tag:theconversation.com,2011:/uk/topics/ian-brady-6036/articlesIan Brady – The Conversation2017-10-17T13:30:40Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/857802017-10-17T13:30:40Z2017-10-17T13:30:40ZWhat the debate about Ian Brady’s body tells us about rights after death<p>The High Court has <a href="https://www.judiciary.gov.uk/judgments/oldham-metropolitan-borough-council-ors-v-robin-makin-ors/">ruled</a> that the body of Moors murderer Ian Brady should not be disposed of in the way that he was said to have wanted. This is the latest legal battle to have punctuated the life, and death, of Brady, who tortured and murdered five children between 1963 and 1965.</p>
<p>Brady died in a secure hospital in May not far from where he committed his crimes. He left a will naming his solicitor Robin Makin as his executor. Since then Brady’s body has remained refrigerated. The local authorities, Oldham and Tameside councils, requested assurances from Makin that Brady’s ashes would not be scattered in those areas. Given the proximity to the site of Brady’s crimes, this would have been deeply offensive to the victim’s families and the wider public. Sefton, where the hospital is located, also asked for details of Makin’s plans.</p>
<p>Media outlets suggested that Brady wanted his ashes scattered in his childhood town, Glasgow. But the local council there, and private crematoria in the area, <a href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/3598351/glasgow-will-block-ian-bradys-ashes/">said they would also refuse</a>. It was also <a href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/3605573/ian-brady-demands-to-be-cremated-to-symphony-charting-his-decent-into-hell-then-have-his-ashes-dumped-in-glasgows-river-clyde/">reported</a> that Brady requested that Hector Berlioz’s haunting composition, Symphonie Fantastique, be played during the cremation – a request declined by the judge, who said: “It was not suggested by Mr Makin that the deceased had requested any other music to be played or any other ceremony to be performed and, in those circumstances, I propose to direct that there be no music and no ceremony.”</p>
<p>Makin hasn’t disclosed his plans for Brady’s body, although he <a href="http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/mystery-ian-brady-inquest-called-13048773">told the coroner’s officer</a> that there was “no likelihood” of the ashes being scattered on Saddleworth Moor, where Brady buried his victims. Makin argued that the persistent demands for detailed assurances had prevented him from disposing of the body.</p>
<h2>The living trump the dead</h2>
<p>It’s easy to understand why Oldham and Tameside were keen to ensure that Brady, in any form, did not touch their ground. Brady’s body is contaminated by his crimes. Brady the person and Brady the body, or indeed ashes, are considered inseparable.</p>
<p>This was especially important as one of the victims, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-19294017">Keith Bennett</a>, has never been found. Indeed, in an unusual turn, the coroner, Christopher Sumner, himself sought similar assurances from Makin at the inquest into Brady’s death.</p>
<p>What many may not realise is that our wishes for the disposal of our bodies have moral, but very little legal, strength. The law simply assigns the duty to ensure that a body is lawfully and decently disposed of. We cannot bind the living to do it a particular way, in a certain place or with certain music. As <a href="https://muireannquigley.com/">Muireann Quigley</a> and I <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/lest.12117/abstract">have demonstrated</a>, the legal test is a circular one – a disposal is generally lawful if it is decent, and decent if it is lawful.</p>
<p>While it may be the norm for these decisions to fall to an executor, the courts can invoke <a href="http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1981/54/section/116">s116 of the Senior Courts Act 1981</a> to appoint an alternative administrator where “special circumstances” demand this. In Brady’s case, <a href="https://www.judiciary.gov.uk/publications/the-chancellor-of-the-high-court-the-rt-hon-sir-geoffrey-vos/">Geoffrey Voss</a> the judge said these circumstances included that Brady was “uniquely evil” and the concern that there would be significant public opposition if a ceremony were allowed to go ahead. Given that the parties involved couldn’t agree on the particulars, the court assumed the duty to dispose of Brady’s remains instead of allowing his solicitor to remain in charge. </p>
<p>The court also decided that it has jurisdiction to determine the details of the disposal. Voss said: “The deceased’s wishes are relevant, but they do not outweigh the need to avoid justified public indignation and actual unrest.”</p>
<p>Makin’s representative argued that this was an effort to covertly reintroduce the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_Act_1751">old practice</a> of demanding that the bodies of executed convicts were buried in prison grounds. While there seems to be little mileage in this submission, it could be argued that refusing to give effect to the antemortem wishes of the dead could be used as a form of posthumous punishment.</p>
