Cancer-victim mum in appeal to Brady

A NEW search for Moors Murder victim Keith Bennett could be the last chance for his mother to find where he is buried after she was diagnosed with cancer.

Winnie Johnson (77), from Longsight, has revealed she may have just months to give him a proper burial.

She is about to start radiotherapy after a tumour was found in her womb.

A new search will start on May 9 on an area of roughly a square mile and is expected to last 12 months.

Friends of Winnie have launched a website — www.findingkeith.com — to fund the search which they say is based on information.

Keith Bennett was snatched by lovers Ian Brady and Myra Hindley as he was walking to his grandmother’s house days after his 12th birthday in 1964.

Winnie made a DVD appealing directly to Brady, who remains in Ashworth High Security Hospital, after cancer was found in her womb.

In the appeal, shown on ITV1’s Daybreak, she pleads with Brady to reveal the location of her son’s body, saying this is her “last chance”. She said: “I want to find Keith before anything happens to me because I have got cancer and I do not know when I am gong to die.

“I want Brady to know I have got cancer and, if he has got any respect for himself or me, to tell me where Keith is before anything happens to me.”

Brady and Hindley were jailed for life 1996 for murdering 10-year-old Lesley Ann Downey and Edward Evans (17). Brady was also convicted of murdering 12-year-old John Kilbride.

In the 1980s the pair finally confessed to killing Keith and Pauline Reade (16).

Brady and Hindley were taken back to Saddleworth Moor to help police find the remains of the missing victims but only Pauline’s body was found.

Police abandoned the hunt in 2009 and the investigation is now classed as “dormant”, with only a major scientific breakthrough or significant piece of fresh evidence able to prompt a new search.

Winnie visited the area where the new search is to take place on April 20.

A family friend told the Oldham Chronicle: “We are searching an area where the police haven’t searched and we are very hopeful.

“Because Winnie has got the cancer she hasn’t got long left. This is a real last push to find Keith.”