MOORS MURDERER’S TRIAL RUN ON BOY, Evil Ian Brady knocked me off road and molested me Alan’s fears growing up in ar ea

WHEN Alan Dean reads accounts of Moors Murderer Ian Brady’s sickening crimes, he is reminded of his own narrow escape.

For he believes he came close to being the fiend’s first victim, a year before he murdered 16-year-old Pauline Reade.

Alan, 62, claims a car deliberately clipped him while he was walking home from a sweet shop in 1962, aged seven.

And a tall, lean, “creepy” man in a raincoat he later realised was Brady appeared over him as he lay injured in the road – and began to molest him.

Alan, who got away and ran home, thinks he escaped the killer’s clutches while he made a trial run ahead of his killing spree with girlfriend Myra Hindley.

He said: “I was walking home from the shop, tightrope-walking down the kerbstone. It was a quiet road and back then there was hardly any traffic. They must have deliberately hit me.

“I remember getting knocked flying. I didn’t see who was driving but when I was on the floor this tall, creepy man was stood over me. I was aware something was wrong.

“This man was stood over me rubbing my thigh. It was weird, he wasn’t saying anything. I pushed him away and ran home to my mum.”

Lucky

A few years later Alan – who as a lad bore a strong resemblance to Moors victim Keith Bennett, 12 – saw photos of Brady in the papers after his arrest.

He said he has no doubt the man who molested him at the roadside was Brady.

He said: “I knew it was him straight away. It was the same guy – if not, it was his twin brother. I had a lucky escape.”

Alan spoke of his ordeal for the first time this week, following Brady’s death aged 79. He claimed he was targeted in Clayton, Greater Manchester – a short drive from the Hattersley estate where Brady and Hindley lived. The warped couple met in 1961 and killed their first victim, Pauline, in July 1963.

Alan said: “After I knocked him off and ran home, my mum didn’t believe I’d been hit, until the bruises all came up afterwards down my thigh. Back then we didn’t think there were bad people out there but something about him just wasn’t right.

“There’s no way him and Hindley didn’t practise and plan what they did. They didn’t just kidnap someone first time. They would have had trial runs, working out what they needed to do.

“They tried to get me a year before they got Pauline. How many other attempts on other kids did they try?

“I’m sure he was trying to get me into the car and then who knows what? I don’t know if she was waiting in the car too. I’ve no doubt that they tried to grab other kids. How many other young lads or girls did they try to get?

“There could be other young kids up on those Moors. I’ve seen the stories saying he might have killed more.

“If they didn’t manage to get the children they tried first time, then they would keep going until they did get one.”

The incident in Bank Street, Clayton, was around 100 metres from Alan’s old home in Ilk Street.

About a year after he was knocked over, his family moved to Hattersley.

Alan said: “The area has totally changed now but growing up there were lots of things I remember about the Moors Murders. After we moved, I remember being at school when the headmaster at Pinfold Primary said there was a kid we had to be kind to. I’m sure that was Lesley Ann Downey’s brother.

“I knew kids who delivered the paper to Brady’s house and we used to see that David Smith around, Hindley’s brotherin-law. We heard banging and screaming. That was David Smith hitting his wife.”

Dad-of-two Alan, a retired TV engi- neer, said he had been expecting Brady’s death for a while. He said: “I’ve always followed stories about him because of where I grew up and what happened. He was a vile, wicked, evil piece of work. I’ve seen he was in ill health.”

Alan also said he felt for the family of Winnie Johnson after cruel Brady took the secret of where he buried her son Keith to the grave.

Burning

He said: “I repaired Winnie’s TV once when she lived on Princess Road. There was also the resemblance between me and Keith when I was younger. We both had the NHS glasses. He never did say where that poor lad is.

“He would have known the rough area, you don’t do something that bad and not know where you were. Unfortunately, Winnie never found peace because of him. I hope she’s at peace now up there while he’s burning somewhere else.”

Brady and Hindley were jailed for life in 1966 for the torture and murder of Lesley Ann Downey, 10, John Kilbride, 12, and 17-year-old Edward Evans.

Years later, while in prison, they also confessed to the murders of Keith and Pauline. All of their victims were buried on Saddleworth Moor.

Alan said: “After they were arrested and it was on the news, the pieces started to fall into place. The car was a blue pickup, which is the sort of car they used.

“And when I saw the picture of Brady, I knew it was him. I know he tried to snatch me but how many others did he