Ian Brady, the man who tortured, sexually abused and killed five children with accomplice/girlfriend Myra Hindley, has died, aged 79.
Being one of Britain’s most notorious killers, his name alone still triggers widespread revulsion five decades after the atrocities were committed.
He and his lover, Myra Hindley, were convicted and sentenced to life in 1966 for the murders of Lesley Ann Downey, 10, and Edward Evans, 17. Brady was also found guilty of killing John Kilbride, 12.
The pair confessed in 1987 to murdering two more children, Pauline Reade, 16, and Keith Bennett, 12.
During their trial the court heard tape recordings made by the couple. One tape featured Lesley Ann Downey, 10, begging: “I want to see my mummy. Please God, help me.”
According to the Daily Mail, a policeman who heard that tape said he would gladly have killed Brady and Hindley with his bare hands.
Ian Brady and Myra Hindley.
The couple buried their young victims in Saddleworth Moor which is why the killings are often called the ‘Moors Murders.’
But Keith Bennett’s body has never been found, despite desperate pleas from his family. His mother Winnie, who died in 2012, begged Brady for decades to reveal her son’s final resting place so she could give him a Christian burial.
Now his murderous secret has been taken to the grave.
79-year-old Brady, who’d been receiving palliative care at a secure mental health hospital, was suffering from untreatable cancer and emphysema.
Brady had been on successive hunger strikes since 1999, arguing he should be allowed to die, but had been force-fed because he was considered mentally ill.
Myra Hindley died in prison in 2002, aged 60.
