UK Moors Murderer writes to mother of victim

LONDON, Feb 22 (Reuters) One of Britain's most notorious killers, ''Moors murderer'' Ian Brady has written to the mother of one of his five victims hinting that he may know where her son is buried, Sky News reported.

Brady, with accomplice Myra Hindley, was jailed for life in 1966 for abducting, torturing, sexually abusing and then murdering the children before burying them on the bleak Saddleworth Moor near Manchester.

One of their victims was 12-year-old Keith Bennett, killed in 1964. His body has never been found and Sky said Brady had written a two-page letter to Bennett's mother Winnie, 72, in December, raising hopes he might reveal the burial location.

Although no direct reference was made to where his victim's remains were, he concluded the letter by saying he had ''clarity'' about his recollections of the time.

''It was a shock to me. He knows a lot more than what he's saying,'' Winnie Johnson told Sky yesterday.

''He's admitted he can take police within 20 yards of where he buried Keith.'' Brady, one of the most reviled men in Britain, is currently being held at Ashworth secure hospital in Liverpool.

He has been on intermittent hunger strike in recent years and staff at Ashworth have fed him via a tube through the nose on the grounds he was insane and incapable of deciding to end his own life.

In his letter, Brady claimed he was being kept alive for political reasons.

Home Office minister Fiona Mactaggart has written to Winnie Johnson to say she will meet Manchester police to be briefed on what evidence was available which might indicate where the body might be.

''The Home Office understands Winnie Johnson's sense of anguish and is committed to doing all it reasonably can to find the body of Keith Bennett,'' a spokesman said.

DESPISED FIGURES The sadistic nature of the Moors Murderers' killings made them among the most despised figures in Britain.

Brady was found guilty of snatching and killing 12-year-old John Kilbride, Edward Evans, 17, and Lesley Ann Downey, 10, while Hindley was convicted of murdering Downey and Evans and shielding her lover in the third case.

In the 1980s, the couple admitted abducting and murdering 16-year-old Pauline Reade on her way to a Manchester disco in 1963 and also killing Bennett.

They were finally caught when Hindley's brother-in-law tipped off police.

During their trial, the court heard tape recordings made by the couple of their victims pleading for mercy before they were tortured and killed.

Hindley was Britain's longest serving female prisoner when she died in 2002 after 36 years in jail.

Successive governments had refused to release her despite her claims she had reformed and was driven to commit the murders by the psychopathic Brady. He insisted she was as much to blame.

At one stage, Hindley had tried to court favour by helping police to look for the missing body of Bennett but exhaustive searches proved unsuccessful.

When she was cremated, a banner which read ''Burn in hell'' was left outside the building.

REUTERS PDS RAI0602