‘Let me die plea’ by child-killer Brady

AN artist’s sketch of Ian Brady in his first public appearance in decades

Moors murderer Ian Brady wants to go to prison so he will be free to end his life, a mental health tribunal heard yesterday.

Brady (75) wants to be judged sane so he can be transferred to prison from the maximum security Ashworth Hospital on Merseyside.

The murderer, on hunger strike since 1999 and force–fed through a tube, claims he has faked psychotic episodes in the past.

The hearing, held inside Ashworth and relayed by video to Manchester Civil Justice Centre for journalists and relatives, offered the first public sighting of the child killer in decades.

Wearing a dark jacket, he sat hunched over, elbows leaning on the desk in front of him, between two female members of his legal team. A tube crossed his cheek into his right nostril.

He spoke briefly, in a gravelly, Scottish accent, at the start of the hearing to ask about the procedure of the tribunal, but his words were mostly inaudible.

Expert witness Dr Adrian Grounds, a criminologist, told the hearing Brady claimed he was feigning mental illness, having learned the symptoms while working as a cleaner inside Wormwood Scrubs jail. He said Brady believed he couldn’t be force–fed if moved to prison.

The doctor said evidence of psychosis was equivocal and Brady hadn’t received treatment for such a condition: “He has spoken on a number of occasions about wanting to go to prison so he would be able to die. He has no hope of release and though he would like a better quality of life in future he knows that won’t happen. He thinks in prison he would be more free to end his life in his own way than is possible in hospital.”

Forensic psychiatrist Dr Cameron Boyd, the medical member of the panel, conducted four interviews with Brady in recent months.

“I asked if he wanted to die. He refused to answer that question,” Dr Boyd said. “I asked about previous behaviour that might be seen as abnormal, regarding to his offences.

“He said it was an existential exercise, personal philosophy and interpretation and in some way his behaviour was petty compared to politicians and soldiers in relation to wars.”

The hearing was due to continue today.