Brady to speak in public at tribunal

The paedophile child-killer will give evidence in person on Tuesday to a tribunal sitting at maximum security Ashworth Hospital on Merseyside.

Brady has brought the mental health tribunal, which is being held in public, because he believes he is not mentally ill and wants to be transferred to a prison.

The 75-year-old, who has been on hunger strike since 1999, believes he will be able to starve himself to death in a jail – currently he is assessed as being chronically mentally ill and is fed through a tube in his nose.

Judge Robert Atherton, chairing the three-man panel hearing the tribunal, said today: “We are going to take Mr Brady’s evidence on Tuesday.”

The hearing is being relayed to the press and public on TV screens at Manchester Civil Justice Centre.

Brady was given life at Chester Assizes on May 6 1966, the last time he spoke in a public forum as he denied a series of child murders.

Brady and his partner, Myra Hindley, were convicted of luring children and teenagers to their deaths, with their victims sexually tortured before being buried on Saddleworth Moor between July 12 1963 and October 1965.

Brady was given life for three murders and Hindley for two. She died in hospital, still a prisoner, in November 2002 at the age of 60.

Brady was moved out of the prison system to Ashworth in 1985 as his mental health deteriorated.

The tribunal is sitting to determine whether he can be allowed to return to jail.

Brady’s legal team’s expert told the hearing the patient has a severe narcissistic personality disorder but is not mentally ill. But psychologists called by Ashworth say Brady is a paranoid schizophrenic who should stay at the hospital.

Brady, whose legal costs are funded by the taxpayer, won the right to have his mental health tribunal heard in public – only the second time it has been done.