MONSTER OF THE MOORS IS DEAD
Child murderer Ian Brady killed by cancer at 79
IAN Brady who, with lover myra Hindley, killed five children in thenotorious moors murders, has died.
The Scot, 79, had been receiving end-of-life care at the secure mental hospital where he had been detained since being diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic in 1985. It is understood he died just before 6pm, only hours after the family of the last of his victims, Keith Bennett, begged him to reveal the boy’s burial place.
Brady and Hindley – who died in prison in 2002 – tortured and murdered the children in the 1960s. Their
other victims were Pauline Reade, 16; Lesley Ann Downey, ten; Edward Evans, 17; and John Kilbride, 12.
Four were buried on Saddleworth Moor in the South Pennines. Brady always refused to reveal where he dumped the body of 12-year-old Keith Bennett.
He was jailed for three murders in 1966, although he and Hindley later admitted to two more killings.
He was being held at Ashworth High Security Hospital on Merseyside, and being fed via a tube after embarking on a hunger strike.
Last night, a family member of one of his victims, Lesley Ann Downey, wrote on Twitter: ‘We as a family have had the best news ever! Brady the devil’s disciple is DEAD!!! May you rot in F ****** HELL !!!!!!!!!! ’
They also tweeted a picture of
‘Victims will never be forgotten’
Brady’s victims, stating: ‘You will never be forgotten.’
Terry West, whose ten-year-old sister Lesley Ann Downey was abducted and murdered by Brady and Hindley in 1964, said earlier yesterday: ‘It will be a terrible shame if Brady goes to his grave while Keith’s body is still out there on the Moors.
‘I really feel for Keith’s family, but I really can’t think Brady is going to reveal anything now – he’s sly and devious, we’ve known that for a long time.
‘All we can do is make a last plea for him to give them some comfort before it’s too late.’
Before Brady’s death, Mr West, 66, added: ‘It disgusts me Brady has nurses looking after him around the clock – he’s not even human as far as I’m concerned.
‘Why should he get help when there was no help for my sister Lesley when she needed it, there was just him and Hindley?
‘They should just let him suffer like all the families have suffered.’
Terry Kilbride, whose 12-yearold brother John was murdered by the pair, said: ‘I would beg him to do the right thing on his deathbed and tell us where Keith is.
‘There will only ever be another search if there’s fresh evidence.
‘When Brady dies I truly hope he rots in hell. That’s the only place he’s going.’
Brady was born at Glasgow’s Rottenrow maternity hospital on January 2, 1938. His mother, Maggie Stewart, never revealed the identity of his father, saying only that he was a Glasgow newspaper reporter who had died three months before the birth.
She was an unmarried tea room waitress who soon struggled to care for the baby on her own, so she arranged for him to be fostered, which would allow her to maintain contact with him.
Some accounts have him spending his childhood torturing animals. A cat was said to have been set on fire, another thrown from a top floor window.
He was raised in the Gorbals area of Glasgow and attended Shawlands Academy in the city’s South Side, and went on to become a petty criminal.
Brady campaigned for several years to be moved from the secure unit to a Scottish prison so he could not be force-fed, and where he could be allowed to die if he wished. His request was rejected after Ashworth medical experts said he had chronic mental illness and needed continued care.
In December, Brady wrote to Channel 5 journalist Julian Drucker, saying: ‘I’m still bedridden and have been for over two years. The lung and chest condition is terminal.’
Last night, the hospital confirmed ‘a 79-year-old patient in long-term care has died after becoming physically unwell.’