Moors murderer Brady collapses after hunger strike

Frail moors murderer Ian Brady was in hospital after collapsing in the high-security hospital where he has been on hunger strike for almost three months.

Frail moors murderer Ian Brady was in hospital after collapsing in the high-security hospital where he has been on hunger strike for almost three months.

Brady, 61, who received three life sentences in 1966 for the horrific killings of three children, began refusing food and water on September 30.

A spokeswoman for high-security Ashworth Hospital said: "Ian Brady was admitted to Fazakerley Hospital (Liverpool) at approximately 12.30am today after collapsing in his room.

"He is currently undergoing a range of tests. His condition is not life-threatening.

"He is conscious and talking to staff. He will remain in hospital until the results of the tests are known and decisions taken about what, if any, treatment, is needed."

Last month Brady, who accepts he will never be released, said he would rather die than "rot slowly" in prison.

The infamous child killer said he was not "remotely interested" in living for another 20 or 30 years behind bars.

In a letter to the BBC, Brady also said he was considering taking legal action over the decision to force-feed him.

The Ashworth spokeswoman said: "Ian Brady has not eaten solid food since September 30 when he was transferred from Jade Ward to Lawrence Ward at Ashworth.

"Since October 29 he has been fed a nourishing mixture via a tube following a decision to start re-feeding him."

Brady was transferred to the stricter regime of the Lawrence ward, where some of Britain's most disturbed psychopaths are housed, after the discovery of a metal bucket handle, which could have been fashioned into a crude weapon, taped under a sink in the Jade ward laundry room.

In his letter to the BBC, he said: "I prefer to die healthy rather than rot slowly for their vested interests and expediency."

He said he had spent 35 years in captivity and was destined to die in "some garbage can".

Brady's solicitor, Robin Makin, said at the time: "Certainly he wants the right not to be force-fed and, if he chooses, the right not to eat and then to die.

"He wants the right to starve himself to death, but I cannot say anything more than that about his state of mind."

In May 1966 Brady and his lover Myra Hindley, then 23, were sentenced to life for killing 10-year-old Lesley Ann Downey and 17-year-old Edward Evans.

The evidence seen and heard at Chester Assizes included pictures of the little girl naked, bound and gagged, and a tape recording of her begging for help as she was tortured and sexually assaulted.

Brady was also convicted of murdering 12-year-old John Kilbride.

Lesley Ann and John were buried in unmarked graves on Lancashire's desolate Saddleworth Moor.

The lovers kept a trophy of the killings, with Hindley holding her pet dog and posing for pictures on the edge of John's grave.

Edward Evans was found axed to death at their home at Wardlebrook Avenue in Hattersley, Greater Manchester.

Twenty years later, in 1987, Brady and Hindley confessed to having killed 16-year-old Pauline Reade and Keith Bennett, 12.

Pauline Reade's body was found - still dressed in the pink and gold party dress she was wearing when she left home to go to a social club dance. But Keith Bennett's body remains undiscovered.

The killers' identities were only discovered after Brady involved David Smith, Hindley's brother-in-law, in the death of Edward Evans - and the terrified man contacted police.