Ian Brady's notoriety 'not diminished', report finds

Ian Brady giving evidence at the mental health tribunal

Moors Murderer Ian Brady's notoriety "has not diminished", a judge has ruled as he rejected his transfer bid.

His move to a Scottish jail from Merseyside's Ashworth Hospital was refused by a tribunal last June.

In a 115-page report released on Friday, Judge Robert Atherton said the 76-year-old's application was turned down for "his own safety".

It was "necessary" for him to be held at the psychiatric hospital for treatment, he added.

Brady and Myra Hindley, who died in 2002, tortured and murdered five children in Greater Manchester in the 1960s.

He was jailed in 1966 for three counts of murder and since 1985 has been detained at the top-security psychiatric hospital.

'Very difficult man'

Judge Atherton said that when Brady was last in prison "he was much younger".

He said the mass murderer, who has been on hunger strike for several years, was "a very difficult man to nurse" and could be subversive and make attempts to "split off groups of staff".

Brady has personality disorders that are anti-social and narcissistic. He was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in 1985 and his present mental condition is deemed "complex."

During the tribunal, Brady claimed his behaviour in 1985 was "a charade" and he "feigned" mental illness.

While still in prison in 1983 he had repeatedly banged his head against a wall and the following year he added excessive salt to his food.

The tribunal rejected Brady's assertion that he was not suffering from schizophrenia in 1985, when he was admitted to Ashworth Hospital in Maghull.

'Pig noises'

The symptoms were "too severe" to be feigned and maintained over a protracted period, the report found.

In 2012, Brady was "baring his teeth and spitting" towards charge nurse Mark Sheppard. Later, he made "pig noises" at an unnamed doctor.

Brady was interviewed on 10 occasions since 2003 but without co-operation, "diagnosis is difficult", the report said.

Doctors said Brady had 11 hallucinations between 2010 and 2012 "clear evidence" of continuing psychosis.

Nurses said he "does break his hunger strike and take food. The staff do not highlight it, but it is happening," according to the report.

On Thursday, he was returned to Ashworth Hospital after treatment for breaking bones in a fall.