Moors Murderer Brady still wants to die

Moors Murderer Ian Brady has insisted he still wants to die in the wake of losing his bid to be transferred from hospital to prison.

In a statement issued through his solicitors, Brady said "recent events" had not changed his intentions.

Brady also denied recent reports that he had dementia or had shown any signs of the illness.

He went on to stress that he no longer had any dealings with a woman who says she has acted as his mental health advocate.

In January, Jackie Powell told the Daily Mirror she saw signs of dementia in Brady in a face-to-face meeting with him.

Ms Powell was by Brady's side during last June's mental health tribunal which ruled the 76-year-old should remain a patient at maximum-security Ashworth Hospital in Merseyside where he is force-fed.

Brady argued he was not insane and wanted a return to prison and to be allowed to die.

But today Brady said Ms Powell had not visited him at Ashworth since last summer and would not be permitted to see him again.

A statement issued on his behalf by law firm E. Rex Makin & Co said:

Brady, who murdered five children in the 1960s with his lover Myra Hindley, was jailed for life in 1966.

Hindley died in jail in November 2002, aged 60.

Last February the Crown Prosecution Service said Ms Powell would not be charged over claims she failed to tell police about a letter which may have revealed where one of his victims was buried on Saddleworth Moor.

Ms Powell had been arrested on suspicion of preventing the lawful burial of Keith Bennett after she told a television documentary that Brady had given her a sealed envelope to pass to Winnie Johnson, Keith's mother, in the event of his death.

The letter was not found and Mrs Johnson died still not knowing the burial location of her son - the only one of the five young victims whose body has not been found.