I want to see Brady face to face, says mother of Moors Murders victim

The mother of Moors Murders victim Keith Bennett has said she hopes to come face to face with her son’s killer, after a judge ruled Ian Brady will have his mental health tribunal held in public.

Judge Robert Atherton has granted permission for the hearing to be held in public but no date has yet been set.

Keith’s mother, Winnie Johnson, 78, from Manchester, said: I want to listen to what he has got to say, if he is going to say anything important. I have never seen him face to face. It would hurt, but the point is I want to be there. The only way I can find out is going and facing him.”

Brady and Myra Hindley were responsible for the murders of five youngsters in the 1960s.

They lured children and teenagers to their deaths, with the victims sexually tortured before being buried on Saddleworth Moor, near Manchester.

Pauline Reade, 16, disappeared on her way to a disco on 12 July, 1963, and John Kilbride, 12, was snatched in November that year.

Keith was seized 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 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. She, too, got life. In 1987, they 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.