Ex-cop haunted by sick tape recording of Ian Brady’s youngest victim Lesley Ann Downey pleading for her life with Little Drummer Boy playing in the background
A FORMER police chief has revealed he is still haunted by a recording of Ian Brady’s youngest victim begging for her life.
John Stalker says the tune Little Drummer Boy sends a “chill down my spine” every time he hears it.
Evil killers Brady and Myra Hindley played the Christmas classic in the background as 10-year-old Lesley Ann Downey pleaded for her life in 1964.
Mr Stalker said: “Our revulsion at her murder remains undiminished.
“Nothing in criminal behaviour has penetrated my heart with quite the same paralysing intensity.
“It’s an innocent children’s Christmas song but a chill goes down my spine every time I hear The Little Drummer Boy because it reminds me of Myra Hindley.”
Twisted Brady, 79, who murdered and tortured five children, died in Ashworth Hospital, Merseyside, last night.
The harrowing 16-minute clip of Lesley’s dying screams was played inside a courtroom.
Two women in the public gallery held their hands to their ears as she cried her neck hurt and “I cannot breathe”.
Lesley was the sick pair’s youngest victim and her body found in a shallow grave on Saddleworth Moor, Lancs,.
Mr Stalker added: “The song brings back terrible memories of having to listen to a tape of Hindley and her accomplice Ian Brady torturing a terrified little Lesley Ann Downey with that music playing in the background.
“I first heard the tape when I was a detective sergeant in Manchester investigating the Moors Murders.
“When the 16-minute tape was played at the police station before the trial, I saw senior detectives and legendary crime reporters – hard men who had been through the war and seen terrible things – dissolve into tears.
“Anybody unfortunate enough to have to listen to her harrowing, last desperate moments could not fail to conclude that Hindley was evil and an equal partner with Brady in the crimes.”
Vile Brady has taken the secret of where he buried Keith Bennett to his grave.
He had been getting round-the-clock care from cancer nurses.
A source said: “He was allowed to die with dignity, something he failed to offer his poor victims.”
Brady never revealed where he buried Keith, 12 — the only victim whose remains are undiscovered.
The brother of Ian Brady victim John Kilbride last night told The Sun he felt “numb” when he heard the Moors Murderer had finally joined accomplice Myra Hindley in hell.
Terry Kilbride, 63, said: “It’s a lot to take in. It’s been years and years of anguish and pain for us and the families of the victims.
“But nothing will change. He’s dead but we will have to still live with the nightmare that he left behind.
“He’s ruined our lives all these years and he’ll still ruin it even though he’s gone. I feel numb.
“He was a murderous psychopath. There are no other words to describe what he was. A complete lunatic. Good riddance.
“I don’t drink, but I’ll have a pint.”
A spokesman for the Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust said: “We can confirm a 79-year-old patient in long term care at Ashworth High Secure Hospital has died after becoming physically unwell.”
Brady was not found dead in his room in the Merseyside unit, the spokesman said, but he was unable to confirm if anyone was with him when he died, adding: “Quite possibly. I don’t know.”