Britain's most notorious child killer of 20th century dies aged 79

Ian Brady, the slayer of children who became known as the notorious Moors murderer has died in a secure hospital aged 79.

Brady and his lover accomplice Myra Hindley shocked Britain in the 1960s for the way they lured young children, tortured and killed them, and buried their bodies on a remote moorland on the outskirts of Manchester. The couple tape recorded the crying pleas for mercy from their young victims.

So heinous were their crimes, Brady and Hindley, who died in prison in 2002, will go down in criminal history as two of the worst murderers of the 20th century.

Officials at the high security Ashworth Hospital on the outskirts of Liverpool confirmed Monday night that their most notorious patient had died. Brady had spent years campaigning to be moved to an ordinary prison because at Ashworth, a psychiatric hospital, he was force fed during periods when he was on hunger strike. Media reports said Brady had been receiving palliative care suffering from terminal cancer.

The Daily Mirror tabloid newspaper reflected the mood of the nation with a front page banner headline Tuesday saying "Burn in Hell Brady" while the Metro national newspaper on its front page describes Brady as a monster who became one of the most notorious killers of the 20th century.

Brady has taken to his grave the location of the grave of one of his victims, Keith Bennett, aged 12, whose body has never been found. He was one of five young children to die at the hands of Brady and Hindley. Bennett's mother died in 2012 without ever being able to give her son a decent funeral after Brady ignored her desperate pleas to him to reveal where the boy's body had been left. Bennett's family continue their search to this day for his body.

Brady was given a life sentence in 1966 for three child murders and he later confessed to two more. Hindley was also jailed for life.

A Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust spokesman said their most infamous patient died after becoming physically unwell.

Four of the victims were buried on Saddleworth Moor, on the Pennines, the mountains that straddle Northern England.

At the trial of Brady and Hindley the jury had to listen to the heartbreaking tape recordings of their victims, pleading for their lives.

The slaying of Brady and Hindley's youngest victim, Lesley Ann Downey, aged 10, at Christmastime in 1964 sealed their reputation for pure wickedness.

The girl's final moments alive were recorded by her killers in a harrowing 16-minute long audio tape.

At the trial of the two child killers, her cries reduced the judge, jury, courtroom spectators and even hardened police officers to tears.

Brady had spent more than half a century locked up for crimes still talked about in Britain today.

Such is the notoriety of the Moors murderers that after 50 years the death of killer Brady wiped news of Britain's general election off most of the national tabloid newspapers. Endit