<p>Not too long ago, <a href="http://staffblogs.le.ac.uk/crimcorpse/2016/05/03/bloody-business-bloody-code/">gibbeting and public dissection</a> were mandated after the execution of convicted murderers. Given the strength of the religious doctrine that bodies be buried whole, this was intended to be both additional punishment and deterrence. Sentences involving <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/14/mother-of-saudi-man-sentenced-to-crucifixion-begs-obama-to-intervene">post-execution humiliation</a> still endure elsewhere. No doubt many would argue that Brady deserved for his body to be treated with contempt.</p>
<p>It has not been suggested that Brady’s body be anything other than lawfully and decently disposed of. Yet what happens to Brady’s body is hugely symbolic. When, like Brady, someone does things in life that so profoundly impact upon the wider public, it is to be expected that after death, the needs and views of the living will trump all. So, there will be no music. Nor will there be a ceremony. And the courts have intervened to ensure that Brady, in death, can do no further harm.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/85780/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Imogen Jones does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The High Court ruled that Brady won’t be buried in the way he wanted because of his crimes in life.Imogen Jones, Associate Professor in Law, University of LeedsLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/778032017-05-17T12:12:27Z2017-05-17T12:12:27ZThe science of finding buried bodies<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169750/original/file-20170517-24725-1n168qw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Saddleworth moor, where the victims of the Moors Murders were buried.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/staceycav/9387252510/in/photolist-fiw88d-figTdt-RvGfjA-QRqiLZ-RRQfum-RRQe1E-carW3G-jPvgVt-fiw8p1-mwPBFt-figUhP-cVDhtL-pb9dh2-7Ffpmg-oTH3Ev-5C286Y-5BWMF2-4gtzSU-5WJs2T-5C27p1-e73VG-4gtz4L-bL7jqk-5WsB21-Q1ZQzF-8ikS3i-aw7ifj-aw4Chn-e73VK-8ikS38-4gpyKR-oRFajE-aiWKCD-5WyDnQ-4gtBjj-aw4CPT-aw7hTs-EASdAX-EASJrt-aw7jnQ-7UNpRb-4gtGcs-dEhjA-4gtE7y-q81iS1-qBHTW-5UpoUG-aiZxrY-aCkYxT-HdZg4">blogsession.co.uk/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Ian Brady, who tortured and killed five children in the UK in the 1960s with his accomplice Myra Hindley, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/may/15/ian-brady-the-moors-murderer-dies-aged-79">died in prison on May 15</a>. Jailed in 1966, Brady buried four of his victims in shallow graves on Saddleworth Moor outside Manchester – and the remains have since been found. Sadly, the body of one his victims, Keith Bennett, however, is still missing.</p>
<p>Brady’s death has left Bennett’s family feeling like the final chance to find his remains <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-39933184">has been lost</a>. The police, however, insist that the search will go on. But how do you go about finding a lost body after so many years?</p>
<p>UK Home Office statistics show that <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/missing-children-and-adults-strategy">around 2,000</a> of the 200,000 people who are reported missing each year are still not found after 12 months. Some want to start a new life, but an unknown number become victims of crime. Some are murdered. Most of these cases are solved fairly rapidly, but some – so-called cold cases – are harder to crack.</p>
<p>Luckily, science can help. In many homicide cases, bodies end up getting buried in the ground. There are various scientific methods that can help locate such victims, with one of the most important being to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geomorph.2013.12.020">identify variations in the surface</a>, such as depressions or small hills, which could indicate that a body has been buried underneath. Search teams can also use specialist “cadaver dogs” to sniff for remains or geophysical methods to scan identified areas. The latter include ground penetrating radar, which uses radar pulses to image the subsurface.</p>
<p>We recently <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2012.05.006">published a review</a> which set out best practice when it comes to finding bodies on land. We discovered that a phased approach usually yields the best results. This involves starting with analysis of large-scale satellite data to locate potential burial areas – for example where soil has been recently disturbed. You then proceed with initial site investigations, looking at suspect areas to find out the soil type and other environmental data. The last stage involves carrying out focused site searches and digging.</p>
<h2>Control studies with animal and human bodies</h2>
