'How I escaped the clutches of Moors Murderer Ian Brady and Myra Hindley'

A man who escaped the clutches of Moors Murderer Ian Brady and his partner Myra Hindley when he was a child has described the dramatic moment he fled their house in Manchester.

Tommy Rhattigan was taken in by the pair when he was seven years old before climbing out of a window to safety.

Mr Rhattigan told ITV's Good Morning Britain how Hindley shouted and grabbed him by the foot as he fled, but he was able to break free and run away.

Brady died aged 79 at a high security psychiatric hospital in Merseyside on Monday.

Along with Hindley, who died in prison in 2002 at the age of 60, he tortured and murdered five children.

Mr Rhattigan said he believes he was "set up to be one of the victims" when the pair approached him as he waited for his brothers in a Manchester park in 1963.

He told how Hindley spoke to him, while Brady hung back, and invited him to their home.

"After a brief conversation she asked me if I wanted to come home for a jam butty and, of course, straight away I'm up for that," he told GMB.

Once at the house, Mr Rhattigan said things didn't feel right to him and when he heard Brady raise his voice in "anger" in the kitchen after the youngster had asked for a glass of water, he decided it was time to leave through a window next to him.

He said: "I've lifted the sash window and it's stuck. And then I've really lifted it and made quite a lot of noise when the weights come down and I've got out the window.

"I heard her shout. She actually grabbed hold of my foot. I can remember her grabbing my foot, but my momentum had already taken me out.

"I was out, I was on the wall and I was gone into the night."

Mr Rhattigan said it was not until the 1966 trial that he realised who Brady was.

He later wrote to the killer in prison, describing their encounter and asking him to reveal the location of the remains of 12-year-old Keith Bennett, whose body has never been found.

Brady wrote back to him, but denied they had ever met, adding that people who had met him and Hindley were surprised that they were "quite ordinary and not dripping blood".

Mr Rhattigan said he was stunned to learn of Brady's death but that he felt for the families who were still suffering the effects of his actions.