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*Moors murder victim Keith Bennett's mother died after
nearly 50 years of fruitless searching for her son's
body
*Brother vows to continue hunt for body and warns
police: This is not closure
*Bennett family say police should have acted sooner on
information suggesting killer Ian Brady might have
revealed where he left the body in 1964
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Tragic: Winnie Johnson, the mother of moors
murder victim Keith Bennett, has died |
The mother of Moors Murders victim Keith Bennett said on her
deathbed if she ever saw Ian Brady again she would 'stab
him from top to bottom'.
In her last ever interview before her death yesterday, brave Winnie
Johnson said she believed Brady's 'final sick twist'
would be to never reveal where her son was buried.
'I don't know now if Brady will ever tell me where my Keith is
buried.' she said.
'He could take it to the grave with him. I suppose that would be
his final sick twist.'
'Or he could give me hope like he has done before and then nothing
would come of it.' she told The Sun.
Details of her trauma were revealed as Keith family last night
slammed the police for dragging their heels in the hunt
for his body – after nearly 50 years of fruitless
searching.
A spokesman for the Bennett family demanded to know why police had
not acted sooner on potentially vital information
suggesting that killer Ian Brady might have written a
letter finally revealing where he had left Keith’s body
in 1964.
‘The fact there seems to be such a delay from the time when police
were made aware of the possible existence of this
letter, to when they actually acted, will be a cause for
concern for the family,’ the spokesman said. ‘Questions
certainly need to be asked – answers will be expected.’
Mrs Johnson, who was 78, spent much of her life pleading in vain
for Brady and his accomplice Myra Hindley, who died in
2002, to help her find Keith’s body so that she could
give him a Christian burial.
Twelve-year-old Keith was lured into the couple’s car while walking
to his grandmother’s house in Manchester in June 1964
and was the third of their five known victims. Brady
told Hindley he had strangled the boy with a piece of
string.
The latest twist began last month when Brady’s legal advocate and
frequent visitor Jackie Powell was interviewed for a
Channel 4 documentary entitled Endgames Of A Psychopath,
to be screened tomorrow.
On camera, Ms Powell, 49, said Brady had given her a sealed
envelope to be opened only after his death, which would
‘allow Winnie Johnson to find peace’. Powell speculated
that the contents might reveal the location of Keith’s
body on Saddleworth Moor, which overlooks Oldham.
The documentary producer, Paddy Wivell, waited ten days before
passing the information on to police, who then took more
than two weeks to act on it and arrest Ms Powell.
Channel 4 sources said producers had urged Ms Powell to
hand her letter over to the police, but she went ‘off
radar’ for a few days.
When she made contact again, she told them she had returned the
letter to 74-year-old Brady at Ashworth psychiatric
hospital in Merseyside.
The first publicity packs for the programme went to newspaper
journalists early last week and previews of the
programme were also shown to TV reviewers.
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Killer: Moors murderers Ian Brady and Myra
Hindley went on a killing spree but the
location of one of their victims, Keith
Bennett, right, has never been found |
Despite two weeks in which little action seemed to have been taken,
within hours of journalists being made aware of Ms
Powell’s claims, police sought an arrest and search
warrant and raided her South Wales home.
The Bennett family spokesman said: ‘Did detectives treat this as a
serious matter? If Brady has written a confession letter
of some sort then that could be a vital piece of
evidence which should have been considered immediately.
There seems to have been liaison between producers from
Channel 4 and the police. If detectives had such
information why didn’t they act on it?
‘It sounds as though they were spurred on by the media interest.
‘If this is found to be the case, the family would be deeply upset
and disappointed.’
As the family promised to continue Mrs Johnson’s quest for the
truth, her other son Alan criticised Greater Manchester
Police for the way they have conducted the long-running
search for his brother.
In an open letter to police on his website, Mr Bennett hit out at
claims by Martin Bottomley, head of the cold case team
at GMP that new evidence had been taken seriously.
He claimed police ignored evidence from two ‘extremely credible’
witnesses over the past few months, one of them David
Smith, the chief prosecution witness at the original
trial.
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Winnie Johnson never stopped her fight to
find her son's body and hold a proper
funeral for him before she died. Right,
digging with her son Joey, on Saddleworth
Moor near Manchester years ago |
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Determined: Mrs Johnson, pictured in 2010,
made several thousand trips to the Moors in
search of her son |
Mr Bennett said: ‘At the time of the original search in the 1960s
and again in the 1980s, detectives wanted to know
anything that David could remember from his visits to
the moor with Brady and Hindley.
‘Yet he was never taken to the area where Keith was murdered nor
interviewed in the correct manner, despite wanting to
help in any way he could.’
Mr Bennett said that when he and his partner sent Mr Smith
photographs and a video of a particular area, he was
able to instantly recall significant landmarks and the
area very clearly.
‘Furthermore, he had a great deal to say about Brady’s unusual
behaviour there – which mirrored Brady’s behaviour where
the other victims were subsequently found. All this has
since been made available to the police but they failed
to take it seriously.
‘David passed away in May of this year but he had been prepared
until the very end to speak to them.
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Murderous couple: Ian Brady and Myra Hindley.
Jackie Powell's house in South Wales (right)
was searched by police looking for the
letter she claimed was given to her by Brady |
‘The other credible witness supplied us with information that
tallied perfectly with what David had told us and also
with Brady and Hindley’s own statements in letters to
me.’
Mr Bennett added: ‘The information remains with the police. I
cannot and will not ever be able to understand their
apathy towards all that has been presented to them.
‘Greater Manchester Police have said my mother is now reunited with
Keith but the fact remains that as long as Keith remains
on the moor her wish that he should be given a proper
burial remains unfullfilled.
‘As far as I am concerned, until Keith is found, then he is still
in the possession of Brady and Hindley.’
‘Our fear as a family is that now my mother is no longer with us,
this may be seen by the police and the media as some
sort of closure to the case.
‘This must not be allowed to happen, both out of respect for Keith
and my mother’s memory and for those of us who loved
them both.’
Today, he said that he will remain 'in the possession' of Brady and
Myra Hindley until his body is found.
Writing on his website, www.searchingforkeith.com, Mr Bennett, who
was nine when his brother was taken off the street by
Brady and the late Hindley, said: 'As far as I am
concerned, until Keith is found then he is still in the
possession of Brady and Hindley.
'Our fear as a family is that now my mother is no longer with us,
this may be seen by the police and the media as some
sort of closure to the case.
'This must not be allowed to happen both out of respect for Keith
and my mother's memory and for those of us who loved
them both.'
David Smith was 17 when he brought an end to the Moors Murderers’
spree by calling police after he saw Brady batter Edward
Evans to death with an axe in October 1965.
No one from Greater Manchester Police was available to respond to
Mr Bennett’s claims yesterday. |
