Moors Murderer Ian Brady challenged to find child's body
BBC News, Manchester, June 26, 2008
Moors murderer Ian Brady has been challenged by a lawyer to help police find the body of Keith Bennett.
Brady, who is at Ashworth High Security Hospital, promised Liverpool solicitor David Kirwan he would direct the police to the remains on Saddleworth Moor.
He has since broken off all contact with Mr Kirwan, who is acting for Keith's mother, Winnie Johnson, in a bid to find her son's body.
Mr Kirwan has now told Brady to "put up or shut up" over his claims.
"It is he and he alone who has the ability to bring to an end the appalling ordeal of Keith's mother, Winnie Johnson, which has now lasted 44 years," he said.
"I am today challenging Brady to 'put up or shut up'. In my view, there are two possibilities. Either he knows where the body is buried or he is simply playing everyone along to get a day out on the Moors."
Keith Bennett was 12 when he vanished on the way to his grandmother's house in Manchester in 1964.
Brady, now aged 70, was convicted in 1966 along with his former lover Myra Hindley of murdering 10-year-old Lesley Ann Downey, Edward Evans, 17, and 12-year-old John Kilbride.
He was transferred to Ashworth in 1985 and, two years later, finally confessed to murdering Pauline Reade, 16, and Keith Bennett, 12.
They were taken separately to the moors to try to find the bodies.
Eventually, the police managed to locate the remains of Pauline Reade, but despite many weeks of digging, they were unable to find the body of Keith Bennett.
Brady has maintained that he is willing to return to the Moors as long as the search is overseen by West Yorkshire Police rather than the Greater Manchester force which accompanied him during the last search in 1987.
Mr Kirwan added: "Winnie Johnson cannot rest until she is reunited with her precious son's body. Her worst nightmare is that she will go to her own grave not having been able to give Keith a proper burial."
