Brady ‘requested ashes scattered on moors’
Coroner demands assurances over what will happen to killer’s remains once body is released
Serial killer Ian Brady made a last request that his ashes be scattered on the moors where he buried his child victims, a coroner has suggested. Yesterday in court, coroner Christopher Sumner refused to release the killer’s body until assurances were given that any such demand, believed to have been made in his will, would not be met. Brady died of heart failure on Monday night at Ashworth high security hospital on Merseyside.
IAN BRADY made a final request that his ashes be scattered on the moors where he buried his victims, a coroner has suggested.
The serial killer is believed to have made the demand in his will, but an inquest into his death heard that such an act would be “offensive” and morally improper. Last night a coroner refused to release his body until assurances were given that any such demand would not be met.
Brady died of heart failure on Monday night at Ashworth high security hospital on Merseyside. He had issued a Do Not Resuscitate request in the event of cardiac arrest.
At the inquest into his death, held at Southport Town Hall yesterday, the senior coroner for Sefton, Christopher Sumner, said Brady’s ashes should not be scattered on Saddleworth Moor – the place where he and Myra Hindley buried their victims’ bodies.
Terry West, 66, whose sister Lesley Ann Downey was murdered by Brady, last night said: “It is the final act of a twisted, evil man. For the coroner to order this ban must mean Brady stipulated his ashes should be scattered on Saddleworth Moor.”
Mr West was informed by police that Brady had died in a telephone call at 9pm on Monday evening. He opened a bottle of wine to mark the event. “We have been waiting for him to die for 50 years,” he said. Brady’s lawyer, Robin Makin, the executor of his will, visited him in the hours before his death to discuss his legal wishes and funeral arrangements, but would not disclose what requests the killer had made.
But Ch Insp Ian Hanson, the chairman of the Greater Manchester branch of the Police Federation, said Brady deserved no dignity in death. He added: “When somebody dies, it is natural in a civilised society that we show compassion. However, there are exceptions – and this monster is one of them.
“He had no right to breathe the same air as those decent and dignified relatives whom he tortured for decades by refusing to assist in the search for their loved ones.”
Brady was born Ian Stewart, the illegitimate son of a Glasgow waitress. When his mother later married, he assumed his stepfather’s name but preferred to be known as Ian Stewart-brady.
Mr Sumner told the hearing he had received a request to release the body of Brady, but he said he wanted certain assurances before doing so. He said: “I would like an assurance before I do so that first of all the person who asked to take over responsibility for that funeral has a funeral director willing to deal with the funeral and that he has a crematorium willing and able to cremate Mr Stewart-brady’s body.” He added: “I also wanted to have assurance that when Mr Stewart-brady is cremated his ashes will not be scattered on Saddleworth Moor. I have no means of making this an order but I think it is a right and proper moral judgment to make.”
Brady died without revealing the whereabouts of the body of Keith Bennett, the only victim never to have been found. Keith was murdered in June 1964, the third of the Moors murderers’ five victims. The boy’s mother, Winnie Johnson, spent years pleading with Brady to let her know where his remains were so she could give him a Christian burial. She died in 2012, having never discovered the truth.
The inquest heard that Brady’s cause of death was heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.