Brady slams tribunal verdict in letter to broadcaster
Moors murderer Ian Brady condemns a mental health tribunal’s decision to keep him in a maximum security hospital in a letter to Channel 5 News.
In the 700-word letter, the convicted child killer calls the decision to keep him in hospital “politically motivated”.
Last month Brady, 75, unsuccessfully challenged a 1985 ruling ordering him to be detained under mental health legislation.
He claimed he was not suffering from paranoid schizophrenia and asked to be transferred to an ordinary prison.
But a mental health tribunal ruled he “continues to suffer from a mental disorder” and “it is necessary for his health and safety and for the protection of other persons that he should receive such treatment in hospital”.
Brady wrote to Channel 5 News after reporter Julian Druker attended the tribunal and wrote to the killer at Ashworth Hospital on Merseyside.
The Moors murderer uses the letter to criticise the decision to keep him at Ashworth, the witnesses who gave evidence, and the public money spent on the case.
He writes of “£250,000 wasted by Ashworth medical mediocrities manipulating a politically motivated tribunal… designed to distract public attention from the lack of reasoned argument and pertinent evidence”.
Brady, who has been diagnosed with long-term paranoid schizophrenia, also criticises the health professionals who gave evidence at the tribunal, calling them “rubberstamp witnesses employed to smear, discredit and distract”.
Those listening in the real world would have doubted their senses. Ian Brady
He adds: “Those listening in the real world would have doubted their senses”.
This is not the first time Brady has written to the media following his conviction for the murder of five youngsters, helped by his partner Myra Hindley, in the 1960s.
A letter to local journalist Brendan Pittaway in 1989, in which he claimed to have killed four more people, was published for the first time last month.
Greater Manchester Police said the claims have been thoroughly investigated and found to be “completely unsubstantiated”.
Terry Kilbride, the brother of one of Brady’s victims, John Kilbride, said the latest correspondence “shows how twisted he is”.
Mr Kilbride added: “He wants to be there again – In the public eye, saying: ‘It’s all been a fix’ so he can have an appeal and do it all again and waste another £250,000.”
In the letter to Channel 5 News, Brady also writes about his time with other notorious figures at Wormwood Scrubs prison, including Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe.
He claims: “I had long discussions with IRA and Arab freedom fighters at the Scrubs, and met hundreds of long and short term prisoners, including Sutcliffe. I cooked daily meals for the prisoners on my landing, while Ronnie Kray cooked for those on his.”
Brady apologises for his handwriting in the note, blaming “14 years medical neglect of my cataracts by Ashworth” – a claim denied by the hospital.
The killer continues to refuse to answer questions about the murders, and has never revealed the whereabouts of 12-year-old victim Keith Bennett.
