I watched Netflix's Fred and Rose West series and here is what will move you to tears

released all three episodes of Fred and Rose West: A British Horror Story on May 14. I immediately watched them all and it took me on an emotional roller coaster. The series, produced by Blink Films, has been billed as "the definitive documentary series revealing the lives and crimes of Britain's most notorious and prolific husband and wife serial killers." While I knew it would be a harrowing watch, and indeed it contains many disturbing moments, I didn't expect it to move me to tears. However it is impossible not to be affected by the families of victims who contribute to this.

Being honest I thought I knew everything there was to know about this story of the married couple who were responsible for the deaths of at least 12 young women and girls from the 1960s to the 1990s, including some of their own children and step-children. It was thoroughly covered at the time and has spawned many documentaries and even an mini series Appropriate Adult starring 's Dominic West as Fred. But what I wasn't hugely familiar with were the real people behind these stories.

Here family members of the victims get their say in emotional interviews, which reinforce just how much the crimes still resonate with them today.

Unlike the police, and legal and media professionals interviewed they are unable to be forensic or detached as they speak and they give heartbreaking insight into the real people behind these crimes.

The stories of the victims have often been reduced to a mere footnote in reports of the West's crimes but here they are humanised.

All were young women and all had a troubled youth, sometimes spending time in the care system. But they all also had people who cared about them and spent years looking for them before they learned the horrific truth. These family members are as much victims of the Wests as the girls they slaughtered.

It is heartbreaking to watch them recount their hopes that their loved one was still alive and their distress as they learned what had actually happened to them.

The sisters of victims Alison Chambers, Juanita Mott and Lucy Partington are visibly emotional discussing their siblings and it is impossible not to feel for them.

As they share family photos and anecdotes you realise this fate could have befallen anybody. They just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time when they met Fred West who, by his own admission, preyed on vulnerable young women.

It must have taken astonishing bravery for these people to share their stories and they give what could have been a run of the mill true crime documentary real heart. It would be a challenge to not be moved by their testimony.

Fred and Rose West: A British Horror Story is streaming on Netflix now.