David Kirwan

A LEADING solicitor vowed today that the search for Moors Murders victim Keith Bennett would continue – despite Greater Manchester Police’s announcement that there was nothing else it could do.

David Kirwan, who represents Keith’s mother Winnie Johnson, held two secret meetings with Moors Murderer Ian Brady during which the notorious killer indicated that he would be able to pinpoint the exact whereabouts of the body.

Mr Kirwan was recruited by Winnie Johnson, Keith’s mother, in March 2006 to spearhead a new campaign to get Brady back on to the Moors in a bid to find her son’s body.

The lawyer, one of the North West’s best known campaigning criminal solicitors, carried out months of painstaking research into the history of the case before securing his meetings with Brady.

Today, Mr Kirwan said: “We are naturally disappointed that GMP has decided to call off its search, but we have always maintained that the only person who can end Winnie Johnson’s 45-year nightmare is Ian Brady.

“So today I am calling on Ian Brady to declare that he will do what he says he can do. I am ready to meet with him again to help bring to an end the appalling ordeal Keith’s mother has endured all these years.”

Keith Bennett was 12 at the time of his abduction and murder. He vanished while on his way to his grandmother’s house in 1964.

Brady and Hindley were jailed for life at Chester Assizes on May 6, 1966, after being tried for the murders of Edward Evans, 17, Lesley Ann Downey, 10, and 12-year-old John Kilbride. The body of a fourth victim, Pauline Reade, was found in 1987, leaving Keith’s grave the only one never to be discovered.

Hindley died in November 2002 of a serious chest infection following a heart attack.

NOTES TO EDITORS

•    For an interview with David Kirwan or further information, please contact Nick Mason at Mason Media on 0151 239 5052 or 07903 237008.