Ian Brady died of natural causes, coroner rules

Notorious Moors Murderer Ian Brady died of natural causes, a coroner has ruled.

The 79-year-old serial killer died on 15 May at Ashworth High Secure Hospital in Maghull, Merseyside.

Now, coroner Christopher Sumner has accepted that Brady died from cor pulmonale, a form of heart failure that is directly linked to lung disease, which the killer had been suffering from in the years before his death.

Delivering the verdict, he dismissed suggestions that Brady’s intermittent hunger strikes since 1999 may have led to his death.

‘The evidence shows that Mr Stewart-Brady was fed by a nasogastric tube.

‘He also took food to supplement that liquid diet from selected staff and it wasn’t just snacks, it was full meals at times’, he said.

‘Dr Rodgers’ evidence is that his weight was 61kg, nine stone, and his BMI was 21.3. He received appropriate medical care throughout his time as a patient at Ashworth Hospital to satisfy both his physical and his mental needs.

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‘I, thus, find there was no evidence of neglect or self-neglect contributing to the death of Mr Stewart-Brady.’

During the hearing, pathologist Dr Brian Rodgers also revealed that Brady’s body was in a ‘fairly good condition’.

No reference was made to whether a final decision had been taken about what would happen to the murderer’s remains.

At an earlier hearing Mr Sumner refused to release Brady’s body before he was given assurances the killer’s ashes would not be spread on Saddleworth Moor, where the remains of four of Brady and Myra Hindley’s five child victims were found.

The body was kept under police guard until it was released to his lawyer, Robin Makin, on May 18.

Mr Makin, the executor of Brady’s will, did not attend the inquest.