Ian Brady denied legal bid to transfer from hospital to prison

Ian Brady's feeding tube could be seen as he gave evidence. Credit: ITV News/ Priscilla Coleman

Moors murderer Ian Brady has been told he cannot be transferred to prison from the maximum security hospital where he is being held.

ITV New Reporter Damon Green reports:

Brady launched the legal bid to move back to prison telling the mental health tribunal he is not psychotic or insane and should be allowed to serve the rest of his whole life term in prison.

Officials at the high security Ashworth Hospital argued that he is also a paranoid schizophrenic who still shows signs of chronic psychosis.

Ian Brady's feeding tube could be seen as he gave evidence. Credit: ITV News/ Priscilla Coleman

During the hearing Brady spoke in public at length for the first time since he was jailed for life in 1966.

Brady has been at the Ashworth high security hospital since 1985 and has previously claimed that he wants to starve himself to death in jail where he cannot be force-fed, he also claims to currently be on hunger strike, although the tribunal heard that he makes himself toast.

Brady's legal team said he has a severe narcissistic personality disorder but is not mentally ill and could be treated in prison rather than hospital, but the tribunal found otherwise.

The mental health tribunal concluded:

Ashworth Hospital medical director Dr David Fearnley welcomed the decision, saying:

Terry Kilbride, whose brother John was killed by Ian Brady in 1963, said the Moors murderer should remain in hospital and be "kept alive as long as possible" because he knows where victim Keith Bennett is buried.

Moors Murderers Myra Hindley and Ian Brady. Credit: PA

Brady and his partner, Myra Hindley, were convicted of luring children and teenagers to their deaths. Their victims were sexually tortured before being buried on Saddleworth Moor.

Pauline Reade, 16, disappeared on her way to a disco on July 12 1963 and John Kilbride, 12, was snatched in November the same year. Keith Bennett was taken on June 16 1964 after he left home to visit his grandmother; Lesley Ann Downey, 10, was lured away from a funfair on Boxing Day 1964; and Edward Evans, 17, was killed in October 1965.

Brady was given whole life sentences for the murders of John, Lesley Ann and Edward.

Hindley was convicted of killing Lesley Ann and Edward and shielding Brady after John's murder, and jailed for life.

Both later confessed to the murders of Pauline - whose body was found in 1987 - and Keith, whose body has not been discovered.

Hindley died in hospital, still a prisoner, in November 2002 at the age of 60.