One of Britain’s top forensic psychologists, who has dealt with some of the world’s most deranged criminal minds, has revealed he has never hated a subject as much as Moors Murder’s Ian Brady.
Professor Jeremy Coid first met Brady in 2003, when he carried out a psychiatric assessment for him at Ashworth High Security Psychiatric Hospital in Merseyside.
Brady, then 65, had already been imprisoned for 37 years for the gruesome Moors Murders, along with his evil accomplice Myra Hindley, in the 1960s.
The deranged couple known as ‘The Moors Murderers’ committed sadistic violence and murdered five children before burying their bodies on Saddleworth Moor in north-west England.
Professor Coid made his statements in an interview with an independent filmmaker Thomas Gardnerrecalling that his first impression of the sadistic killer was remarkably subdued.
One of Britain’s top forensic psychologists has revealed he has never hated a subject as much as Moors Murder Ian Brady (pictured)
Professor Jeremy Coid first met Brady in 2003, when he was conducting a study into his mental health
Professor Jeremy Coid interviewed the killer at Ashworth High Security Psychiatric Hospital in Merseyside
The atrocities of Myra Hindley and Brady in the 1960s have become etched in the public consciousness for their sadistic cruelty and the murder of five children (Photo: PA)
“He was very nice and polite,” he recalled, “he looked to me like a rather shabby Oxford don. He wore a sports jacket and had a bit of grey hair.”
The child murderer was born in 1938 in Glasgow, where he raised by foster parents in the Gorbals, an area known as one of the poorest and most impoverished slums in Glasgow.
As a teenager, Brady committed a series of petty crimes, eventually causing the court to send him to Manchester to live with his mother and her new husband, Patrick Brady.
As time passed, with the intention of ‘improving himself’, developed new interests by building a library of books on Nazism, sadism and sexual perversion.
As he stared across the table at the psychopath, Professor Coid noticed that he exuded a desperate, sinister need for “control.”
He continued: ‘During the interview it became very clear that it was very difficult to interrupt him.
“This was a man who was so self-centered that he wanted to do nothing but talk about himself and his negative feelings toward others.”
Brady and Hindley eventually tortured and murdered five children, aged 10 to 17, and buried their bodies on Saddleworth Moor. At least four of the victims were sexually abused.
Their first victim was Pauline Reade, who was murdered by Brady and Hindley in 1963, aged just 16. She had been picked up by Hindley and taken to the moors, where she was sexually abused and strangled by Brady.
In 1963, Hindley and Brady lured 12-year-old schoolboy John Kibride from a market in Ashton-Under-Lyne.
In a familiar pattern, the three of them ended up taking a detour to windswept Saddleworth Moor. Brady told Hindley he had sexually abused and strangled the boy.
The third victim was 12-year-old Keith Bennet in 1964. Hindley lured him into a van and asked him to help him with some boxes, while his sadistic lover Brady watched his prey from the back seat.
As the trio made a detour to windswept Saddleworth Moor, Brady later told Hindley he had sexually abused and strangled the boy. He is the only one of the five victims whose body has never been found.
The youngest victim, Lesley Ann Downey, aged 10, was lured from a funfair to the home of Hindley and Brady in 1964. Once inside, she was stripped, gagged and strangled.
Brady and Hindley eventually tortured and murdered five children aged 10 to 17
Pauline Reade, 16, was murdered by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley when she was just 16 years old, and was buried on the moors after being sexually assaulted and cut twice across the throat
Hindley lured 12-year-old schoolboy John Kibride from a market in Ashton-Under-Lyne, where he was taken to the moors to be sexually abused and fatally strangled by Brady
Keith Bennett, 12, who was lured to the moors by the sick couple, is the only victim of Brady and Hindley never to be found as they took the secret to their graves.
Lesley Ann Downey, 10, was lured from a fairground to Hindley and Brady’s home on Boxing Day. Once inside, she was stripped, gagged and strangled.
Edward Evans, 17, was lured from a Manchester train station to the sick couple’s home on the Hattersley estate in Hyde, where he was attacked with an axe, choked and strangled
She was later found naked with her clothes around her feet in a shallow grave on the moor. The pair made a shocking 16-minute audio recording of her death.
The last victim was 17-year-old Edward Evans. He was attacked with an axe, strangled with a pillow and strangled with an electric cable in 1965.
Professor Coid said that while Brady’s crimes were shocking, he had on occasion witnessed worse crimes. However, the aura of the Moors Murderer aroused a personal loathing in him that he had never experienced before.
He explains: ‘I think it’s important as an experienced forensic psychiatrist to know how your patients make you feel and how they make you feel about them.
‘He didn’t scare me at all, but he did give me a very negative feeling.
‘A feeling of personal dislike towards him that grew stronger as the interview progressed.
‘He did something to me, to my inner world. It became very clear that he was trying to control me during the interview.
‘I have seen perpetrators who have committed extremely unpleasant and sometimes even worse murders, but who have not been able to provoke such a negative reaction in me at all.’
Brady never showed remorse for his horrific crimes, while Hindley maintained she had been beaten and drugged by her partner, turning her into a cold-blooded killer.
Professor Coid said of the criminal’s lack of remorse: ‘He has never shown remorse and made it clear he never would.
‘I asked him about repentance and he called it wind and said, “If they want wind, they should wait until the Day of Judgement before they get it.”‘
