Moors victim’s body parts kept by police

BODY parts from a Moors Murders victim were kept by police for 30 years without her family knowing.

Pauline Reade, 16, was murdered by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley and her body was found 24 years later in 19 7 on Saddleworth Moor.

Her family believed they had finally laid her to rest. But following Brady’s death in May, an audit showed some of her remains, including her jaw bone and hair samples, had been kept at Leeds University ‘pending investigation’ by Greater Manchester Police.

This week officers delivered Pauline’s remains to solicitors for her niece Jackie Reade, 44. She said: ‘I am devastated. It has brought it all back. I am disgusted that part of Pauline could be kept like this. The police just said the remains had been kept for evidence. But they knew who she was, there was no need to keep them.’

Pauline’s grave is a family plot and her parents and brother, who all died after her, lie in the same place.

It means four licences will be required to move all the bodies.

Martin Bottomley, head of GMP’s Cold Case Unit said: ‘We recently became aware that human tissue belonging to Pauline had been stored for investigative purposes. We felt contacting the family was the right thing to do and have given them a number of options.’