Ian Brady, along with accomplice Myra Hindley, murdered five children in the 1960s. Photo / Supplied
Ian Brady, along with accomplice Myra Hindley, murdered five children in the 1960s. Photo / Supplied
Ian Brady, one of Britain's most notorious serial killers, has died aged 79.
Brady, who along with accomplice Myra Hindley, murdered five children in the 1960s, had been suffering from a lung and chest condition and died at the Ashworth High Security Hospital on Merseyside.
But even in death, Brady continued to cause anguish, taking the secret of where he had buried the last of his victims, Keith Bennett, to the grave with him.
Greater Manchester Police said on Tuesday they will never close the case of 12-year-old Keith despite Brady's death.
Martin Bottomley, head of the force's Cold Case Review Unit, said officers would act on "credible and actionable" information which would help them find his body.
He said: "Whilst we are not actively searching Saddleworth Moors, Greater Manchester Police will never close this case. Brady's death does not change that."
Brady and Hindley, who died in prison in 2002, became known as the Moors Murderers after torturing and killing five youngsters: Pauline Reade, 16, John Kilbride, 12, Keith Bennett, 12, Lesley Ann Downey, ten, and Edward Evans, 17.
They buried their bodies on the bleak Saddleworth Moor in the Pennines.
In recent years, with his heath failing Brady was urged to do the decent thing and reveal the whereabouts of 12-year-old Keith's body, but he persistently refused allowing the youngster's elderly mother to die without ever being able to lay her son to rest.
Policemen digging at the scene where the body of Moors murder victim Lesley Downey was found. Photo / Getty Images
He died at 6.03pm on Monday. A spokesman for Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust did not confirm what Brady had died of, but said he had been on oxygen for a while.
Brady was not found dead in his room, the spokesman said, but he was unable to confirm if anyone was with him when he died, adding: "Quite possibly. I don't know."
Brady, who was jailed for life in 1966, but had spent much of his time in a secure hospital, appeared to enjoy toying with the authorities and never showed any remorse for his appalling crimes.
The gravity of his and Hindley's acts in the 1960s, when they abducted youngsters from the streets before torturing and murdering them, shocked the nation to the core.
Ann Downey watching the police search Saddleworth moors for the body of her daughter Lesley, a victim of the Moors Murderers Ian Brady and Myra Hindley. Photo / Getty Images
The killer had long expressed the wish to be allowed to die and had even reportedly gone on hunger strike resulting in him being force fed through a tube.
In 2013 he asked to be moved to a Scottish prison so that he could be allowed to starve himself to death, but his appeal was rejected after Ashworth medical experts said he had chronic mental illness and needed continued care in hospital.
In February he was refused permission to launch a High Court fight to have the lawyer of his choice representing him at a tribunal where the decision would be reviewed.
During the hearing it was revealed that he had been bedridden for two years and was suffering from emphysema and was terminally ill.
Rejected by his mother Brady was brought up by foster parents in the Gorbals area of Glasgow, but later moved to Manchester with his mother and stepfather.
Obsessed with Nazi Germany, sadism and sexual perversion, he first met Hindley when she worked as a secretary at the company where they were both employed.
Their killing spree began in 1963 when they abducted 16-year-old Pauline Reade, as she made her way to a disco near her home in Gorton, Manchester.
She was lured to the moors by Hindley who said she had lost her gloves there and needed help finding them.
Her body was discovered in 1987 after the murderers eventually confessed to the killing.
Lesley Ann Downey. Photo / Supplied
John Kilbride. Photo / Supplied
eith Bennett, left, whose body has never been found, and Pauline Read.
Brady had beaten her about the head and cut her throat with such force that her spinal cord was severed.
Four months after Pauline vanished, the day after President John F Kennedy's assassination in the US, 12-year-old John Kilbride became Brady's second victim.
John from Manchester was lured on to the moor where he was sexually assaulted and murdered.
Brady took a photograph of Hindley standing on the edge of his grave holding her pet dog. The photograph would later lead police to the young boy's resting place.
Keith Bennett, who was 12 at the time, died after leaving his home in Chorlton-on-Medlock in Manchester on June 16 1964.
Police mounted an intensive search of the moor in 1986 amid reports that the pair had confessed to his murder, but his remains were never discovered.
Their next victim was 10-year-old Lesley Ann Downey who was abducted and killed on Boxing Day in 1964.
She became their youngest victim when she was lured from a fairground to the house Hindley shared with her grandmother in Hattersley.
In 1987 Brady finally confessed to the murders of Pauline Reade and Keith Bennett but he was never tried for the crimes.
The brother of John Kilbride said he felt "numb" at the news of Brady's death. Describing him as a "murderous psychopath", Terry Kilbride said: "He's ruined our lives all these years and he'll still ruin it even though he's gone."
He said Keith's mother Winnie Johnson, who died five years ago, would be "turning in her grave" that Brady never revealed where her son's body is.
"We're going to be taunted by a dead man from beyond the grave," Mr Kilbride told the Sun.
A family member of Lesley Ann Downey reportedly posted online: "We as a family have had the best news ever! Brady the devil's disciple is DEAD!!! May you rot in F------ HELL!!!!!!!!!!!"
Her brother, Terry West, said he had poured himself a glass of wine when he found out the news.
Former police officer Norman Brennan, who represented the family of Lesley Ann Downey, told Newsnight about the "grief and torment" he saw on the faces of her mother and father.
Ian Brady, right, is escorted as he arrives at the courthouse in Hyde, Cheshire, England, to be convicted of the Moors murders in 1965. Photo / AP
Profile of a killer
• Brady was born Ian Stewart on 2 January 1938, he was born to a Scottish waitress out of wedlock.
• He was neglected as a child by his mother and raised by foster parents in a Glasgow slum, the Gorbals.
• His teenage years were marked by a fledgling career in petty crime, before he was sent back to live in Manchester with his mother and new husband by the Scottish courts.
• Ian assumed the name of his stepfather Patrick Brady, but continued to pursue crime while suffering from alcoholism while still a teenager.
