15/12/96 - Hindley demands
access to lover
By James Hardy Home Affairs Editor
The Telegraph
THE moors murderer, Myra Hindley is pressing
prison chiefs for a move to an open jail so that she can
be closer to her lesbian lover, it emerged last night.
Hindley, who will be told by Michael Howard, the Home
Secretary, in the New Year that she must remain behind
bars for the rest of her life, wants to be moved closer
to the Cornwall home of her "partner" Nina
Wilde.
The Telegraph has learnt that she has written to senior
figures at the Home Office asking for a transfer from
high-security Durham jail to Drake Hall open prison
in Staffordshire. Hindley, 54, is understood to argue
that a move to Drake Hall, one of only three open prisons
for women, will dramatically reduce the travelling faced
by Ms Wilde, a former prison visitor who is now training
to be a contemplative nun.
The two women struck up a relationship at Cookham Wood
prison in Kent that led to a ban on visits by Dutch-born
Ms Wilde and the move to Durham for Hindley.
The request is almost certain to be refused by Mr Howard,
who has already rejected a Parole Board recommendation
that Hindley should be moved to easier jail conditions.
A move to an open prison, where inmates are detained
on trust in establishments with no perimeter fences,
would cause a public outcry and could also place Hindley
at risk of attack.
Andrew McCooey, who acted as her solicitor for seven
years, said: "They would never put her in open
conditions for her own safety."
The legal team representing Hindley is now bracing
itself for the formal announcement that she will never
be released, following a review by Mr Howard of the
1990 decision to over-ride the original 30-year sentence.
Her lawyers are preparing to apply for a judicial review
of the decision on the grounds that after 30 years in
jail, Hindley is being treated as a political prisoner.
Mr McCooey, who remains in touch with the case, said:
"She jumped through every hoop needed for parole
and it now seems the Home Secretary is operating a policy
based on the idea that the release of this prisoner
would undermine confidence in law and order. The prisoner
is no longer relevant, it is what she symbolises that
matters."
Prison chiefs are believed to have considered moving
Hindley and multiple-killer Rosemary West, who is also
likely to remain in jail for life, to a refurbished
five-cell unit at Woodhill prison, near Milton Keynes,
which was formerly used by supergrasses.
Judge Stephen Tumin, the former Chief Inspector of Prisons,
has argued that prisoners facing a life behind bars should
enjoy special privileges not accorded to others working
towards known release dates.
Last month Hindley won the "reluctant" backing
of the Press Complaints Commission over a complaint
about a newspaper article that alleged she had formed
a "macabre" friendship with West, also an
inmate at H wing of Durham. The Daily Mail is appealing
against the commission's ruling.
Hindley and her lover, Ian Brady, were jailed in 1966
for the murders of Lesley Ann Downey, 10, and Edward Evans,
17. They later confessed to the killings of Pauline Reade,
16, and Keith Bennett, 12. |
