UK

Body of moors murderer Ian Brady will not be released until assurance given over scattering of ashes

Moors murderers Myra Hindley and Ian Brady
Moors murderers Myra Hindley and Ian Brady Moors murderers Myra Hindley and Ian Brady

Ian Brady's body will not be released until assurances have been given that his ashes will not be scattered on Saddleworth Moor, a coroner has said.

Opening an inquest at Southport Town Hall into the 79-year-old killer's death on Monday, senior coroner for Sefton Christopher Sumner said he also wants assurances that a funeral director and crematorium willing to take Brady's body have been found.

Coroner's officer Alby Howard-Murphy said Brady's cause of death was corpul monale and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

In 1966, Brady and Hindley were jailed for life for the killings of John Kilbride (12), Lesley Ann Downey (10) and Edward Evans (17).

They went on to admit the murders of Pauline Reade (16) and Keith Bennett (12).

Glasgow-born Brady had been held at Ashworth High Security Hospital since 1985.

Hindley died in jail aged 60 in November 2002.

Brady's lawyer has said if the serial killer had information on the burial site of 12-year-old Moors Murder victim Keith Bennett it would have been revealed in the 1980s.

Robin Makin spoke to Brady (79) at Ashworth High Security Hospital in Merseyside less than two hours before he died, as the pair discussed his legal affairs and funeral arrangements.

The Liverpool-based solicitor told the Press Association he did not believe Brady had any information which could lead to the remains of the only one of Brady and Myra Hindley's five young victims not to have been traced.

He said: "I don't think useful information is going to come from him. I think that if he had been able to assist in its location it would have happened in the 1980s."

Mr Makin, the executor of Brady's will, said he was called to go and see the murderer hours before his death at 6.03pm on Monday.

He said: "It was obvious that the end was fairly close. I went to see him and spent a few hours with him.

"He was in the last hours of his life so he was pretty weak but we were able to discuss a few things and sort out what he wanted to be done."

Mr Makin, who represented Brady for more than 25 years, said: "Clients have their challenges and some are easier to deal with than others. I would sort of say at the end I had a rapport with him and knew what he wanted."

Norie Miles, a close friend of Keith's mother, Winnie Johnson, said Keith's brother Alan would continue to search for his body.

She said: "Alan is still searching for Keith and has areas of interest. He will never give up and none of us will ever give up supporting him.

"Our thoughts are with him and all the other families as well."

Martin Bottomley, head of Greater Manchester Police's Cold Case Review Unit, said the case remained open and officers would act on "credible and actionable" information which would help them find the body of Keith.

He said: "Whilst we are not actively searching Saddleworth Moors, Greater Manchester Police will never close this case. Brady's death does not change that."

Lord Pendry, former MP for Stalybridge and Hyde, said he believed Brady's "jealousy" of Hindley motivated the killer to agree to return to Saddleworth Moor in 1987 in an attempt to find Keith Bennett's burial place.

The Labour peer secretly visited Ashworth Hospital and held a five-hour conversation with Brady in a bid to persuade him to lead police to Keith's body.

He recalled: "It was a difficult exercise because a lot of my constituents, particularly around Hattersley, if they thought I had spent five hours with Brady they would have thought I should have done something more than talk to him.

"I kept that away from everybody including the boy Bennett's mother because I didn't want to heighten her expectations."

Lord Pendry said he thought Brady was motivated by jealousy over Hindley, who had earlier assisted police to discover the body of Pauline Reade on the moor.

"By that time he had fallen out with her," he said.

"She had reverted to the Catholic faith which he did not particularly like and he also wanted to show that he could find the boy Bennett's body."

A Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust spokesman said the serial killer, who used the name Ian Stewart-Brady before his death, had been on oxygen.

Brady was not found dead in his room in the unit, the spokesman said, but he was unable to confirm if anyone was with him when he died, adding: "Quite possibly. I don't know."

Chief Inspector Ian Hanson, chairman of the Greater Manchester branch of the Police Federation, said "monster" Brady's body should be "left out for the bin men".

He said: "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.

"He now takes his place in hell and he can rot there as far as I am concerned.

"Ashworth Hospital can leave him out for the bin men."

The crimes of Brady and Hindley shocked Britain during the 1960s as details of how the pair snatched children off the street, abused and tortured them to death were recalled during their trial at Chester Assizes.

Brady escaped the hangman's noose as the death penalty was abolished just months earlier and was handed three life sentences.

In 2013 Brady asked to be moved to a Scottish prison so he could not be force fed, as he could be in hospital, 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 hospital.

In February, he was refused permission to launch a High Court fight to have the lawyer of his choice representing him at a tribunal where the decision would be reviewed.