Woman who was hated to the grave

AFTER 36 years in jail, Myra Hindley must have been looking forward to the possibility of release, but just weeks before a judicial ruling that could have seen her walk free, a final, and many would say fitting twist, meant the Moors Murderer died behind bars.

Hindley was jailed for life in 1966 with her lover Ian Brady for the sexual abuse, torture and murder of ten-year-old Lesley Ann Downey and 17-year-old Edward Evans. Brady was also convicted of the killing of 12-year-old John Kilbride, and, in 1987, the pair confessed to two more murders.

In prison Hindley claimed she was a reformed character, a devout Roman Catholic who had found God, turned to education and was suffering for her sins. But her part in the murders gave her an infamy which has remained undimmed by her time in jail, fuelled partly by shock that a woman could have carried out such horrific crimes against children. With her helmet of platinum blonde hair and chilling stare, she came to epitomise evil. Every bid to win freedom attracted an avalanche of hostility and even the sight of her portrait hanging in a London gallery triggered violent protests.

But a ruling is expected imminently on an appeal to the House of Lords by double murderer Anthony Anderson, which could have paved the way for Hindley's freedom. Anderson is challenging the Home Secretary's power to fix tariffs for murderers, arguing that the decision should be up to judges, not politicians, in line with recent EU human rights rulings.

In 1990, Hindley was told by then Home Secretary David Waddington that a life sentence meant just that and she would never be released. But, if the ruling goes against the Home Secretary, 225 inmates who have had their tariffs increased by a politician would be able to have them reviewed. Hindley, who had already served more time than originally recommended by the judiciary, could have been freed immediately.

Hindley spent several years in Durham Jail's high security 'She Wing' although she was transferred to Highpoint Prison in Suffolk in 1998 - allegedly to be near the lesbian lover she says she married in 1995.

During her time in Durham, Hindley is reported to have been terrified that fellow inmates would attack her, papering over the spy-hole in her cell door to stop people looking in. She enjoyed some respite when, in 1997, she broke her thigh bone while exercising in the prison gym and spent six months in a private cell in the hospital wing.

It was there that Mark Leech, editor of the Prisons Handbook and the inmates' newspaper ConVerse, spent three hours interviewing her.

He said: "I had been on a TV programme talking about life sentence prisoners and said that, in a small minority of cases, life must mean life, and that Myra Hindley was one of them. She invited me to see her because she wanted me to change my views.

"I came away, not with an alternative opinion, but with an entrenched one. She just spent the three hours that I was there lying on her bed chain-smoking. She struck me as a very emotionless, very cold person - perhaps that's inevitable after 30-odd years in jail - but she was very adept at telling you what she thought you wanted to hear, if she thought it would bring her closer to release.

"I don't believe for a minute that she actually meant what she said. There were no really genuine signs of remorse."

Pauline Read was the first child to suffer the consequences of Brady and Hindley's sadistic and warped minds. The 16-year-old vanished on July 12, 1963, on her way to a disco near her home in Manchester. It was not until 1987 that her body was found in a shallow grave on Saddleworth Moor after Hindley and Brady's prison cell confessions.

John Kilbride vanished four months after Pauline. He was lured up onto the moor, sexually assaulted and murdered. A photograph taken by Brady of Hindley posing on the edge of John's grave holding her pet dog later led police to the young boy's resting place.

The body of the murderers' next victim, 12-year-old Keith Bennett, has never been discovered. He vanished after leaving home on June 16, 1964.

Lesley Ann Downey was murdered on Boxing Day, 1964. The ten-year-old - the pair's youngest victim - was enticed from a fairground to the house Hindley shared with her grandmother in Hattersley. In Hindley's bedroom she was stripped, sexually abused and tortured as they forced her to pose for pornographic photographs, and the harrowing attack was recorded on audio tape by Hindley.

Their fifth victim was Edward Evans, 17, who died in a hail of axe blows. The murder was witnessed by Hindley's brother-in-law David Smith, who tipped off police.

Hindley always claimed that her role in the murders was to abduct the children, and that she did not take part in the killings or sex attacks. She increasingly heaped the blame for the crimes on Brady, claiming she was infatuated with her perverted lover who beat and blackmailed her into going along with his demonic plans.

But attempts by campaigners, led by Lord Longford, to challenge the 'evil Myra mythology' made little headway. The public remained unconvinced of her transformation and the families of her victims vowed to kill her if she were ever set free.

Brady, with whom she severed relations several years into their sentences, also seemed determined to thwart Hindley's bid for freedom. He wrote to ministers in 1997 claiming she was as committed to murder as he was and dismissing suggestions that she was an unwilling accomplice.

Hindley, who attained an honours degree in humanities during her time in prison, insisted she no longer posed a risk to society. In 1994 she published a letter, saying: "After 30 years in prison, I think I have paid my debt to society and atoned for my crimes. I ask people to judge me as I am now, and not as I was then."

And when the then Home Secretary Michael Howard confirmed her life tariff in 1997, she responded: "Nobody but myself can be fully aware of (my crimes') heinousness. What I was involved in is etched into my heart and mind and my conscience will follow me to my dying day."

While Brady has never applied for parole and is resigned to dying in captivity, Hindley never gave up hope of freedom. In recent months, friends were said to have looked for places where she could stay on her release, including a convent in southern England.

It was only a matter of time before Hindley succumbed to ill health. She had angina, high blood pressure and the brittle bone disease osteoporosis. She suffered a suspected stroke in jail at Highpoint Prison, Suffolk and underwent an operation for an aneurysm in her brain - a ballooning artery - in January 2000.

But it is not only the rigours of a prison regime which took their toll. Hindley was warned more than five years ago that her 40-a-day smoking habit could provoke a fatal heart attack at any moment and she had recently been using nicotine patches to try and kick the habit.

Hindley was understood to have given orders to her lawyers before her operation in 2000 that she was not to be kept alive artificially if she lapsed into a coma.

She also ordered that none of her organs should be offered for transplant and detailed that she wanted to be cremated and her ashes scattered at a secret location.

Her last wish is unlikely to be challenged. Any grave or memorial would inevitably become the focus of the hysterical hatred she attracted to the last.