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Moors Murderer Ian Brady Addresses Tribunal

Moors Murderer Ian Brady Addresses Tribunal

Moors Murderer Ian Brady is speaking at length in public for the first time since 1966 as he bids to be transferred from hospital to prison.

The child killer is giving evidence to a mental health tribunal sitting at Ashworth Hospital in Merseyside where he has been held for 28 years.

The last time Brady spoke so publicly was in court in Chester when he was convicted 47 years ago.

The 75-year-old argues he is no longer mentally ill and should be returned to prison to serve the remainder of his whole-life sentence.

Brady, who is said to have been on hunger strike since 1999, has previously said he wants to starve himself to death in jail where he cannot be force fed.

Currently, he is fed through a tube in his nose, although the panel heard on Monday he is actually eating other foods and makes himself toast every morning.

Since 2002 Brady has repeatedly asked for a public hearing which he said would provide "true independence", the tribunal has heard.

He last spoke at length in public when he gave evidence at his trial at Chester Assizes where he was eventually found guilty of three murders.

His legal team say he has a severe narcissistic personality disorder but is not mentally ill and could be treated in prison rather than hospital.

But Ashworth say Brady is still chronically mentally ill and remains a paranoid schizophrenic who needs around-the-clock care.

He has refused medication and therapy for his mental disorders since 2000 as he is "wholly resistant" to any treatment and now tries to hide his mental illness, the tribunal panel was told.

Brady spoke briefly in his thick Glaswegian accent at the tribunal last Tuesday when he complained he had listened "ad nauseam" to arguments about his mental state from medics at Ashworth Hospital.

Wearing dark sunglasses, dark jacket and shirt and tie most days, he has been seen mainly writing notes and reading case papers throughout the hearing where he has sat between his solicitor, Corinne Singer, and close confidante Jackie Powell, who acts as his mental health advocate.

Brady and his partner, Myra Hindley, were convicted of luring children and teenagers to their deaths, with their victims sexually tortured before being buried on Saddleworth Moor.

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

Keith Bennett was taken on June 16, 1964, after he left home to visit his grandmother; Lesley Ann Downey, 10, was lured away from a funfair on Boxing Day 1964; and Edward Evans, 17, was killed in October 1965.

Brady was given life 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, and jailed for life.

Both later confessed to the murders of Pauline - whose body was found in 1987 - and Keith whose body has not been discovered.

Hindley died in hospital, still a prisoner, in November 2002 at the age of 60.

Judge Robert Atherton has said that no questions would be heard about the whereabouts of Keith's body because the tribunal has no authority to investigate the matter.

The hearing is being relayed to the press and public on TV screens at Manchester Civil Justice Centre.

The judgment of the panel will be released at a later date yet to be fixed.