The case of the Moors Murders went to trial on Tuesday the 19th of April in 1966. The trial lasted for fourteen days. After looking at all the evidence against Brady and Hindley, a jury found them both guilty of the murders of Edward Evans and Lesley Ann Downey; Brady was found guilty of the murder of John Kilbride and Hindley was found guilty of harbouring Brady having known that he'd killed John Kilbride. Brady received three concurrent life sentences and Hindley received two concurrent life sentences and an added seven years for harbouring Brady. In 1987, Pauline Reade's body was discovered on the moors and as the trial of Brady and Hindley had already been held and the couple were already serving life sentences, it was decided that it would be pointless to further prosecute them, even though they had admitted to killing her.
The investigation team arrested Brady and Hindley on Thursday 7th October 1965 for the murder of Edward Evans. They were then taken to Hyde Police Station and interviewed separately. They were then charged with the murders of Edward Evans, Lesley Ann Downey and John Kilbride. Once they were charged, they had to attend a trial at court and there a jury would decide what punishment they deserved for the crimes that they committed.
When the cases of evidence were found at Manchester train station, the investigation team found that Ian Brady had handed in the "lost luggage". It was also known that Ian Brady couldn't drive but Myra Hindley could. It was found that she had hired a vehicle in the morning of one of the days that one of the children went missing. The vehicle was returned the following morning, again by Hindley, in a very muddy condition. When the police searched Wardle Brook Avenue they found a book that belonged to Brady and has John Kilbride's name in. This made them believe that Brady and Hindley could have had something to do with the disappearance of John. The police found lost luggage tickets in a prayer book that belonged to Hindley. When the lost luggage tickets were given in at Manchester train station, the police were given two suitcases of items that Brady had put in them - photographs of Lesley Ann Downey, a tape recording of her, other sadistic paraphernalia. The tape recording had the voices of Lesley Ann, Hindley and Brady recorded on it. They also found, at Wardle Brook Avenue, many photographs of Hindley on Saddleworth Moor. 150 police officers were drafted to search Saddleworth Moor to look for locations that matched the photographs. Pat Hodges, and 11 year old girl who was taken out on many occasions with Brady and Hindley, pointed out some of their favourite spots along the A635 road going through Saddleworth Moor. Shortly after Pat pointed out sites where Brady and Hindley liked to go, the body of Lesley Ann Downey was discovered. Days later, the body of John Kilbride was found when the location of Hindley on a photograph the Brady had taken was found by the police.
The investigation team came to the conclusion that Brady and Hindley were guilty of the crimes by following their evidence trail and because David Smith was a witness to the couple killing Edward Evans. The evidence they also found in the house that the couple shared indicated that it was not only Brady who was involved in these crimes - the tape found of Lesley Ann Downey's voice recorded Myra Hindley's voice as well as Brady's. Myra Hindley also confessed to luring children onto the moors with Ian Brady to search for a "lost glove", however she denied killing them, as Brady did that. David Smith's witness testimony was the most incriminating evidence against Brady and Hindley as he witnessed Brady kill Evans and then Hindley help to clean up afterwards.
Because they were interviewed separately, their statements conflicted at times, however, they both tried to implicate David Smith in the murder of him, claiming that he hit Evans too. From multiple interviews with Smith, the police did not know whether to believe Smith or not, his story was believed in the end but was still believed by the public to be the third Moors Murderer. If DCI Joe Mounsey hadn't linked the cases of the four missing children, and if David Smith hadn't reported the crime that he witnessed, Brady and Hindley may never have been caught.
The main error found in this case is that if there was a national database for logging incidents, or some form of communication between overlapping police forces, then Brady and Hindley would have been caught for their crimes earlier and the police could have potentially saved the lives of the children that were murdered.
I believe that the sentence Brady and Hindley received were more than justified for the nature of their crimes as they tortured and murdered 5 young people between 1963 and 1965. The conclusion was justified because the evidence found relating to the case was so incriminating and did not prove any of Brady's and Hindley's statements that David Smith carried out the murders as it proved the statement of David Smith that Brady and Hindley carried out the cold-blooded killings of the 5 victims. Their sentence was later justified by the confessions of Brady and Hindley when they were later put into prison.
No comments:
Post a Comment