Untouchables
Why the bodies of Manchester bomber and Ian Brady have STILL not been buried
THE remains of Moors murderer Ian Brady and Manchester suicide bomber Salman Abedi are being kept at the same mortuary – more than two months after their deaths.
The location of the facility, dubbed the ‘monster morgue’, is being kept secret to prevent revenge attacks by members of the public outraged by both killers’ vile crimes.
Manchester City Council is refusing to allow local crematoriums to take the remains of Abedi, who killed 22 people when he blew himself up at an Ariana Grande concert at Manchester Arena on May 22.
No relatives were present at the opening of an inquest into the 22-year-old’s death and it is possible they will be sent to his parents’ homeland, Libya.
Last night a council spokesman said: ‘Under no circumstances would we allow the body of the perpetrator of the heinous attack on Manchester Arena to be buried or cremated in Manchester.’
Although Brady’s body has been released to his solicitor, it has still not been moved from the mortuary.
The child killer is expected to be cremated and his ashes scattered in his native Glasgow, but so far no funeral directors willing to handle his remains have been found.
Glasgow councillors have also refused to let either of its two crematoriums take on the job.
A source said: ‘The pair of them are effectively in limbo. Funeral directors don’t want them. No crematorium wants to process them. In the meantime they’re stuck in the monster morgue.
‘It may give some tiny crumb of comfort to relatives and friends of those whose lives they destroyed to know they are in anonymous purgatory.’
Brady and his accomplice Myra Hindley tortured and murdered five children in the 1960s before burying their bodies on Saddleworth Moor, near Manchester.
The 79-year-old died of a chronic lung condition at the high-security Ashworth Hospital in Merseyside, where he had been detained for the past 32 years, on May 15.
His body was sent to an undisclosed morgue before being released into the care of his solicitor, Robin Makin, who was the last person to speak to him just hours before his death. Last night Mr Makin declined to comment on the latest revelations and a date for an inquest into Brady’s death has yet to be set.
However, many undertakers said they would not want to handle the murderer’s remains. One funeral director in Liverpool told the Daily Mail that they had a ‘duty’ to look after their customers, who would not wish to have their loved ones’ remains near Britain’s most notorious criminal.
Hindley was such a pariah that 20 local funeral directors rejected Prison Service requests to deal with her body.
Hindley died aged 60 in West Suffolk Hospital, Bury St Edmunds, in November 2002, where she had been taken after suffering a suspected heart attack in nearby Highpoint Prison.
An undertakers’ firm from 200 miles away was brought in to handle her cremation, which took place in Cambridgeshire.
Local firms feared their trade and reputation could be harmed by becoming involved.
The name of the company that finally agreed was deemed so sensitive that it was known to only a handful of senior Prison Service and Home Office officials. Last night Michael Fogg, a funeral director from Sheffield, praised colleagues for refusing to handle the bodies of Brady and Abedi, the Daily Star reported.
In a Facebook post he said the pair should be left to ‘rot in hell’. He said: ‘Thank you to every funeral director in the country. We all need to stand together and say: “No.” ’
Meanwhile a Manchester council source said: ‘Just like Ian Brady, every effort is going into making sure there is not a chance Abedi can be buried or cremated in Greater Manchester.’
Last night senior Manchester coroner John Ward said it was up to Abedi’s family to make any arrangements for his remains once they were released.
He said: ‘The release of the body and any funeral arrangements are a private matter for the family.’
‘They should be left to rot in hell’