New bid for search for Moors victim

AN Oldham lawyer is to meet a police cold-case team today in a bid to reopen files on one of the country’s most baffling murder mysteries.

John Ainley will talk to officers with Alan Bennett - brother of 12-year-old moors murders victim Keith Bennett, who was murdered by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley 50 years ago and whose body has never been found.

Last week Mr Bennett, who has spent a lifetime searching for his sbrother’s body, said in a TV interview he had new information about Keith’s location.

He says he spoke to David Smith, chief witness for the prosecution at the murder trial, before he died in 2012, aged 64. Mr Bennett claims to have received new evidence from Mr Smith - Hindley’s brother-in-law. A tape records Smith recalling how Brady would sit staring at a specific area of Saddleworth Moor. Police say the tape revealed nothing new.

Mr Bennett now wants access to police case notes so he can conduct his own review. With Mr Ainley’s assistance, Alan is hoping police will consider a fresh search on the moor.

Mr Ainley, senior partner at North, Ainley Halliwell, represented Keith’s mother, Winnie Johnson, for many years until her death two years ago.

Speaking exclusively to the Chronicle, he said: “I am hoping our meeting with the cold case unit could lead to a review of the information we have.”