"sad*stic and depraved" Ian Brady and Myra Hindley sexually assaulted and killed children before burying a number of their innocent victims on Saddleworth Moor
The little girl’s voice was full of fear.
“Don’t undress me, will you?” she begged.
“I want to see Mummy.”
Then there was the stomach-churning sound of 10-year-old Lesley Ann Downey being murdered.
The most evil couple in Britain, Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, not only sexually assaulted and killed children, they recorded the moment they took poor Lesley’s life.
Serial killer expert Prof David Wilson says: “The Moors murders were shocking. You have a woman and a man torturing children. A woman is more shocking.
The reason we know so much about this case is because of the dreadful way Lesley Ann Downey lost her life and that it was recorded. It was sad*stic.”
The couple had met when she was a secretary and he was a store clerk at a company in Manchester. It was love at first sight.
On July 12, 1963, twisted Brady told a besotted Hindley that he wanted to “commit his perfect murder”.
Spotting 16-year-old Pauline Reade, Hindley approached her and asked if she would help her find a glove she had lost on Saddleworth Moor. Pauline was never to be seen again.
Four months later, Hindley approached John Kilbride, 12, in Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester, and offered him a lift, promising him sherry.
Instead, Brady sexually assaulted the youngster and attempted to slit his throat with a six-inch serrated blade, before strangling him with string. The boy’s body was then dumped on Saddleworth Moor.
A photo Brady took of his lover with her pet dog, standing by the grave, eventually led police to the site two years later.
Keith Bennett, 12, was on his way to his grandmother’s house on June 16, 1964, when Hindley enticed him into her van.
She drove to a lay-by on the moor, where Brady sexually assaulted and strangled Keith.
The evil pair lured Lesley to her death after spotting her at a fairground on Boxing Day 1964. Taking her back to their house, they undressed and gagged her and forced her to pose for photographs.
She was then raped and killed, which the couple recorded.
The following morning, Brady and Hindley buried her naked in a shallow grave on Saddleworth Moor with her clothes at her feet.
It was only when the couple tried to recruit Hindley’s brother-in-law David Smith into their twisted circle that their reign of terror ended.
On October 6, 1965, Brady offered to show Smith a practical demonstration of murder and, after luring Edwards Evans, 17, into their clutches, Brady struck the teenager 14 times with a hatchet before strangling him.
Horrified, Smith called the police, later telling them: “Ian had a hatchet in his hand… I heard the blow, it was a terrible, hard blow.”
Police found Edward’s body in the spare bedroom of the couple’s home, wrapped in plastic sheeting, along with the bloody murder weapon.
A further search found two luggage tickets for Manchester Central station. Police found two suitcases containing pictures of Lesley with a scarf tied around her mouth, and the horrific tape recordings.
A series of snapshots showing random sections of Saddleworth Moor were also discovered, and an exercise book with John Kilbride’s name scribbled in it.
A huge search of the moors began and, on October 16, police found an arm sticking out of the ground, belonging to Lesley Ann.
John Kilbride’s body was found five days later.
On May 6, 1966, Hindley and Brady were found guilty of the murder of Edward and Lesley Ann. Brady was also convicted of murdering John Kilbride, while Hindley was convicted of being an accessory after the fact.
The jurors fell silent as the tape recording of Lesley Ann played.
In his closing remarks, Mr Justice Atkinson condemned the accused as “two sad*stic killers of the utmost depravity”. Brady was sentenced to three concurrent life terms, while Hindley received two concurrent life terms, plus a concurrent seven-year sentence for the Kilbride case.
Prof Wilson says: “At the time this case was pretty unique. It is part of history.”
It was 19 years later that Brady finally confessed to the murders of Pauline Reade and Keith Bennett.
On June 30, 1987, after more than 100 days of searching, Pauline Reade’s body was found. Keith’s remains were never recovered, with Brady refusing to say where they were.
Myra Hindley, who died aged 60 on July 23, 2002, often claimed she had also been a victim, and that her lover “made her do it”.
She once said: “He used to threaten me and rape me and whip me and cane me.”
Ian Brady died aged 79 on May 15, 2017. But those haunting mugshots of the depraved couple will live on forever, along with the horrific memories of their sick crimes.
