Mother Of Brady Victim Wants To Face Killer

The mother of Moors Murder victim Keith Bennett says she hopes to come "face-to-face" with her son's killer when Ian Brady's mental health tribunal is held in public.

Judge Robert Atherton has granted permission for the hearing to be held in public but no date has yet been set.

Brady and his partner Myra Hindley killed 12-year-old Keith Bennett and four other youngsters in the 1960s before burying them on Saddleworth Moor near Manchester.

The location of Keith's body has never been revealed despite repeated calls from his mother Winnie Johnson.

Mrs Johnson, 78, of Longsight, Manchester, said she wanted to be at Brady's hearing to see if he would reveal where he had buried her son.

She said: "I would like to go to hear it myself. I want to listen to what he has got to say, if he is going to say anything important.

"I have never seen him face-to-face.

"It would hurt but the point is I want to be there. The only way I can find out is going and facing him," she added.

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 snatched 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 in 1966 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.

In 1987 the pair finally admitted killing Keith and Pauline.

Both were taken back to Saddleworth Moor in 1987 to help police find the remains of the missing victims but only Pauline's body was found.

Hindley died in jail in November 2002, aged 60.

Brady, who was born in Glasgow, has spent the last 25 years at the high-security Ashworth Hospital in Merseyside.

The hearing will be a rare chance to see the Moors Murderer in public.

He wants to be transferred to a Scottish prison and be allowed to die.

It is only the second time that such a hearing has been held in public.