"Those Listening in the Real World": Ian Brady's Tribunal Letter, 5 News, 2013

Name: "Those Listening in the Real World": Ian Brady's Tribunal Letter, 5 News, 2013
Uploaded: 2013-07-12T00:00:00Z
Duration: 3 min 31 s
Description: After losing his 2013 bid to be moved from Ashworth Hospital to prison, Ian Brady wrote to 5 News condemning the tribunal. The report reads from his letter and hears from Terry Kilbride, brother of victim John Kilbride. Brady is not heard.

After losing his 2013 bid to be moved from Ashworth Hospital to prison, Ian Brady wrote to 5 News condemning the tribunal. The report reads from his letter and hears from Terry Kilbride, brother of victim John Kilbride. Brady is not heard.

Subject: Ian Brady
Recorded: about July 12, 2013
Runtime: 3:31

Content warning: Refers to the abduction and murder of a child; no graphic detail.

The Report

This is a 3-minute-31-second 5 News report, posted by 5 News on its own channel on July 12, 2013. After Ian Brady lost his tribunal, 5 News wrote to him at Ashworth Hospital, and he replied with a letter of about 700 words. The report reads passages from it aloud and shows it to Terry Kilbride, whose brother John was one of Brady's victims, and to psychologist Dr. Chris Cowley. Ian Brady himself is not heard; the reader of the letter is not identified and is probably the reporter.

Historical Context

Ian Brady and Myra Hindley murdered five children and teenagers in and around Manchester between 1963 and 1965, burying several of them on Saddleworth Moor. In 1966 Brady was convicted of three of the murders, including that of John Kilbride, and sentenced to life imprisonment; he later confessed to two more. He was moved to Park Lane (now Ashworth) Hospital, Maghull, Merseyside, in November 1985. He died there on May 15, 2017, aged 79.

Circumstances

In June 2013 Brady, then 75, asked a mental health tribunal to approve his transfer from Ashworth to prison. 5 News describes it as the first time he had spoken publicly in nearly 50 years. On June 28, 2013, the tribunal ruled that he still had a mental disorder requiring treatment in hospital. 5 News wrote to him after the ruling, and this letter was his reply.

What the Report Covers

In the passages read aloud, Brady calls the hearing "a politically motivated tribunal" on which "£250,000" was wasted, and attacks the "rubber stamp witnesses" who gave evidence, adding, "Those listening in the real world would have doubted their senses." He recalls his time at Wormwood Scrubs, where he says he met Peter Sutcliffe and cooked for the prisoners on his landing "while Ronnie Kray cooked for those on his." Terry Kilbride calls the letter predictable: Brady is "saying it was all a fix" so that he can appeal and "waste another £250,000." Dr. Cowley, who interviewed Brady over six years, says he shows "no evidence whatsoever of any kind of change." The reporter notes that Brady refused to answer questions about the murders and that his one apology was for his handwriting, which he blamed on untreated cataracts; the NHS trust said it takes its patients' physical health seriously.

What Makes the Recording Significant

It records Brady's first public reaction to the tribunal ruling, in his own written words, set beside the response of a victim's brother.

Important Caveats

Ian Brady is not heard in this video; the letter is read aloud by someone else. His statements about the tribunal, his treatment and his cataracts are his claims; Ashworth's trust disputed the neglect claim. The report says John Kilbride was 13; most sources say he was 12 when he was abducted in November 1963. The reporter is very probably 5 News correspondent Julian Druker (spelling from Wikipedia's list of 5 News staff; the machine texts mishear the surname). Page copy should not add the names of child victims beyond John Kilbride, who is named in the report.

Reporter: Ian Brady now knows he's likely to die in the secure hospital he desperately wants to be transferred from. The child killer spoke publicly for the first time in nearly 50 years at his mental health tribunal, and it failed. But now Ian Brady has got more to say. Just after he lost his legal bid, we wrote to him at Ashworth Hospital. In response, he's now sent this letter to 5 News. In the 700 words, he speaks for the first time about the panel's decision. He condemns the process and the public money spent on it.

Brady'S Letter: "£250,000 wasted by Ashworth medical mediocrities manipulating a politically motivated tribunal designed to distract public attention from the lack of reasoned argument and pertinent evidence."

Reporter: During the tribunal at Ashworth Hospital, Brady was described as chronically psychotic. He has long-term paranoid schizophrenia. In his letter, Brady criticizes the health professionals who gave evidence.

Brady'S Letter: "The pathetic petty abuse which rubber stamp witnesses employ to smear, discredit and distract revealed more about Ashworth's collective culture of applied ignorance and malice than it did about me. Those listening in the real world would have doubted their senses."

Reporter: At 13, John Kilbride was snatched, strangled, then buried by Brady and Myra Hindley. Today John's brother Terry read the letter with me. He thinks Brady's reaction to the tribunal ruling is predictable.

Terry Kilbride: Saying it was all a fix, [unclear: "more or less" / "moral I stopped"], saying in that letter, and saying all them long words he puts together like he does, because he [unclear: "has a" / "he's a"] brain box, which we know is very clever. But that's all it is. It's, he wants to be there again, saying that it's all been a fix, so you can have an appeal and do it all again and waste another £250,000.

Reporter: In his letter, as in his tribunal, Brady speaks of his time with other notorious figures at Wormwood Scrubs prison. One of them was the Yorkshire Ripper, Peter Sutcliffe.

Brady'S Letter: "I had long discussions with IRA and Arab freedom fighters at the Scrubs. I met hundreds of long and short-term prisoners, including Sutcliffe. I cooked daily meals for the prisoners [unclear: "on" / "of" / "in"] my landing, while Ronnie Kray cooked for those on his."

Reporter: We showed the note to psychologist Dr. Chris Cowley, who carried out extensive interviews with Brady over six years. This letter, he says, displays all the sides of his twisted character.

Dr. Chris Cowley: Exactly the same as he's been since I've known him. Very cool, very calculated, you know, very, very manipulative, like I said, um, and with no evidence whatsoever of any kind of change. I mean, it'll give him a burst of energy, I think, losing the tribunal. It's like something else he's got to fight now.

Reporter: Brady has never shown any remorse for his five victims. He refused to answer any of the questions put to him by 5 News about the murders. He issues just one apology in the letter, but it's not for his barbarity, but something trivial.

Brady'S Letter: "Excuse my handwriting. Caused by 14 years medical neglect of my cataracts by Ashworth."

Reporter: The NHS Trust which runs Ashworth Hospital says it takes the physical health needs of all its patients seriously. As one of the country's most reviled killers, Ian Brady has said much recently, but nowhere has he shown an understanding of the true horror of his crimes. Julian Druker, 5 News. [03:27: speech ends; clip runs to 03:31.] ---