THE search for another possible victim of Fred West has triggered memories of the serial killer’s time in Cumbria.

West ­— who committed at least 12 murders and then took his own life in prison in 1995 ­before facing trial — spent several months in Cumbria lodging at and drinking in The Belted Will Inn in Hallbankgate and also stayed in Brampton in the long hot summer of 1976.

The killer’s time in Cumbria was outlined in a book Fred & Rose by journalist Howard Sounes.

He wrote that, during West’s stay here, he tuned in to a radio phone-in on which callers offered household items for sale.

“A lady who had been trying to sell a gas fire on the programme later received a call from Fred,” Sounes recorded.

“‘I’m not interested in the fire,’ he said. ‘I’m far more interested in you.’ He pestered the woman with telephone calls, often obscene, for several days.”

Sounes also reported that West disappeared from the Belted Will Inn without settling his £7 bill – and leaving behind a suitcase of clothes and his uncollected pay, suggesting: “It seems he had been picking up women in his usual way when something had gone wrong, forcing him to flee.”

West was never seen in Cumbria again.

The current landlady of The Belted Will, Alison Foster, who has run the establishment for the past 21 years, said: “When we took over the pub, we were aware that Fred West used to come here and some of the regulars remembered him.”

The murders ­— 10 of which were committed with his wife, Rose ­— were chronicled in a 1995 book by Sounes, who began his journalistic career as a staff reporter for the Sunday Mirror.

One of the biggest stories Sounes reported that the house at 25 Cromwell Street in Gloucester was the grave site of nine young women, with more victims buried nearby.

He went on to report the case for the Sunday and Daily Mirror, and upon conclusion of the trial he published his book.

In it, he details that West came to Cumbria to work for British Gas for the attractive wages of £200 per week.

In the past week, objects have been removed from a cafe in Gloucester ahead of excavation work at the site where police have found “possible evidence” of where a suspected teenage victim may be buried.

Forensic archaeologists have been undertaking exploratory work at the Clean Plate cafe in Southgate Street in connection with the disappearance of 15-year-old Mary Bastholm, who was last seen alive in January, 1968.

Gloucestershire Police had received possible evidence from a TV production company to suggest the body of the missing teenager could be buried at the location.

One of the findings presented to police was a photo taken by the production company of what appeared to be blue material buried in one area of the cellar ­—less than a mile from the West’s ‘House of Horrors’ in Cromwell Street.

Mary worked at the cafe and West was a customer. She was wearing a blue coat when she went missing.

Forensic archaeologists confirmed that there are a number of structural anomalies in the cellar.