WIPED OUT & FLUSHED AWAY
Scottish Moors murderer Brady cremated in secret and ashes dumped at sea
MOORS murderer Ian Brady’s ashes have been dumped at sea. The Glasgow-born monster was cremated in secret in England without music or ceremony. His ashes, in a salt urn, were lobbed over the side of a police boat into the Irish Sea in the dead of night.
Relatives of Brady’s victims were relieved his wishes to be cremated in
Glasgow with the sinister music of his choice had been denied.
But Terry West, the brother of 10-year-old Brady victim Lesley Ann Downey, said: “If I had my way, I would just flush his ashes down the toilet.”
Brady, 79, died of natural causes in Ashworth high-security hospital, Merseyside, in May.
At about 9pm on October 25, the child killer’s body was collected from the mortuary at Royal Liverpool hospital by a Tameside Council official.
Under police escort, the corpse was taken to Southport Crematorium.
At 10pm exactly, Brady was cremated in a “separate standby” furnace.
His body was not allowed to enter public areas of the crematorium and the cremator was sterilised by two workers after use to remove all trace of him.
The ashes were placed in a weighted biodegradable urn made of Himalayan rock salt.
They were driven to Liverpool Marina in an unmarked convoy.
The urn was loaded on to the 40ft-long police cutter Consortium which sailed into the Irish Sea, where depths range from 300 to 900ft.
No record of the police boat’s journey was recorded on a global marine tracker system.
At 2.30am on October 26, the ashes were dumped over the side by a police sergeant and a council official.
A court had ruled that disposal of Brady’s body must not cause “offence and distress” to his victims’ families. Terry Kilbride, 63, whose brother John 12, was killed by Brady and twisted lover Myra Hindley, said the families of victims had been told in advance what would happen to Brady’s remains. He added: “It was explained what had happened to Brady, him being cremated down in Southport, driven all the way through Liverpool afterwards, went out to sea with the police and dumped the urn in the sea.
“The urn was made of salt and it disintegrated after about 10 or 15 minutes of being in the water, so it will have sunk to the bottom.
“I was originally under the impression he was just going to be burnt and put in the grounds of a prison but being put in the sea is the next best thing.”
Terry West was pleased Brady’s last wishes had been denied.
He added: “My little sister didn’t get to choose how she was buried.”
Brady and Hindley tortured and murdered five children in the 1960s. Four of their victims were buried on Saddleworth Moor, in Oldham, near Manchester.
In a letter to Manchester penpal Cody Lachey in 2015, Brady said he would be cremated in Glasgow. He said the funeral would be an “event” that would be attended by his “associates”.
Through his former solicitor and executor Robin Makin, Brady also requested that the fifth movement of Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique be played during the ceremony.
The composer envisaged the piece as a “witches sabbath”, where hideous monsters gathered to laugh at a burial.
But in the end, Brady got none of his wishes.
Last month, the Chancellor of the High Court, Sir Geoffrey Vos, ruled that the decision of where he should be disposed of should be taken out of Makin’s hands.
Vos said: “I decline to permit the playing of the fifth movement of the Symphonie Fantastique at the cremation as Mr Makin requested.
“As the composer’s programme notes describe, the theme and subject of the piece means legitimate offence would be caused to the families of the deceased’s victims once it became known it had been played.
“It was not suggested by Mr Makin that the deceased had requested any other music to be played or any other ceremony to be performed. And in those circumstances, I propose to direct that there be no music and no ceremony.”
Terry Kilbride praised Tameside Council who, he said, fought a legal battle to frustrate Brady’s last wishes and to ensure that his ashes were not scattered on Saddleworth Moor.
He added: “I honestly think he should not have had any wishes. I don’t think he had any rights at all to expect anything when he died.
“This was the only way to really put the families at ease and the public as well.”
Terry described Brady as “clever and manipulative”, saying he “tormented” families from his prison cell.
He added: “He always seemed to come up on TV or in the papers, it was always around an anniversary or Christmas. He actually died on John’s birthday, May 15. You can imagine how that feels.”
Brady and Hindley’s other victims were Pauline Reade, 16, Keith Bennett, 12 and Edward Evans, 17.
Hindley died aged 60 in 2002.
I would flush his ashes down the toilet. My sister didn’t get to choose how she was buried TERRY WEST