<p>But despite this knowledge, the current detection rate of cold cases is low – perhaps only one in 100 cases are successful. As each case is unique, control studies using purpose-built clandestine graves are helping us further work out which detection techniques work best in which cases. In the UK, we currently use pigs as human analogues, although the US, Australia and, since January, the Netherlands, <a href="https://theconversation.com/coming-to-a-field-near-you-the-body-farms-where-human-remains-decompose-in-the-name-of-science-50561">use donated human cadavers</a>. </p>
<p>The approach needed will change as a body decomposes (see figure below) – with the local soil type, burial style and the types of rock in the ground also being important variables. A 50-year-old body buried in a shallow grave in the moors may be relatively intact in wet peatland, whereas a recently buried body in dry sand will rapidly decay. </p>
<p>Ground penetrating radar is best to locate bodies that have been wrapped in something (wrapping provides a good reflective surface). In other cases, where the body is still decomposing, fluids such as blood from the cadaver can be detected by machines that measure electrical resistivity – how strongly a material opposes the flow of an electric current. In a recent study, we showed that conductivity in grave soil water rapidly increases up to two years after burial – data which we can use to <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1556-4029.12802">estimate the time since death</a>. </p>
<p>Control studies can only go as far back in time as experiments last, so researchers have also been looking at real graves that are much older to assist with more ancient missing persons cases. </p>
<p>Graveyards and cemeteries are an obvious choice for this. These can be geophysically surveyed, most commonly with ground penetrating radar and electrical resistivity to look for bodies buried without a grave stone. These can be exhumed, both for research purposes and to confirm the identity of the remains. We did this recently when <a href="http://www.fsijournal.org/article/S0379-0738(14)00033-4/fulltext">new church community halls were being built on old graveyards</a>. Exhumation regulations differ across the world, but in the UK you are allowed to do this if burials are over 100 years old.</p>
<p>An issue with this, however, is that graveyard burials are in coffins, often along with preservatives. Few accidental burials or homicide graves use coffins or chemicals. Nonetheless, ongoing geophysical research of graveyard burials is extending our knowledge of how long bodies are detectable for. This can certainly feed into cold case searches. </p>
<p>This kind of research has also improved our understanding of how well different survey methods work in different environments. For example, electrical resistivity surveys tend to work best in clay-rich soils whereas radar is best in sandy soils. We’ve also learned that gravestones are often not exactly in the correct position, and that graves containing many bodies <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.forsciint.2014.01.009">are often not vertically aligned</a>. This may occur due to coffins subsiding in soft ground, or in more extreme examples, due to “coffin slip”, where in inclined ground, burials move down the slope over time. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169752/original/file-20170517-9937-191uxcc.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169752/original/file-20170517-9937-191uxcc.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169752/original/file-20170517-9937-191uxcc.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169752/original/file-20170517-9937-191uxcc.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169752/original/file-20170517-9937-191uxcc.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169752/original/file-20170517-9937-191uxcc.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169752/original/file-20170517-9937-191uxcc.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Search for a missing person in woodland in the Midlands with a magnetic gradiometer.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Clearly more research needs to be done to improve detection rates of cold cases. In fact, the key is to combine collaborative academic control studies with input from search practitioners and experts. Advances in technology – such as <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.forsciint.2013.12.036">drones</a> that can help locate surveys in real time and more sensitive geophysical devices – are also allowing us to integrate both simple observations and advanced geophysical searches into one system. </p>
<p>There’s certainly good reason to believe that Bennett was also buried somewhere on the moor. Initial searches, mainly using police manpower and volunteers looking for physical signs of ground disturbance, were unsuccessful. Many other methods have since been used, including specialist search dogs and metal detectors (should there be metal in Keith’s clothing). Soil sampling and other tests have also been used to look for decomposition of fluids, but it is probably too late for this now. Ground penetrating radar has also been used to search for a skeleton.</p>
