TIME TO BREAK OPEN EVIL BRADY’S BRIEFCASES AND REVEAL HIS FINAL SECRETS
MOORS Murderer Ian Brady inflicted fresh misery on the family of his last missing victim before he died by requesting all his private papers to be sealed, his inquest heard.
But campaigners for the family of Keith Bennett have demanded all of the serial child killer’s documents should be made public.
Brady died aged 79 at Ashworth high security hospital, in Merseyside, on May 15 from irreversible and chronic heart and lung disease.
The remains of all but one victim – 12-year-old Keith – were found, with most buried on Saddleworth Moor.
But yesterday the inquest heard how hours before Brady’s death he ordered that his private paperwork was sealed in two briefcases.
It is understood these were later handed to his solicitor Robin Makin and nothing has been heard of the documents since. After Brady died Mr Makin apologised to Keith’s family but said: “Unfortunately I haven’t got any information that’s going to assist.”
Yesterday supporters of the family urged Mr Makin to speak out again – to confirm he has no paperwork that may indicate Keith’s final resting place.
Campaigner Erica Gregory said: “He had boxes of letters...there will be dozens in there from [accomplice] Myra Hindley.
“These ones will have clues in that could help lead us to Keith. I really hope they are released to the public.”
Keith’s brother Alan Bennett wrote on Facebook: “We will carry on doing whatever we can to bring Keith home.”
Keith’s mother Winnie Johnson died in 2012 without knowing her son’s final resting place but always hoped in vain that Brady would confess where he buried her boy.
Terry Kilbride, the brother of victim John Kilbride, said: “He’s dead but we will have to still live with the nightmare that he left behind.
“He’s ruined our lives all these years and he’ll still ruin it even though he’s gone. I feel numb.”
Yesterday the inquest at Bootle Town Hall in Liverpool was told Brady died of natural causes. The lawyer Mr Makin did not attend the hearing and was unavailable for comment while on a “religious holiday”.
No reference was made to what happened to Brady’s remains or ashes. Coroner Christopher Sumner had previously refused to release Brady’s body without assurances his ashes would not be spread on the moor.
Brady’s body was kept under police guard until it was released to Mr Makin on May 18.
Detailing the start of Brady’s fatal health decline, the inquest heard the serial killer ordered two locked briefcases be removed from his room just before he died.
Consultant forensic psychiatrist Dr Noir Thomas said that at 12.30pm on May 15 medics concluded Brady, who suffered from emphysema, was nearing death.
Brady declined seeing a chaplain and became “unresponsive, laboured in his breathing and agitated”. He died at 6.02pm.
Explaining the mystery behind the briefcases, Dr Thomas said: “He asked for his solicitor to be notified and requested his locked briefcases be removed from his room.
“These were sealed by security staff and locked in the director of security’s office.”
Mersey Care NHS Trust said Brady’s possessions were later given to Mr Makin, the executor of the child killer’s will.
IT WAS wrong while Ian Brady was alive to allow him to keep a secret stash of documents. It was even worse that his lawyer was able to take his paperwork away without it being properly searched. Now that the child killer is dead the time has certainly come to read his private papers.
Brady declared in his will that these documents are not to be read but there is no good reason why anybody should listen to his wishes. He was an evil man and they might contain more information about his crimes.
Think how the family of Keith Bennett, whose body was never found, must feel.
How can anybody expect them to live with the knowledge that clues to his whereabouts might exist but they will never be allowed to find out for sure?
It is as if Brady is taunting them from beyond the grave.
This cannot be allowed to stand. Whatever legal niceties need to be observed one thing is certain: those private papers must be examined.