The Moors Murders Trial (1966): R v Brady and Hindley

Case at a Glance

The Moors Murders Trial: The Complete Case Brief

The Moors Murders trial was the April-May 1966 criminal proceeding at Chester Assizes in which Ian Brady and Myra Hindley were convicted of murdering children in and around Manchester, England, in one of the most notorious criminal cases in British history. The pair killed five children between July 1963 and October 1965, burying most of their victims in shallow graves on Saddleworth Moor, a detail that gave the case its enduring name. The trial is commonly searched as moors murders, myra hindley, or ian brady, and it remains a defining case in the history of British criminal justice.

What Were the Moors Murders?

The Moors Murders refer to a series of child killings committed by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley in and around Manchester, England, between July 1963 and October 1965. The couple met in 1961 while working together at a chemical company in Manchester and began a relationship that evolved into a partnership in violent crime. Their five victims, Pauline Reade (16), John Kilbride (12), Keith Bennett (12), Lesley Ann Downey (10), and Edward Evans (17), were between the ages of 10 and 17, and at least four of them were sexually assaulted before being killed. Most of the bodies were buried in graves dug on Saddleworth Moor, near Oldham, giving the murders their name.

How the Murders Came to Light

The killings were discovered after Hindley's brother-in-law, David Smith, witnessed Brady murder 17-year-old Edward Evans with an axe inside Brady and Hindley's home in October 1965. Smith, having concealed his horror out of fear that he might meet the same fate, later went to police with his account, including Brady's mention that additional bodies were buried on the moor. Police raided the house shortly afterward. Brady was arrested immediately and charged with Evans's murder. During questioning, he admitted to the killing but falsely claimed that Smith had also participated. Hindley was arrested several days later, once police discovered a suitcase belonging to the pair in a luggage locker at Manchester's Central railway station, containing incriminating evidence, including photographs and an audio recording connected to Lesley Ann Downey's murder, along with a notebook bearing John Kilbride's name.

Following the discovery of this evidence, the bodies of Kilbride and Downey were located, and Brady and Hindley were charged with three counts of murder: those of Edward Evans, Lesley Ann Downey, and John Kilbride.

The Trial

The trial opened at Chester Assizes on 27 April 1966 and became known in the British press as the 'Trial of the Century.' Both Brady and Hindley pleaded not guilty to all three murder charges. Prosecutors presented extensive evidence, including the recovered photographs and the harrowing audio recording made during Lesley Ann Downey's abduction and murder, evidence that shocked the courtroom and the wider public when its contents became known.

On 6 May 1966, the jury returned its verdicts. Ian Brady was found guilty on all three counts: the murders of John Kilbride, Lesley Ann Downey, and Edward Evans. Myra Hindley was found guilty of murdering Downey and Evans, and guilty of harboring Brady in relation to Kilbride's murder, having known that Brady had killed him, a lesser but still serious finding as an accessory. The trial judge described the pair as 'two sadistic killers of the utmost depravity.'

The Sentencing

Ian Brady received three concurrent life sentences for his three murder convictions. Myra Hindley received two life sentences for the murders of Downey and Evans, plus an additional seven years for her role as an accessory in Kilbride's death. Because capital punishment had been effectively abolished in Great Britain the year before the trial, in 1965, life imprisonment represented the maximum sentence available to the court, and both Brady and Hindley were later made subject to a whole life order, meaning neither would ever be considered eligible for release.

The 1987 Confessions and the Search for Additional Victims

For more than two decades after the trial, the families of Pauline Reade and Keith Bennett continued seeking answers about their missing children, whom investigators suspected but could not confirm were additional victims of Brady and Hindley. The case was formally reopened in 1985 after reports emerged that Brady had confessed to the murders of Reade and Bennett.

Myra Hindley, who had maintained her innocence and campaigned for release for years after the original trial, finally stopped denying her involvement in 1987 and confessed to all five murders. Following her confession, Pauline Reade's body was recovered from Saddleworth Moor in July 1987, more than twenty years after the original trial. Brady and Hindley were separately taken to the moor to assist investigators in searching for the remaining graves. Despite extensive searches over the following decades, the body of Keith Bennett has never been found.

Why the Moors Murders Trial Matters

The Moors Murders trial remains one of the most significant criminal cases in modern British legal history, both for the severity of the crimes and for its lasting impact on how the British justice system and media have approached cases involving child victims.