<p>However, these methods are time consuming and only a relatively small area can be surveyed each time. But, as long we continue looking – and use the latest technology and research to inform the search – there is every chance that we could one day find Bennett’s body.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/77803/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jamie Pringle receives funding from the HLF, the Nuffield Foundation, Royal Society, NERC, EPSRC and EU Horizon2020. He is affiliated with the Geological Society of London. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alastair Ruffell receives funding from ERC, EPSRC.</span></em></p>50 years after the Moors Murders, UK police are still hoping to find a missing body. And scientists are working hard to help.Jamie Pringle, Senior Lecturer in Engineering & Environmental Geosciences, Keele UniversityAlastair Ruffell, Research associate in Geoforensics, Queen's University BelfastLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/778092017-05-16T13:54:30Z2017-05-16T13:54:30ZIan Brady’s lack of remorse for Moors Murders guaranteed the media’s enduring fascination<p>The death of Ian Brady – the Moors Murderer – who with his partner Myra Hindley abducted, sexually violated and murdered five children, Pauline Reade, John Kilbride, Keith Bennett, Lesley Anne Downey and Edward Evans in the 1960s, in and around Manchester, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-39929538">has died</a> at the age of 79. </p>
<p>Brady and Hindley were arrested in 1965 after her brother-in-law David Smith phoned the police, having witnessed the murder of Evans at their home in Wardle Brook Avenue, Hattersley. They had also taped the sexual torture of ten-year-old Lesley Anne Downey at this house. In 1987, Manchester Council having unsuccessfully tried to let the property, demolished it.</p>
<p>After their arrests both spent the rest of their lives in custody. The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Moors_Murderers.jpg">pictures of them</a> taken at the time of their arrest were reproduced on a large scale. A picture of Hindley, with her dyed blonde hair that was part of a tribute to Brady’s obsession with Nazi atrocities, became an iconic image <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2008/aug/26/art.olympics2012">that still had the power to shock</a> some 30 years after the murders. The case has long been a stable feature of the British news media.</p>
<h2>Battling the system</h2>
<p>Following his conviction at Chester Assizes in 1966, Brady was sentenced to life in imprisonment on May 6, 1966. As part of <a href="https://e-space.mmu.ac.uk/605007/2/bradypaper%20(3).pdf">our research</a>, we have examined TV and news reports of the trial as well as subsequent media coverage of the crimes. In this work, we found no evidence that Brady or Hindley’s mental health was an issue at the time of the <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Moors_Murders.html?id=vi8-NQAACAAJ&redir_esc=y">trial itself</a>. No defence of diminished responsibility was put before the court. Brady was examined by psychiatrists following his conviction and there was no diagnosis of mental illness. We found no evidence that Hindley – who died in 2002 – was ever considered for transfer to a forensic mental health institution during the time that she was in prison. </p>
<p>Given the nature of his crimes, there was the constant possibility that Brady would be violently assaulted by other prisoners. As a result, he spent long periods in isolation for his own protection and was moved from one maximum security prison to another. Brady spent 20 years in prison before being transferred to Ashworth Special Hospital in 1985 under the Mental Health Act. There were concerns about his mental health then as he was experiencing auditory hallunicantions and had become emaciated. </p>
<p>Brady went on <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/bradys-hunger-strike-is-longest-in-penal-history-138735.html">hunger strike in 1999</a> as a protest against his treatment at Ashworth. He remained on hunger strike until his death, but he was being force fed – something the authorities are allowed to do with people detained under the Mental Health Act. He also had the right to appeal to a tribunal and did so on the grounds that he was not mentally ill and he should be allowed to return to prison to die. </p>
<p>A Mental Health Review Tribunal took place in Manchester in 2013. Such hearings usually take place in private due to the sensitive and personal information about the patient’s mental health and treatment that is discussed. Only <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/broadmoor-patient-albert-haines-loses-appeal-bid-2376176.html">one previous</a> tribunal had been held in public. Brady’s lawyers argued in a lengthy case that his tribunal should also be public, and won. </p>
