New search for Moors murder victim 'to start next week'

Welsh mountain rescue leader David Jones has played down claims that a fresh search for the body of Moors murder victim Keith Bennett has been planned for next week.

Mr Jones, who has been involved in searches on Saddleworth Moor before, said a fresh hunt would not be done at this time as it is approaching the anniversary of his disappearance.

Keith was snatched by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley on June 16, 1964, before being murdered along with four others and buried somewhere on the Moors above Manchester.

"Nothing is happening I'm afraid. Hopefully we will be going back there but we don't know when," Mr Jones added.

The brother of missing Moors murder victim Keith Bennett has distanced himself from claims a new search for his body is due to begin.

Alan Bennett said reports of a new search of Saddleworth Moor was of "no great importance or relevance".

Mr Bennett, writing on his website, said: "There are reports of a search being conducted on the moor starting on 16th June.

"Neither myself nor anybody connected with me or to me, professionally or otherwise, has anything to do with this.

"I believe it will go the same way as the other unofficial searches of the past and therefore is of no great importance or relevance and is being led by or following people with theories that have no real basis or evidence to back it up."

The team searching for the body of Moors murder victim Keith Bennett feel they are getting "very close" to resolving the case, according to the Daily Mirror.

Welsh mountain rescue leader David Jones, who visited the moor with Keith's mother Winnie Johnson four years ago, said new evidence has reduced the search to an area the size of three football pitches.

Mr Jones told the newspaper: "I am hoping 100% that we can find Keith, but I am aware that it might not be him buried.

"We've identified three specific new areas of the moor and will operate a grid system of search using the equipment and dogs."

A new search for the body of Moors murder victim Keith Bennett will be launched next week, according to the Daily Mirror.

A specialist team will hunt for the remains of the 12-year-old and three other missing children whose bodies were buried by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley in the 1960s on Saddleworth Moor.

New research by a consortium of lawyers, former police officers and a High Court judge investigating the Moors murders will be made public in the coming days with "fresh facts" that they hope will lead to finding the bodies, the newspaper reports.

Keith's mother Winnie Johnson made repeated calls for Brady to reveal the location of her son's grave but died in August 2012 without being able to fulfil her last wish of giving her son a proper burial.

Read: 'Health and safety' prevented Ian Brady's prison transfer