Brady reveals location of Keith Bennett's body

Ant · August 17, 2012

Ian Brady 'reveals location' of Keith Bennett's body

Moors Murderer Ian Brady has revealed information about where one of his victims, 12-year-old Keith Bennett, is buried, detectives believe.

Police think Brady gave details to a visitor to his psychiatric hospital.

A woman arrested in south Wales on suspicion of preventing a lawful burial of a body was named by Press Association sources as his mental health advocate, Jackie Powell.

Brady and Myra Hindley murdered five children between 1963 and 1965.

Keith's is the only body never found.

They kidnapped, tortured and murdered the children, whose bodies were buried on Saddleworth Moor near Manchester.

1987 confession Brady, 74, was jailed for life in 1966 at Chester Assizes for the murders of Lesley Ann Downey, 10, John Kilbride, 12, and Edward Evans, 17.

He has spent the past 25 years at the high-security Ashworth Hospital in Merseyside and has been tube-fed since refusing food 12 years ago.

Hindley, who died in prison in November 2002, aged 60, was given a life sentence for the murders of Lesley Ann and Edward and for shielding Brady after John's murder.

In 1987 they admitted killing Keith and 16-year-old Pauline Reade, whose bodies had not been found. Both were taken back to Saddleworth Moor to help police find the remains of the missing victims but only Pauline's body was found.

Keith Bennett's mother, who is now 78, has fought a long battle to find out where he is buried The director of public prosecutions at the time decided prosecuting Brady and Hindley for the final two killings would not be in the public interest.

Police abandoned the hunt for Keith's body in 2009 and officers said they would need fresh evidence to resume the search.

A Greater Manchester Police spokesman said: "On 30 July 2012, Greater Manchester Police received information that led officers to believe that Ian Brady had recently given details of the location of Keith Bennett's body to one of his long-term visitors.

"Officers in the cold case unit made inquiries to the accuracy of this report and have since had extensive contact with Ashworth Hospital and Keith's close family.

"As a result, warrants obtained under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act were executed at Ashworth Hospital and a private address in South Wales.

"A 49-year-old woman has been arrested in South Wales on suspicion of preventing the burial of a body without lawful exercise and remains in police custody for questioning. Searches of both locations are ongoing."

Mother's campaign Keith was abducted on his way to visit his grandmother in Manchester on 16 June 1964.

His mother Winnie Johnson, 78, has fought a long campaign to get Brady to reveal the location of her son's grave.

Myra Hindley, Brady's lover and accomplice, died in prison in 2002 Last month Brady, who was born in Glasgow, was due to go before a mental health tribunal to consider his application to be transferred to a Scottish prison and be allowed to die. But it was postponed when he suffered a seizure.

Last December Mrs Johnson, from Longsight, Manchester, said she wanted to attend the planned hearing to face Brady, saying she had "never seen him face to face".

But in the days leading up to the tribunal, before it was called off, she said it would be too traumatic for her to attend.

Mrs Johnson's solicitor John Ainley said she was not aware of the new developments, but said his client had "always believed that Ian Brady knew where her son was buried".

"She never thought anything else," he said.

"He had a dialogue with Winnie some years ago and she was certain that he could have provided information that would have given her closure in this harrowing case.

"Her one and only desire is to give her son a proper family burial during her lifetime."

Ed the Wool · August 17, 2012

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