01 July 2023 , 14:38
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A psychiatric report into Moors Murderer Myra Hindley has given a rare insight into the mind of the killer.
Hindley - dubbed “the most evil woman in Britain” - was jailed in May 1966 for her part in a series of brutal murders with lover Ian Brady.
Brady and Hindley were jailed for the brutal murders of Lesley Ann Downey, 10, John Kilbride, 12, and 17-year-old Edward Evans.
Years later while in prison they also confessed to the murders of Keith Bennett, 12, and 16-year-old Pauline Reade. After killing their victims the couple buried them on Saddleworth Moors.
She spent 36 years in Holloway women’s prison before her death in 2002.
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A previously unseen letter between psychiatrists in the hospital has revealed that even behind bars she was still under the spell of Brady.
The letter stated: “She is still very much under the influence of Ian Brady"Dated December 1969, the letter - uncovered by the ‘Moors Murders’ case expert and author Darren Rae - stated that Hindley’s psychiatrist believed she “bore a smouldering antagonism and hostility to officialdom and society at large in a somewhat insightless way” when she first entered prison.
But after two-and-a-half years behind bars, “her attitudes are slowly changing and, consequently, her insight is improving”.
The psychiatrist states: “I have never been able to detect evidence of psychotic process and her attitude to life, at least at an intellectual level, does not appear to reflect evidence of gross psychopathic disturbance.”
But he warns Hindley was still refusing to fully open up to him: “I say this with great reservations as clearly there are still large areas of her emotional and psychic life that she does not allow me to intrude upon.”
And he concludes this is because of her continued devotion to Brady, even behind bars.
He wrote: “She is still very much under the influence of Ian Brady.
“This inhibits the development of therapeutic rapport between us and, as mentioned, limits the extent to which I am able to probe her mental state.”
(Corbis via Getty Images)After studying the letter, Darren said Hindley must have started psychiatric treatment almost as soon as she began her prison sentence.
But he believes the devious killer was still disguising her true thoughts and emotions and deceiving the shrinks.
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He said: “Hindley was already known as a master of manipulation, manifested in both her crimes committed and the double-life she led whilst committing them – was this being continued in jail?
“This may be another very clear example of Hindley’s cunning and extremely heightened intelligence and sense of survival.
“Clearly realising that she would have to adapt and alter her values, beliefs and attitudes to better suit and fit into her new prison surroundings, if she was to survive and live a safer and more comfortable life in prison.”
Darren explained, the fact the psychiatrist said she was starting to change in a “positive” way could simply be another example of Hindley’s ability to recognise what her ‘gatekeepers’ wanted to hear.
He said it was “incredible” they hadn’t detected any evidence of psychotic behaviour - while acknowledging Hindley was holding back.
“It was overwhelmingly clear, that for Hindley to lure, torture, murder and callously attempt to bury five child victims, along with Brady, in bleak moorland shallow graves, that she had to be psychopathic in nature.”
He added that he wasn’t surprised about her continued loyalty to Brady: “After just over two years in prison, it was clear that Hindley was still strongly in love with Ian Brady, and not just influenced by him, but actually taking instructions from him, encoded in the letters they exchanged.
“Brady would definitely have tutored, mentored and advised Hindley on what to say and how to act in prison, and the prison staff she would encounter, including the medical teams.
“Brady was a past master at surviving and thriving in jail, having already served several borstal and adult jail terms for various crimes.
“This would have played a major factor in how Brady would have acted out his perceived role as Hindley’s protector and loyal lover – until Hindley would have no further use for him.”