Ian Brady's Ashes Must Not Be Scattered On Saddleworth Moor

Solicitor John Ainley, who represented Mrs Johnson and works closely with Keith's brother, Alan, said he had written to Brady less than two months ago and appealed to him to "look at his conscience" and agree to a meeting to aid the search on Saddleworth Moor for missing Keith's body.

Moors Murderer Ian Brady, who tortured and killed five children with his partner Myra Hindley, has died at the age of 79.

Alas, however, he departed this earth with one final insult to the families of those he murdered, and kept the location he buried 12 year old Keith Bennett a closely guarded secret in his sadistic game of cat and mouse, and upon his death essentially gave the family the middle finger by not divulging the information.

Terry Kilbride, 63, said: "It's a lot to take in".

"I would be very surprised if he really had information that was useful", he said.

The Labour peer secretly visited Ashworth Hospital and held a five-hour conversation with Brady in a bid to persuade him to lead police to Keith's body.

He and girlfriend Myra Hindley buried their victims' bodies on Saddleworth Moor, near Manchester in northwestern England.

He said: "It was obvious that the end was fairly close".

Makin said that Brady only talked about his funeral arrangements, but did not bring up a conversation on the whereabouts of little Keith's supposed grave. "We will act on credible and actionable information that will help lead us to him".

"Whilst we are not actively searching Saddleworth Moors, Greater Manchester Police will never close this case".

Keith's mother, Winnie Johnson, had repeatedly pleaded with Brady to say where he disposed of the body before her own death in 2012.

The killings began on 12 July 1963 when Hindley lured Pauline Reade into her auto as the 16-year-old walked to a dance at a railwaymen's club in Manchester.

He died from cancer at Ashworth secure psychiatric unit in Merseysde having always refused to reveal where the remains of the fifth victim, Keith Bennett, were, despite repeated pleas from the boy's family.

Hindley died in prison in 2002 after an unsuccessful legal fight against successive Home Secretaries' decisions that she should remain behind bars for the rest of her life.

John Stalker, former deputy chief constable of Greater Manchester, who was then a detective sergeant, expressed the feelings of many in the courtroom when he said: "Nothing in criminal behaviour before or since has penetrated my heart with quite the same paralysing intensity".

In October 1965 Brady axed to death 17-year-old Edward Evans, a stranger who he had met earlier that evening in a local pub.

He said it was "a right and proper moral judgment to make" as it would be "offensive" if they were.

Police said Tuesday they would keep the case open. Bennett's family continue their search to this day for his body.

Since 1999 Brady had been calling for his right to die. He later admitted to two more murders in the 1980s.

In 2013 Brady asked to be moved to a Scottish prison so he could not be force fed, but his request was rejected.

Brady was not found dead in his room, the spokesman said, but could not confirm if someone was with him when he died, adding: "Probably, I do not know".