Brady’s appeal to be heard in public

Moors murderer Ian Brady will have his mental health tribunal hearing held in public, a judge has ruled. It is only the second time that such a hearing has been held in public.

Judge Robert Atherton granted permission in October for the hearing to be held in public, but it could only be reported for the first time yesterday. No date has been set.

Brady and his partner, Myra Hindley, were responsible for the murder of five youngsters in the 1960s. They lured children and teenagers to their deaths, with victims sexually tortured before being buried on Saddleworth Moor above Manchester.

Pauline Reade, 16, disappeared on her way to a disco on 12 July, 1963, and John Kilbride, 12, was snatched in November the same year. Keith Bennett was snatched on 16 June, 1964 after he left home to visit his grandmother; Lesley Ann Downey, ten, was lured away from a funfair on Boxing Day 1964; and Edward Evans, 17, was killed in October 1965.

Brady was given life at Chester Assizes in 1966 for the murders of John, Lesley Ann and Edward.

Hindley was convicted of killing Lesley Ann and Edward and shielding Brady after John’s murder, and jailed for life.

In 1987 the pair finally admitted killing Keith and Pauline. Both were taken back to Saddleworth Moor in 1987 to help police find the remains of the missing victims, but only Pauline’s body was found.

Hindley died in jail in November 2002, aged 60. Brady has spent the last 25 years at the high-security Ashworth Hospital.

In October, the first psychiatric patient to have an appeal against detention held in public lost his legal battle to be freed from Broadmoor Hospital.

Fifty-two-year-old Albert Haines made legal history when he successfully argued that his case should be considered at an open hearing.