Evil alliance of despicable pair who robbed us of innocence

THERE have been scores of notorious killers whose barbaric crimes shocked and repulsed this nation. But few, if any, repulsed us as profoundly and as enduringly as the Moors Murderers.

They were individuals, but it as a pair that Ian Brady and Myra Hindley will go down in history. Because their uniquely evil chemistry spawned such despicable acts, few who were around in the mid-60s were able to comprehend let alone forgive them.

Brady was a highly disturbed sadist and psychopath, who probably would have killed on his own. But what of Hindley? Was she, as apologists like Lord Longford argued, simply a naive 18-year-old who fell under his spell?

That was the narrative she pushed when she “found religion” and wanted released. For many it didn’t wash.

She wasn’t just an accomplice to torture and murder, she was integral to it. She knew how key she was to luring children into Brady’s car as she had the demeanour of a friendly aunt.

NOTORIETY

She went touring Manchester fairgrounds with him where she helped pick up Lesley Ann Downey. She told the 10-year-old girl to shut up as she screamed for her mother. She helped Brady chop up Edward Evans in his home, cleaning up the blood, then making them a cup of tea.

She went out drinking with Brady after their murders. She aligned herself totally to him. When she was arrested she said: “Whatever Ian’s done, I’ve done.” For years she showed no remorse preferring, like her lover, to revel in her notoriety.

Had Hindley been seduced into helping him with one murder, then shopped him, she could have been forgiven. Instead she joined him on a child-killing spree that lasted for 27 months, scoffing when mothers begged for their children’s return.

Had hanging not been abolished three years before their conviction, their presence in the national psyche may have diminished. It only grew.

I remember, as a seven-year-old, being caught by my mum staring at their mugshots and being told to “never, ever talk to a stranger”. There were hundreds of thousands of kids given that same chilling warning.

That’s why they remain a stain on our collective conscience.

They didn’t just take innocent lives, they crushed an age of innocence.