Serial killer Ian Brady dead at age 79

His death, revealed late on Monday night, came just hours after he was urged to “do the right thing” and reveal where the last of his child victims is buried.

A Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust spokesman said: “We can confirm a 79-year-old patient in long term care at Ashworth High Secure Hospital has died after becoming physically unwell.”

The serial killer, who used the name Ian Stewart-Brady before his death, was a patient at Ashworth Hospital on Merseyside where he was reportedly receiving palliative care.

At a court hearing in February lawyers said he had been bedridden for the last couple of years and it was “fair to say” he was terminally ill, with emphysema among his ailments.

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

Four of the victims were buried on Saddleworth Moor in the south Pennines.

Brady was jailed for three murders in 1966 and had been at Ashworth since 1985.

He and Hindley later confessed to another two murders.

In 2013 he asked to be moved to a Scottish prison so he could not be force fed, as he could be in hospital, and where he could be allowed to die if he wishes.

His request was rejected after Ashworth medical experts said he had chronic mental illness and needed continued care in hospital.

In February he was refused permission to launch a High Court fight to have the lawyer of his choice representing him at a tribunal where the decision would be reviewed.

Terry Kilbride, whose brother John, 12, was also murdered by Brady, begged him to tell police where he dumped the body of Keith Bennett, who went missing aged 12 in 1964.

Before Brady’s death he had told The Sun: “I would beg him to do the right thing on his deathbed and tell us where Keith is.

“Now is the time for him to stop playing tricks and come clean.

“If he takes it to the grave, I will feel so sorry for Keith’s family.

“There will only ever be another search if there’s fresh evidence. That has to come from him.”

Mr Kilbride said: “We’ll certainly celebrate his death when it comes. Good riddance.”

He told ITV News: “I don’t drink but I will have a pint.

“And I think that will be the opinion of most people.”

Ian Brady and Myra Hindley snatched children off the street, sexually abused them and tortured them to death.

Their first victim was 16-year-old Pauline Reade, who vanished on July 12, 1963, on her way to a disco near her home in Gorton, Manchester.

She was lured to the moors by Hindley who said she had lost her gloves there and needed help finding them.

Four months after Pauline vanished, 12-year-old John Kilbride became Brady’s second victim.

The body of the third victim, Keith Bennett, 12, has never been found. He died after leaving his home in Chorlton-on-Medlock in Manchester on June 16 1964.

Lesley Ann Downey, 10, was killed on Boxing Day in 1964, after being lured from a fairground. Her last moments were recorded on a 16-minute audio tape

The last victim Edward Evans, 17, was lured from a gay bar to a home then shared by Hindley and Brady on the Hattersley estate at Hyde.