??/??/?? - Myra Hindley - The benchmark of evil
Jackie Cairns

"After 30 years in prison, I think I have paid my debt to society and atoned for my crimes. I ask people to judge me as I am now, and not as I was then". This is part of a letter written in 1994 by a woman who is believed to be Britain’s longest serving female prisoner.

The abduction, torture and murder of each of their victims brought Hindley and Brady to face trial at Chester Crown Court in 1966. Since the death penalty had been abolished, the two Moors murderers escaped execution and were instead sentenced to life imprisonment.

After 36 years of being detained at Her Majesty’s pleasure, prisoner 964055 died on 15 November at the age of 60. Myra Hindley was born in July 1942 in Gorton, Manchester, and grew up in the care of her grandmother. After leaving school with no academic qualifications, she became engaged at 17 to a young man who worked at the local Co-Op.

But Hindley broke off the engagement, claiming he was “too immature”. Her first encounter with Ian Brady occurred when she obtained a job at Milwards Merchandising. Hindley has since admitted that she became infatuated with Brady, and pursued him vigorously for at least a year before they began a relationship.

The deadly partnership of Hindley and Brady became one of the most evil in criminal history. Between them, they began to lure young boys and girls to the home they shared, or to Saddleworth Moor in Greater Manchester. They sexually abused, tortured and then murdered their helpless victims.

Their downfall finally came when Hindley’s brother-in-law, 17-year-old David Smith, witnessed the killing of their last victim. Smith was lured to the house and watched Brady smash Edward Evans over the head with an axe before finally smothering him with a cushion.

Hindley and Brady carried the body to a bedroom, while the terrified Smith ran away and called police. Since the trial, Hindley and Brady have blamed each other for what really happened, one stating the other was as much a part of their sadistic activities.

Hindley always maintained that she was so afraid of Brady that she went along with everything he suggested, and feared for her own life. She spoke of Brady taking pornographic pictures of her, saying he would expose her naked and bruised body to the world if she divulged their secrets.

But Brady has long countered that Hindley was as involved in the abduction, torture and murder of each victim as himself, and has even written to the Government imploring ministers not to release his accomplice on the basis that she was as much to blame as he.

Myra Hindley, however, never gave up her fight for freedom after she was jailed. While Brady was later sent to Ashworth Security Hospital on Merseyside, and declared insane, Hindley set about trying to have her life tariff decreased by the succession of Home Secretaries presiding over her case.

Following her trial, the judge said: "Though I believe Brady is without hope of redemption, I cannot feel the same is true of Hindley”. Perhaps these words gave her unrealistic hope that she would be freed one day. With her supporters, including peer Lord Longford, she set about challenging the Government.

In 1982, Lord Lane, then Lord Chief Justice, advised that Hindley should serve no less than 25 years. Just three years later, Home Secretary, Sir Leon Brittan, fixed her minimum tariff at 30 years. Brady’s term was set at 40 years, though he had already made it clear he did not want to be released, preferring instead to die.

After stepping up her campaign in 1990, Home Secretary, David Waddington, took the decision that for Hindley, life must mean life. She learned of the decision four years later, when her infamous letter was published, begging people to "judge me as I am now, not as I was then”.

Her full life tariff was confirmed by Home Secretary, Michael Howard, in 1997. His successor, Jack Straw, added his backing for the tariff to stand later that year, and Hindley immediately launched a legal challenge to his right to get involved in judicial decisions.

Jack Straw conceded that he would keep Hindley’s case under review, but few could realistically envisage a time when her release "would not involve any risk to the public”. Myra Hindley's supporters claimed she was the only one, of those who had not killed their victims, to be told they would die in jail.

They argued that, at the time of her trial, Hindley had denied taking part in the murders, which led to crucial mitigating factors about Ian Brady's stranglehold over her not being taken into account. Those who supported her campaign stated she was a reformed character, a devout Catholic who was repentant for what she had done, and now an Open University graduate with a degree in Humanities.

But just before her death at a Suffolk hospital, lawyers were set to challenge the current Home Secretary, David Blunkett, at the House of Lords next month on the right that some prisoners should never be released.

Hindley had pledged to take the matter to Europe if it failed in Britain's supreme court. Hindley was a heavy smoker. In recent years, she suffered from Osteoporosis, Angina and respiratory problems. It is believed she suffered a heart attack in early November, and finally succumbed to a chest infection that ended her twisted life and bitter campaign to be freed.

Detectives who led the investigation into the gruesome twosome described Hindley as being “the benchmark of evil”. They said she and Brady denied everything to the bitter end, and refused to co-operate throughout the whole shocking case.

Although the pair confessed to more killings in 1987, and went with detectives to Saddleworth Moor to unearth more victims, Hindley and Brady will always remain two of the most wicked and sadistic criminals ever to be brought to justice.