Anne McFall, 18. But more than 160 kilometres away from Gloucester's House of Horror, the drab wood-panelled court number three at Winchester in Hampshire will be the centre of activity from Monday.
More than 500 journalists are expected to attend the two month hearing: total cost of the lengthy trial and police inquiry some HK$24 million.
Every hotel room in the city was booked within hours of the announcement that the trial was to be held in Winchester.