Winnie’s wish to come face-to-face with Brady

WINNIE JOHNSON: “I want to listen to what he has got to say”

The mother of Moors Murder victim Keith Bennett says she hopes to come “face–to–face” with her son’s killer after a judge ruled Ian Brady will have his mental health tribunal held in public.

Judge Robert Atherton has granted permission for the hearing to be held in public but no date has yet been set.

Brady and his partner, Myra Hindley, were responsible for the murders of five youngsters in the 1960s. They lured children and teenagers to their deaths, with victims sexually tortured before being buried on Saddleworth Moor.

Keith Bennett was snatched on June 16, 1964 after he left home to visit his grandmother.

Brady was given life at Chester Assizes in 1966.

Keith’s mother Winnie Johnson has made repeated calls for Brady to reveal the location of his grave.

Mrs Johnson (78) of Longsight, said she wanted to be at Brady’s hearing to see if he would reveal where he had buried her son.

She said: “I would like to go to hear it myself. I want to listen to what he has got to say, if he is going to say anything important.” I have never seen him face- to-face.”

“It would hurt but the point is I want to be there. The only way I can find out is going and facing him,” she added.

Brady has spent the last 25 years at the high–security Ashworth Hospital in Merseyside.

Brady, who was born in Glasgow, wants to be transferred to a Scottish prison and be allowed to die.

The hearing will be a rare chance to see the Moors Murderer in public. It is only the second time that such a hearing has been held in public.

In October, the first psychiatric patient to have an appeal against detention held in public lost his legal battle to be freed from Broadmoor Hospital.