Di Stefano linked to Hindley murder claim

Published on Sunday 15 February 2004 00:00

CLAIMS that Myra Hindley was involved in the killing of a previously unknown victim have been made by the client of controversial legal advisor Giovanni Di Stefano.

The involvement of Di Stefano in the case emerged as police investigated claims that the Moors Murderer and her lover Ian Brady, who together were responsible for the brutal deaths of five young people, also killed a young hitchhiker.

The controversial businessman has earned substantial fees through representing clients such as serial killer Harold Shipman even though he is not qualified to practise law in the UK.

It was reported yesterday that Hindley, who died in prison two years ago aged 60, confessed to a jail inmate that she had killed an unknown teenage hitchhiker.

Hindley and Brady became hate figures following their convictions for the brutal murders of children in the Manchester area and were known as the Moors Murders after hiding their victims’ bodies in bleak moorlands.

But in newspaper reports yesterday, a former prison companion of Hindley, Linda Calvey, claimed she had confessed to murdering a girl fleeing to London after a violent family row.

Calvey, who is serving a life sentence for murdering her ex-lover, is reported to have detailed Hindley’s confession in an eight-page statement which she forwarded to Di Stefano, who is drawing up the appeal against her conviction.

In relation to the unknown hitchhiker, she claims Hindley told her: "I know you can disappear and nobody cares."

When asked why she did not declare the girl when she admitted to two more victims, she allegedly said: "Would you declare somebody nobody had ever mentioned?"

Calvey said Hindley told her at Highpoint Prison, Suffolk, that she and Ian Brady picked up a girl in her teens, who was thumbing a lift to London after an argument with her parents.

"She said she looked like she was in her late teens, but may have been a little younger. They asked her where she was going and she said she was making her way to Kilburn in London. She had a friend who had a job and a place to live there."

Police said that they might open a new murder investigation following testimony but would need to investigate the matter further before making a decision.

"Greater Manchester Police can confirm that the investigation into issues arising out of the Moors Murders case remains open and we would always investigate any fresh evidence presented to us," a police spokeswoman said.

Discussing his role in the case Di Stefano, a former director of Dundee FC, admitted he had received the letter some months after Hindley’s death in October 2002 but had not been instructed to make its contents known until four weeks ago.

Speaking to Scotland on Sunday, he said: "This statement by Myra Hindley had been weighing on Linda Calvey’s mind and she wanted to make it public at this time. I don’t think it was for any type of award nor does it improve her case anyway."

Last year, Scotland on Sunday revealed Di Stefano, who claims to be a multi-millionaire, was a convicted fraudster who had lied about his criminal past and was convicted of serious offences on March 18, 1986, following a 78-day trial at the Old Bailey in London.

Judge Anthony Lewisohn sentenced Di Stefano to five years’ imprisonment, adding that he was "swindler without scruple or conscience".

Hindley was jailed for life in 1966 with Brady for the murders of 10-year-old Lesley Ann Downey and Edward Evans, 17, who were abducted before being abused, tortured and killed.