Fred and Rosemary West's former home 'used by sex traffickers'

The house in Gloucester where Fred and Rose West's eight-year-old daughter Charmaine was murdered and buried under the kitchen floor in 1971. Photograph: Emma Hallett/PA

Three people have been charged with conspiracy to traffic women into prostitution in the UK as part of a suspected vice ring that operated from addresses including the former Gloucester home of serial killers Fred and Rosemary West.

Simultaneous raids in Gloucester, south London and Bradford followed an investigation by the Metropolitan police's human exploitation and organised crime command and Czech authorities into a suspected organised prostitution ring, which saw women trafficked into the UK and forced into prostitution and sham marriages. A further three people were arrested in the Czech Republic.

Members of the alleged gang are suspected of using the rundown white two-storey Midland Road house where Rosemary West murdered her husband's stepdaughter Charmaine in 1971 and buried her beneath the kitchen floor. Her remains were not exhumed until 23 years later after the Wests were arrested over 11 more murders at their nearby Cromwell Road home which was subsequently demolished.

The Midland Road house was the Wests' first married home after a period living in a caravan. Charmaine and Anne Marie, Fred West's daughter by his previous wife Rena, went to live there in 1970.

Ludmila Nistorova, 52, of Raglan Court in Gloucester appeared at Cheltenham magistrates court on Friday. She is charged with conspiracy to traffic into the UK as well as conspiracy to traffic within the UK for exploitation and sexual exploitation, conspiracy to control prostitution for gain and conspiracy to "facilitate commission of a breach of UK immigration law". She was remanded in custody to appear at Southwark crown court in London on Wednesday.

Votjech Virag, a 25-year-old man, and Iveta Viragova, a 43-year-old woman, were arrested at an address in Nutwell Street, Tooting, south London and appeared at Westminster magistrates court on the same five charges. They were also remanded in custody to appear alongside Nistorova in court next week.

The three men arrested in the Czech Republic, aged 35, 28 and 41, are currently subject to extradition proceedings.

All three have been remanded in custody to appear in court next week.

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