<p>Brady appeared via a television link from Ashworth and members of the public were able to queue for tickets to attend the hearings. <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/10125981/Ian-Brady-wants-right-to-die-in-Scottish-jail.html">A report</a> in the Daily Telegraph captured best the way Brady’s evidence became a theatrical event: “The camera relaying the hearing to the public and media panned round and there he was, only too real in his dark glasses, grey hair swept back fully recognisable as that youthful serial killer of another age.” </p>
<p>Much of the reporting at the time gave the clear impression that the tribunal might provide a final opportunity for Brady to reveal the whereabouts of 12-year-old Keith Bennett’s body. Brady had always refused to do this. The hearing was, rather, one final attempt by Brady to obtain a victory over the authorities. In the end, the tribunal ruled that he still met the criteria for detention under the Mental Health Act and should not be transferred back to the prison system.</p>
<h2>Struggle to comprehend</h2>
<p>Brady made no real attempt to explain his actions and never showed any remorse. He never sought to be released and refused to cooperate with any form of treatment programme. </p>
<p>In his evidence at the 2013 tribunal, Brady <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/05/16/ian-brady-words-petty-criminal-compared-tony-blair/">described himself</a> as a “petty criminal” in comparison to “global serial killers and thieves like Blair or Bush”.</p>
<p>Despite the intervening 50 years and thousands of words written about the case, the murders are still conceptualised as pure evil – <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Beyond_Belief.html?id=D_beQgAACAAJ&source=kp_cover&redir_esc=y">beyond belief</a>, to quote the title of Emlyn Williams’ book on the topic. Modern day serial killer dramas such as <a href="http://www.cbs.com/shows/criminal_minds/">Criminal Minds</a> place profiling and explanations of the hows, whys and motivation of serial killers at the centre of the drama. This offers a logical explanation for events and provide closure for the audience. </p>
<p>There is no explanation or closure in the case of the Moors Murders. Greater Manchester Police <a href="http://www.itv.com/news/granada/2017-05-16/greater-manchester-police-we-will-never-close-the-moors-murders-case/">confirmed</a> that the case would remain open after Brady’s death as the body of Bennett is still missing. </p>
<p>Brady never showed any remorse for his crimes. Winnie Johnson, Bennett’s mother, spent the rest of her life attempting to find her son’s body. She wrote to Brady asking him for information. At various times, Brady hinted that he would reveal the whereabouts of his missing victim, using this information as a pawn in his power struggles with authorities. Police were reportedly trying to find out this information <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/05/16/did-ian-brady-leave-letter-opened-deathrevealing-keith-bennett/">right up to the end</a>.</p>
<p>Such an act might have indicated that even Brady was capable of some final contrition. But this turned out to be a forlorn hope. So we are left struggling to comprehend how someone could commit such acts and this is reflected in the media responses to his death. The monstrous and evil imagery takes centre stage and emphasises the way in which this case remains a <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-moors-murders-50-years-on-how-brady-and-hindley-became-an-awful-celebrity-template-58665">template</a> for the reporting of serial killing</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/77809/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Martin King is affiliated with the Labour Party.. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ian Cummins does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The serial killer Ian Brady has died at the age of 79.Ian Cummins, Senior Lecturer in Social Work, University of SalfordMartin King, Principal Lecturer, Social Care and Social Work, Manchester Metropolitan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/586652016-05-05T10:34:06Z2016-05-05T10:34:06ZThe Moors murders 50 years on: how Brady and Hindley became an awful ‘celebrity’ template<p>Manchester is the world’s first modern industrial city. It has reinvented itself as a financial, media and creative centre and recently was <a href="https://www.lonelyplanet.com/best-in-travel/cities">included</a> by Lonely Planet in its list of the top 10 cities in the world to visit. But 50 years ago, Manchester was the focus of the world’s media for rather different reasons as Ian Brady and Myra Hindley – who subsequently became known as the Moors murderers – were <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/6/newsid_2512000/2512119.stm">sentenced to life imprisonment</a> on May 6, 1966. </p>
<p>The case has become a tragic template for the way that the media responds to such awful crimes – including giving the killers a nickname. The Moors murderers have been an almost constant feature of the news cycle since their arrest – and, yes, this article is part of that process. One of the more bizarre aspects of our current “celebrity” culture is that the term is so broad that it includes sexually sadistic killers such as Brady and Hindley, as well as Harry Styles from the band One Direction. </p>
