Ian Brady and Myra Hindley were each sentenced to life imprisonment here today at the end of the Moors trial. Brady was found guilty of what Mr Justice Fenton Atkinson called ╥three calculated, cool, cold-blooded murders╙; Hindley was found guilty of two equally horrible murders.
The all-male jury found Hindley not guilty of the murder of John Kilbride (12), but guilty of being an accessory after the fact of his murder. On this charge she was given a concurrent sentence of seven years.
The verdicts and sentences came after a retirement of 2hr. 14min. by the jury, who had considered the evidence on seven separate charges. Brady and Hindley each pleaded not guilty to the murders of Edward Evans (17), Lesley Ann Downey (10) and John Kilbride. Hindley also denied the charge of being an accessory by harbouring Brady knowing him to have murdered Kilbride.
After listening to the judge sum up the evidence for nearly five hours, the jury retired at 2.40 p.m. They were back just over 1 1/2 hours later with a question for the judge. The court reassembled and the jury╒s question ╤ about the date on which Hindley bought two revolvers ╤ was settled in a few minutes by judge and counsel.
Soon after 5 p.m. Brady and Hindley mounted the 18 steps into the glass-screened dock for the last time.
Suddenly the court clerk was reading the charges to the jury foreman. The answers came swiftly: Brady guilty of murdering Evans, Downey, and Kilbride; Hindley guilty of murdering Evans and Downey, not guilty of murdering Kilbride, but guilty of harbouring Brady.
Only sentence
The Judge told Brady he would pass the only sentence the law now allowed. Brady who seemed unmoved, walked down the dock steps flanked by two prison officers. Hindley left the dock fully composed.
The Judge then turned to compliment the police. The murders, he said, had been brought to light by investigations of ╥the utmost skill.╙ The finding of the left-luggage ticket tucked down the spine of a Prayer Book belonging to Hindley was the sort of thoroughness which had led to the case.
Speaking of the ╥unfortunate affair with the newspaper,╙ the Judge said the offer of ú1,000 to one witness, Smith, for his story was a temptation to which he should never have been exposed. Smith accepted that he had a vested financial interest in the conviction of the accused, but it did not seem that his evidence had been affected by this ╥extraordinary arrangement.╙
