How court kept ghouls at bay

EXTRAORDINARY steps were taken to ensure the final disposal of Ian Brady’s body remained a secret.

Concerns over public disorder and fears that the killer wished his ashes to be scattered on Saddleworth Moor – in a final insult to his victims – prompted a legal fight and the intervention of a High Court judge.

Five months after the killer’s death – with no crematorium or funeral director willing to take on the job - Sir Geoffrey Vos ruled that council chiefs should perform the task. But he insisted that the disposal be taken out of the hands of Robin Makin, Brady’s solicitor and executor. In a highly unusual move, the judge also insisted the cremation should be performed in secret and banned any media reports for seven days.

Only yesterday was it finally revealed that the remains of one of Britain’s most notorious killers had been consigned to darkness beneath the inky waves of the Irish Sea.