New hunt for Moors Murders victim

In scenes hauntingly similar to those that gripped the nation five decades ago, a team of volunteers is picking its way across an area of Saddleworth Moor as part of a privately-funded operation to find the remains of Keith Bennett.

He was snatched by Brady and his accomplice Myra Hindley in 1964 as he was walking to his grandmother's house in Longsight, near Manchester.

His mother, Winnie Johnson, 76, who watched as a search and rescue team from Wales began their work, said she hopes to find her son and bury him.

"That's all I want out of life now because I want him found before I die, and before Brady dies, and that will kill Brady."

Police abandoned their hunt last year and the investigation is now classed as "dormant", with only a major scientific breakthrough or significant piece of fresh evidence able to prompt a new search.

David Jones, who is leading the new hunt, met Mrs Johnson for the first time last week. He said: "I've told her I'm not promising anything and we're just going to do what we can."

New hunt could take years