Dead-eyed stare of his vile partner in crime

IT’S the most haunting image in the annals of British crime – peroxide blonde Myra Hindley staring into a police mugshot camera with cold, dead eyes.

Brady’s death has turned the spotlight back on his lover and partner in evil and rekindled the debate about the role she played in the murders.

Some struggle to believe a woman could have willingly committed such horrific crimes.

That plays into the story Hindley tried to spin to get herself out of jail. She claimed to have been a helpless pawn of Brady, too terrified to break free.

It didn’t wash. Hindley was still a prisoner when she died in 2002, aged 60, three years after a stroke.

And experts who have studied the murders never believed it. They remain convinced that Hindley played a full and vital part.

Children are always told to beware of strange men. The presence of Hindley reassured the victims and made them easier to abduct.

It was Hindley who ensnared the first of them, Pauline Reade, by telling her she had lost her gloves on Saddleworth Moor and needed help to find them. And Brady could not have taken any child to the moor without her. He could not drive – and she could.

Brady and Hindley murdered their victims over 18 months. If she had really been terrified of him, she had countless opportunities to go to the police. She chose not to.

In truth, Hindley was infatuated by Brady and shared his love of sadistic violence. They enjoyed reading accounts of Nazi murders to one another and sending each other obscene photos of themselves.

She remained loyal to Brady after they were both caged for life. They wrote to each other in jail for years, and he only turned on her when she began trying to blame him for her crimes.

Nearly 15 years after her death, Myra Hindley remains the most hated woman in Britain. Few would deny it’s a fate she deserved.