My lucky escape from Ian Brady and Myra Hindley's clutches

A man has told Sky News of his lucky escape as a boy after being invited back to a house by Moors murderer Myra Hindley in 1963.

Tommy Rhattigan, then aged seven, said he was waiting for his two brothers in a park when he was approached by Hindley and fellow child killer Ian Brady in the Greater Manchester area in November that year.

He said he was on a swing when Hindley walked up to him and smiled at him.

He said they struck up a conversation and she asked him if he would like jam and bread at her house.

The youngster agreed and she and him walked through several streets and another park before reaching the property.

Brady, who died on Monday, was there when they arrived and the boy then sat on a chair inside.

He said when she brought him the bread and jam her personality changed as she pushed the food onto the table rather than placing it.

He said: "Everything had changed. She didn't seem to be that smiley person. Her eyes were quite glazed. You could see the difference."

Mr Rhattigan said he become frightened when Brady started shouting at Hindley.

He said: "They started rowing. It was horrendous. I didn't want to get hurt. I started to feel really ill. I could feel myself panicking."

He said he managed to push open a window and get out.

Hindley held on to his foot but he was able to get away and hid under a pile of rubble for about an hour.

He said he has had mental issues since the episode as he spoke "about how lucky perhaps I was".

He said if he had not managed to get out of the window "we wouldn't be talking here".

Mr Rhattigan added: "To have this secret inside you - that you know that you were in this place with those two evil people and the same thing was planned for me. It's extraordinary feelings. It's mind-boggling really to have those feelings."

Brady and Hindley were convicted of murdering five youngsters between July 1963 and October 1965, but Mr Rhattigan believes there are other victims who are unaccounted for.

He also said that many years later, he wrote to Brady at a high-security hospital, asking him to tell Winnie Johnson where her son Keith Bennett's remains were.

He replied, but did not make any mention of Keith.

According to Mr Rhattigan, Brady said: "I'm afraid you are very much mistaken in your belief that you encountered us when you were a kid."

Brady also apparently pointed out in his reply about how many people say "how ordinary we were and not dripping blood".

Mr Rhattigan said: "That was a goad to me to say how easy it was (to take me)."

Mr Rhattigan has written a book about his experience, called 1963: A Slice of Bread and Jam.