Mother begs Moors murderer: Please tell me where you buried my son

Published on Wednesday 1 July 2009 21:59

THE mother of one of the victims of Moors murderer Ian Brady broke down in tears yesterday as she begged him to reveal the 45-year secret of where her son is buried.

Frail pensioner Winnie Johnson pleaded with the five-times child killer to help find Keith Bennett's grave on Saddleworth Moor, after police announced they had called off the search and could do no more unless Brady revealed the location.

Keith, then aged 12, was abducted and killed by Brady and Myra Hindley on 16 June, 1964, in Manchester, while on his way to his grandmother's house.

Mrs Bennett walked him part of the way, waved him goodbye – and never saw him again. Appealing directly to Brady, she said: "I'm pleading with him to get to me or the press or the police and tell me where Keith is. It is the last time it will be done.

"I appreciate what the police have done, they have done a lot of work in the last three to four years…they have done their best, they can't do any more, they have got nowhere else to look – it is up to Brady now to do what he can for me to get Keith back.

"If I could speak to him now, I would wring his bloody neck, but they will not let me see him."

Mrs Bennett, 75, broke down in tears after grainy black and white photos of Hindley, then live pictures of Saddleworth Moor, flashed up on television screens where she was speaking at the police HQ in Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire.

"It is not fair… oh dear God, I can't talk now. It is not fair on me, what I have had to go through. I did not ask him to be picked up and murdered."

She said she was "disappointed" the police had called off the searches on the moor but understood the decision.

"They have worked bloody hard up there and come to a dead end. I want Keith found before anything happens to me because I want to give him a decent burial," she said. "It's a nightmare, it's been a nightmare for the last 45 years how I have carried on – 45 years in limbo.

"He knows where he is and won't tell anyone. If he's got any decency or respect for anybody, it should be me. He says he's got rights, and I have got none."

Glasgow-born Brady is being held in Ashworth High Security Hospital on Merseyside. Police are convinced he knows where he buried Keith,

but he has vowed he would not leave his ward at the hospital if he came forward to assist and could instead retrace his steps through virtual 3D technology.

Greater Manchester Police said the search for Keith's body had entered a "dormant phase" after all avenues available in the inquiry had been exhausted.

In 2003, police launched Operation Maida in an attempt to locate Keith's body. Their searches were based on information already in the public domain from Brady and Hindley, who died in 2002.

Detective Chief Superintendent Steve Heywood, head of the force's serious crime division, said the case was not closed, but it could progress only if there was a scientific breakthrough or if Brady spoke up.

45 YEARS OF ANGUISH

16 June, 1964: Keith Bennett vanishes as he walks to his grandmother's house.

Mid-1980s: Hindley agrees to help police locate the site where Keith was buried.

2001: Hindley draws a map of the area.

15 November, 2002: Hindley dies, aged 60.

2003: Police try to interview Brady about where he buried Keith. He refuses to speak to them.

2005-8: Police periodically search the moors in a secret operation.

1 July, 2009: Greater Manchester Police call off the search for Keith's body.