Key reasons the case remains important:

• It resulted in some of the earliest applications of what became known as 'whole life' sentencing in Britain, reflecting the extraordinary severity with which the courts and public regarded the crimes.
• It illustrated how evidence, including photographs and audio recordings, could be used to secure convictions in cases without eyewitnesses to the killings themselves.
• It left one victim's case permanently unresolved, since Keith Bennett's body remains undiscovered despite decades of searches, a lasting source of grief for his surviving family.
• It generated enduring public and media fascination, with both Brady and Hindley becoming enduringly notorious figures in British criminal history, referenced in countless books, documentaries, and news retrospectives.
• It shaped later British debates over parole and rehabilitation for extremely serious offenders, since Hindley's decades-long campaign for release, ultimately unsuccessful, became a significant and controversial feature of British penal policy discussions.

What Happened to Brady and Hindley Afterward?

Myra Hindley died in prison in November 2002 at the age of 60, having spent 36 years incarcerated without ever being released. Ian Brady died in May 2017 at the age of 79, in a high-security psychiatric hospital in Merseyside, England, having spent more than five decades in custody. Brady chose never to reveal the location of Keith Bennett's remains before his death, a final act of cruelty that left the Bennett family without closure even after the deaths of both perpetrators.

Key Facts at a Glance

Frequently Asked Questions

What were the Moors Murders?

The Moors Murders were a series of child killings committed by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley in the Manchester area of England between 1963 and 1965.

Who were Ian Brady and Myra Hindley?

Ian Brady and Myra Hindley were a British couple convicted in 1966 of murdering children, with most victims buried on Saddleworth Moor near Manchester.

When was the Moors Murders trial?

The trial was held at Chester Assizes from 27 April to 6 May 1966.

What was the verdict in the Moors Murders trial?

Ian Brady was found guilty of three murders, and Myra Hindley was found guilty of two murders and of harboring Brady in connection with a third.

How many victims did the Moors Murderers have?

Brady and Hindley had five known victims: Pauline Reade, John Kilbride, Keith Bennett, Lesley Ann Downey, and Edward Evans.

Who was Lesley Ann Downey?

Lesley Ann Downey was a 10-year-old victim of Brady and Hindley, whose abduction and murder was documented in evidence presented at their trial.

Who was John Kilbride?

John Kilbride was a 12-year-old victim of the Moors Murders, whose body was recovered from Saddleworth Moor before the 1966 trial.

Why were only three murders charged at the original trial?

Police were initially aware of only three killings, Evans, Downey, and Kilbride, at the time of the 1966 trial; the other two murders were not confirmed until Brady and Hindley confessed in 1987.

When did Myra Hindley confess to all the murders?

Myra Hindley confessed to all five murders in 1987, after previously denying involvement in the killings of Pauline Reade and Keith Bennett.

Has Keith Bennett's body ever been found?

No, despite extensive searches over several decades, the body of Keith Bennett has never been located.

What sentences did Brady and Hindley receive?

Ian Brady received three concurrent life sentences, and Myra Hindley received two life sentences plus seven additional years for harboring Brady.

When did Ian Brady and Myra Hindley die?

Myra Hindley died in prison in 2002, and Ian Brady died in a secure psychiatric hospital in 2017.

How did the Moors Murders come to police attention?

The murders came to light after David Smith, Hindley's brother-in-law, witnessed Brady kill Edward Evans and reported it to police in October 1965.

Where were the Moors Murders victims buried?

Most of the victims were buried in shallow graves dug on Saddleworth Moor, near Oldham, Greater Manchester.

Why is the Moors Murders case still discussed today?

The case remains widely discussed due to its severity, the decades-long search for Keith Bennett's remains, and its lasting influence on British debates over sentencing and parole for extremely serious offenders.

Final Takeaway

The Moors Murders trial resulted in the convictions of Ian Brady and Myra Hindley for some of the most horrifying child murders in British history, with both defendants sentenced to life imprisonment under what would later become whole life orders. The case remained unresolved for decades in one crucial respect, the location of victim Keith Bennett's remains, and it continues to occupy a significant place in British criminal history, shaping public and legal debate over sentencing, rehabilitation, and the treatment of Britain's most notorious offenders long after the original 1966 verdicts.