<h2>Lives behind bars</h2>
<p>The nature of the crimes that Brady and Hindley committed, combined with the fact that a young woman was involved, mean that the murders and the search for the victims continue to fascinate the public.</p>
<p>Brady and Hindley were convicted at Chester Assizes for the abduction, sexual assault and murder of Lesley Anne Downey (10), John Kilbride (12) and Edward Evans (17). The bodies of Lesley Anne Downey and John Kilbride were buried on bleak, unforgiving Saddleworth Moor. Two other children, Pauline Reade (16) and Keith Bennett (12), went missing in Manchester during the period, too. It was always suspected that they had been murdered by Brady and Hindley but searches at the time were unable to find the bodies. </p>
<p>In 1985, however, Brady and Hindley confessed to the murders. A huge police operation <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/2/newsid_2491000/2491503.stm">saw both taken separately</a> to the moors in an attempt to locate the bodies. Pauline Reade’s body was found in the summer of 1987 and her family were finally able to lay her to rest. Keith Bennett’s body has never been found. </p>
<p>Hindley remained in prison <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/2481193.stm">until her death in 2002</a>, while Brady was in prison until his transfer under provisions of the Mental Health Act to Park Lane – now Ashworth – Special Hospital in 1985. He is now the UK’s longest serving prisoner. He has been <a href="https://theconversation.com/should-brady-be-kept-alive-the-ethics-of-force-feeding-15266">force fed</a> for a number of years as he has been on a hunger strike in an attempt to force a return to prison. </p>
<p>In 2013, <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/moors-murderer-ian-brady-breaks-his-silence-after-47-years-i-killed-for-the-existential-experience-8672684.html">he appeared</a> via a TV link at a mental health tribunal arguing that he was not mentally ill so should be returned to prison. He believes that he would not be force fed in prison and so would be allowed to end his life there. </p>
<h2>Popular fascination</h2>
<p>There have been numerous books, plays and TV documentaries about the murderers, from the publication of Emlyn Williams’s seminal 1967 book <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Beyond_Belief.html?id=D_beQgAACAAJ&source=kp_cover&redir_esc=y">Beyond Belief</a> to ITV’s superb 2006 drama <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0491807/">See No Evil</a>, in which Maxine Peake played Hindley. The focus overwhelmingly has been on the motivations of the killers and the minutiae of the offences themselves. The suffering and pain of the victims’ families rarely are examined in depth. </p>
<p>It is not just the brutality of the crimes that is behind the media fascination. Brady and Hindley were arrested just as the future of the death penalty was being debated and it was effectively abolished while they were on remand. The case became a conduit for debate on questions about crime, punishment, the nature of evil and other social issues such as the role of the press. </p>
<p>In the immediate aftermath, the crimes were seen by some commentators as a consequence of the more liberal social attitudes of 1960s Britain. The novelist C P Snow in <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/The_Sleep_of_Reason.html?id=kj3gagTPsdoC&redir_esc=y">The Sleep of Reason</a> argued that “permissive attitudes” were the “earth out of which this poisonous flower grew”. The continued search for the bodies of Pauline Reade and Keith Bennett, the peer <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/news/2001/aug/06/guardianobituaries.prisonsandprobation">Frank Longford’s campaign</a> for Hindley’s parole, and Brady’s hunger strike have all fed the media’s voracious interest in stories about the murders.</p>
<p>American literature scholar Mark Seltzer has <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/778805?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">argued</a> that public culture has become addicted to violence. He uses the term “wound culture” to refer to this fascination with the public display of defiled bodies.</p>
<h2>Families tormented</h2>
<p>The Moors murders have become an archetype for the symbiotic relationship between the media and what the late academic criminologist <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09585189308407983?journalCode=rjfp19">Keith Soothill called</a> “the serial killer industry”. TV and film dramas are awash with disillusioned police chasing serial killers. As Brady showed at his tribunal, he was very aware of the media interest. He has sought to manipulate this for many years – giving hints that he might reveal more details, including the whereabouts of Keith Bennett’s body. We are simultaneously drawn in and repulsed. </p>
