17 Jun 2013

Ian Brady appears in public for first time in 50 years

Monday witnessed the first public sighting for nearly 50 years of the serial killer Ian Brady, grey haired, wearing dark glasses and a tube running from his nose which is used to force feed him.

Apart from a few words at the start of this mental health tribunal hearing, the notorious moors murderer, now aged 75, said nothing. The single camera which is filming the hearing picked him out occasionally as he made notes sitting alongside his legal team.

There are three large TV screens in front of me. They are my access to this very rare event.

It’s taking place in a room at Ashworth Hospital on Mereseyside where the camera is video linking live to where I am, sitting in a large room on the 10th floor of Manchester justice centre.

‘No degree of mental illness’

For most of the day we heard from the first of three mental health experts Brady is relying on to argue he is not mentally ill, part of his efforts to be transfered from hospital to a Scottish prison where, in his words, he wants be free to end his life in his own way.

Dr Adrian Grounds told the tribunal it is now inconceivable he shows any degree of mental illness that warrants treatment.

“He is now very similar to the way he was described in the 1960s,” he said.

The tribunal was told that the last time Brady was given any medication was back in September 2000 when he was prescribed three doses of anti-psychotic drugs, but he collapsed and blacked out.

‘Difficult to understand’

The submission that will be made on Mr Brady’s behalf is that he no longer fulfils the legal criteria for detention in hospital and should be returned to prison.

“The cost of detaining Mr Brady in hospital is enormous, approximately £300,000 per year, whereas the average cost for a prisoner is approximately £40,000,” his lawyers said.

“The hospital is spending an extraordinary amount of money to keep Mr Brady in hospital both in terms of the actual annual cost and their legal costs in resisting this application.

“It is difficult to understand why there should be such resistance to move him to a less pleasant environment where he is likely to be locked in his cell for large parts of the day, and may well have to be segregated for his own protection.”

The hearing is expected to last up to eight days.