Britain's notorious child killer Ian Brady dies

Britain's notorious child killer "Moors Murderer" Ian Brady, who tortured and murdered five children with his lover Myra Hindley in the 1960s, has died after spending more than five decades behind bars.

Brady and Hindley were jailed for life in 1966 for abducting, torturing, sexually abusing and then murdering the children before burying their young victims on the bleak Saddleworth Moor near the northern city of Manchester.

The couple used to tape record the crying pleas for mercy from their young victims, the Guardian reported.

Brady, who revealed he had a lung and chest condition in December, had been receiving palliative care from cancer nurses at Ashworth psychiatric hospital on Merseyside.

Mersey Care NHS foundation trust, which runs Ashworth hospital, confirmed that Brady died at 6.30 p.m. (local time) on Monday after becoming unwell.

A spokesman said the killer had been on oxygen for a while, the newspaper reported.

Brady and Hindley were convicted of three murders in 1966, and details of two further victims emerged in the 1980s.

Brady was found guilty of snatching and killing 12-year-old John Kilbride, Edward Evans (17), Lesley Ann Downey (10) while Hindley was convicted of murdering Downey and Evans and shielding her lover in the third case.

In the 1980s, the couple admitted abducting and murdering 16-year-old Pauline Reade on her way to a Manchester disco in 1963 and killing Keith Bennett (12) in 1964.

They were caught when Hindley's brother-in-law tipped off police, according to reports.

The body of Keith Bennett has never been found despite pleas from the boy's relatives for Brady to reveal his burial site.

The boy's mother Winnie Johnson, who died in 2012, had repeatedly pleaded for Brady to do so.

Hindley died in prison in 2002 after an unsuccessful legal fight against successive Home Secretaries' decisions that she should remain behind bars for the rest of her life.

She had suffered a suspected heart attack and died in West Suffolk hospital, in Bury St. Edmunds.

Brady was transferred to maximum security psychiatric hospital in 1985 after being diagnosed as a psychopath. He spoke of wanting to die and went on "hunger strike", but was force-fed.

In 2013, he unsuccessfully attempted to get himself transferred to a Scottish prison where he would not be force-fed and could "have control over the manner and timing of his death", although his claim to have been on hunger strike for 14 years was undermined by his barrister.

In February this year, he was refused permission for another court bid to be transferred to prison. His lawyers said he had emphysema and was terminally ill.

The sadistic nature of the Moors Murderers' killings made them among the most despised figures in Britain.

--IANS

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