<p>There is a macabre form of celebrity attached to murder, which is extended to families in high-profile cases. The result is that the suffering of the victims’ families is largely marginalised. When The Independent carried an obituary of Winnie Johnson, Keith Bennett’s mother, in 2012, it <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/winnie-johnson-mother-of-moors-murders-victim-keith-bennett-8069892.html">said</a> she was: “an ordinary mother whose life became defined by the tragic death of her son”. In remembering the awful events of this case, this should be the real focus of our concern – the pain and suffering endured by the families of the victims. </p>
<p>Manchester is the home of many firsts of the modern age, from <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/manchester/hi/people_and_places/history/newsid_8282000/8282223.stm">splitting the atom</a> to the first <a href="http://curation.cs.manchester.ac.uk/computer50/www.computer50.org/index.html?man=true">programmable computer</a>. Unwittingly, it was also the site of the creation of two of the UK’s most notorious celebrity serial killers.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/58665/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Ian Brady and Myra Hindley continue to fascinate the public, half a century after they were sentenced to life in prison.Ian Cummins, Senior Lecturer in Social Work, University of SalfordMartin King, Principal Lecturer, Social Care and Social Work, Manchester Metropolitan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/152662013-06-19T13:19:35Z2013-06-19T13:19:35ZShould Brady be kept alive? The ethics of force-feeding<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/25855/original/wmt7m6bk-1371648652.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Torture, not treatment: Guantanamo Bay detainees have been force fed using this kit. US department of defense</span> </figcaption></figure><p>Moors murderer, Ian Brady, is fighting to end his life. This week he has appeared in public for the first time since his trial in the 1960s. He has been force-fed for the past 13 years and is begging to be ruled sane and transferred to a prison in Scotland where he will be allowed to starve himself to death.</p>
<p>To many people - and certainly to the surviving parents of his victims - this “monster” does not deserve to make his own decision about when and how he should die. They argue that he condemned others to a life of pain and sadness. Accordingly he should be made to endure jail “for the term of his natural life”.</p>
<p>But is it this simple? What is the position of nursing staff in institutions who are faced with someone who is prepared to die via a hunger strike – should they be stopped and can staff be forced to stop them?</p>
<p>This is an issue I have considered since working as a student nurse in Belfast in 1981, when 10 IRA prisoners, led by Bobby Sands, starved themselves to death as a political protest. At the time we weren’t taught about the ethics of this as part of our nursing course. </p>
<p>More recently, in Cuba, we have learnt that prisoners are being force fed in Guantanamo Bay by doctors and nurses. There has been a great deal of international outrage expressed <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2013/05/01/the-ethics-of-force-feeding-inmates">in the media</a> with many pleas to President Obama to intervene and stop an activity equated with torture. The British Medical Association has pointed out that force-feeding “competent adults […] involved in a voluntary hunger strike <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/16/stop-guantanamo-force-feeding">violates international standards</a> of medical ethics”.</p>
<p>There are fewer more emotive or ethically challenging issues than self-starvation. Surely, we might think, no sane person would choose to starve themselves to death? At the same time, we are likely to be troubled by the thought that any care professional would force sustenance on a patient. Or that any organisation or authority would insist that people should be held down and fed against their wishes.</p>
<h2>Should a ‘monster’ have choices?</h2>
<p>Brady is <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18690303">reported as saying</a> that “he would rather die quickly than rot slowly in jail”. A previous attempt to achieve this failed with a judge describing Brady’s hunger strike as <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/10122523/Ian-Brady-wants-right-to-die-in-Scottish-jail.html">symptomatic of</a> “his obsessive need to exercise control”.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/25845/original/34hk878n-1371635452.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/25845/original/34hk878n-1371635452.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/25845/original/34hk878n-1371635452.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/25845/original/34hk878n-1371635452.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/25845/original/34hk878n-1371635452.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/25845/original/34hk878n-1371635452.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/25845/original/34hk878n-1371635452.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/25845/original/34hk878n-1371635452.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Killer: Ian Brady has been kept alive by force for 13 years.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Elizabeth Cook/PA Wire</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Brady’s plight is unlikely to evoke much sympathy from those who know details of the heinous crimes he committed with Myra Hindley. Many will remember the suffering of the families and in particular, the late Winnie Johnson, who <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2190192/Winnie-Johnson-The-mother-refused-search-sons-body.html">fought unsuccessfully</a> for 48 years to find the grave of her son, Keith, who was murdered by Brady. </p>
