Ian Brady even refused to co-operate with police on his death bed as cops made last ditch plea for Moors murderer to reveal where Keith Bennett’s body is buried

MOORS murderer Ian Brady refused to reveal the whereabouts of 12-year-old Keith Bennett in a final insult to the victim's family hours before his death.

Brady, 79, who murdered and tortured five children, died in Ashworth Hospital, Merseyside overnight.

The infamous child murderer, who had been getting round-the-clock care from cancer nurses, reportedly refused to show any remorse for his crimes in the hours before his death.

Family lawyer John Ainley told : "The police spoke to me in the course of the evening, and they were trying to have access to his papers.

"That's difficult without consent from his solicitors and a court order. They (the police) were trying, I think, to implore Brady at this very late stage to pass on any information or documents to them so they could carry out a meaningful search of the Moors."

He said both he and Alan had written to Brady in an attempt to get more information about what happened to Keith, but said he believed the "manipulative and controlling" killer instead "wanted to take this information to the grave".

He said: "The only hope is that he's passed information documents to his representatives and in the weeks to come, something will emerge but I don't the family have any great confidence in that."

Brady's own lawyer Robin Makin revealed he would be "very surprised" if the killer left any useful information about where Keith's body was, telling Radio 4: "He did go to the Moors a long time ago and I suspect that if there had been information for him that he could have provided, he would have provided it then."

He said he didn't personally have any information that could assist in the search for Keith, saying that he instead discussed Brady's legal wishes and funeral arrangements, with the killer aware that his death was "imminent".

The family of Keith Bennett have never given up the search through Saddleworth Moor for the young boy, who was snatched while on his way to his grandmother's house on June 16, 1964.

Cops have also vowed to not close the case into Keith's death, saying Brady's death would not change that.

Brady's final insult to his victim's family comes after a source revealed the upset around the murderer's own death, saying: "He was allowed to die with dignity, something he failed to offer his poor victims.”

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."

The crimes of Brady and Myra Hindley - who died in prison in 2002 - shocked the nation as details of how the pair snatched children off the street, abused and tortured them to death were recalled during their trial at Chester Assizes.

Brady escaped the hangman's noose as the death penalty was abolished just months earlier and was handed three life sentences.

The vile killer was born in Glasgow in 1938 and attended Shawlands Academy – a school for above-average pupils.

His violent personality was shaped by an unstable background.

His mother neglected him and he was raised by foster parents in the Gorbals – Glasgow’s toughest slum.

After a spree of petty crime as a teenager the courts sent him to Manchester to live with his mum and her new husband, Patrick Brady.

Ian took his stepfather’s name, continued his criminal activities and developed into a teenage alcoholic.

He pursued new interests in a bid to “better himself” – building up a library of books on Nazi Germany, sadism and sexual perversion.

Brady first met Myra Hindley when she worked as a secretary at the same company in Manchester where he was working as a stores clerk.

It was love at first sight and Brady impressed her by reading Mein Kampf in the original German.

On July 12, 1963, Brady told Hindley he wanted to “commit his perfect murder”.

He told her to drive a van around the local area while he followed on his motorbike.

After spotting Pauline Reade, 16, the couple stopped and Hindley asked her if she would help her locate an expensive glove she had lost on the Moor.

Hindley claimed Brady then took Pauline on to the Moor, where he slashed her throat twice and sexually assaulted her.

Brady claims that Hindley helped.

On November 23, 1963, Hindley approached John Kilbride in Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancs, and offered him a lift home.

Brady told the 12-year-old he would give him some sherry, but they would have to make a detour on the Moor first.

He sexually assaulted the youngster and attempted to slit his throat with a six-inch serrated blade before fatally strangling him with a piece of string.

Keith Bennett, 12, was on his way to his grandmother’s house on June 16, 1964, when Hindley lured him into her van.

She drove to a lay-by on the Moor and Brady took the boy while Hindley kept watch.

Brady reappeared 30 minutes later having sexually assaulted and strangled Keith.

His body was never found.

In search of another victim, the couple visited a fairground on Boxing Day, 1964, and came across Lesley Ann Downey.

They approached the 10-year-old and lured her back to their house, where she was undressed, gagged and forced to pose for photographs before being raped and killed.

The following morning Brady and Hindley drove with Downey’s body to Saddleworth Moor, where she was buried, naked with her clothes at her feet, in a shallow grave.

On 6 October 1965 Brady met 17-year-old apprentice engineer Edward Evans at Manchester Central railway station.

He invited him to his home where Brady beat him to death with an axe.

Eventually Brady and Hindley were arrested and then jailed for life for three murders in 1966.

They also later confessed to the others. Hindley died in hospital aged 60 in 2002.

In 1985, Brady was transferred from jail to Ashworth.

He has been on suicide watch for years and went on hunger strike in 1999 in protest at being declared insane.

Since then he has been kept alive by being force fed a liquid diet by nasal tube.

In 2013, Brady forced a £250,000 mental health tribune in which he claimed he was no longer a paranoid schizophrenic and should be moved to a jail in his native Scotland and allowed to die.

But he lost the ruling and was returned to Ashworth.