<p>Whereas some will declare that Brady’s wishes are undeserving of respect, ethicists and healthcare professionals must consider the values at stake and offer a more reasoned view that is in keeping with our professional purpose: to promote health, alleviate suffering and contribute to a good death. </p>
<h2>Respect for human rights trumps all</h2>
<p>It wasn’t until I saw Steve McQueen’s film “Hunger” about Bobby Sands’ death, that I came to more fully appreciate the personal, professional and political implications of self-starvation. Professionals now have much more education and guidance regarding challenging ethical issues such as force-feeding. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.nmc-uk.org/Nurses-and-midwives/Standards-and-guidance1/The-code/The-code-in-full/">Nursing and Midwifery Code</a> for nurses is clear: “You must ensure that you gain consent before you begin any treatment or care.” and “You must respect and support people’s rights to accept or decline treatment and care.” The <a href="http://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Principles_of_Biomedical_Ethics.html?id=nreKPwAACAAJ">ethical principles</a> underpinning healthcare practice more generally seem to point also in one direction: respect the autonomy of the person; do good and minimise harm; allocate resources fairly and do not engage in discriminatory practice (regardless, it seems necessary to add, of the crimes, callousness, suffering caused or psychopathic status of the patient). </p>
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<span class="caption">Right to die: IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jeff Meade via Creative Commons</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>But might it be argued Brady is insane, lacking autonomy, and with no right to refuse nutrition? Here even the law is unhelpful as two recent cases show. In the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19369239">case of “L”</a> a judge ruled that while it was in her best interests to be provided with sustenance, this should not be forced. If necessary, she should have palliative care so that she “suffers the least distress and retains the greatest dignity until such time as her life comes to an end”. In the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-18464254">case of “E”</a> the judge ruled that she could be force-fed “in her best interests”. The judge said that “E is a special person, whose life is of value. She does not see it that way now, but she may in future”.</p>
<p>Despite his monstrous deeds, Brady is entitled to respect for his human rights and dignity taking into account the fact that his life is not of value to him. The decision to take our own life is the ultimate choice. Health professionals work relentlessly to provide compassionate care and may feel that they have failed when a person takes their own life. They are perhaps more accustomed to, and accepting of, patient refusals and a decision to allow someone to die when treatment and care is considered futile. We need to be mindful of our own motivation to save life at all costs, disregarding the wishes of the individual concerned whether they are in hospital or prison.</p>
<h2>A matter of conscience</h2>
<p>We would do well also to remember a question posed by <a href="http://www.hfea.gov.uk/2068.html">Mary Warnock</a> in 1984: The question must ultimately be what kind of society can we praise and admire? In what sort of society can we live with our conscience clear? </p>
<p>Is it a society that permits force-feeding perhaps with the intention of preventing some political fallout? Or worse, to punish or seek revenge for past wrongs? </p>
<p>Or is it a society in which we consider force-feeding as torture and assume an ethical stance lobbying politically to stop force-feeding and avoid hunger strike situations? Is it a society in which professional values are safeguarded, and, where necessary, we respond compassionately to support what could well be a rational suicide?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/15266/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ann Gallagher does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Moors murderer, Ian Brady, is fighting to end his life. This week he has appeared in public for the first time since his trial in the 1960s. He has been force-fed for the past 13 years and is begging to…Ann Gallagher, Reader in Nursing Ethics, University of SurreyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.