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Revealed: How Margaret Thatcher intervened to keep Moors murderers Ian Brady and Myra Hindley in prison

Margaret Thatcher intervened to keep the Moors murderers in prison and dubbed their crimes “the most hideous and evil in modern times”, The Telegraph can reveal. 

A new archived document never before seen in public has been uncovered showing the Tory prime minister demanding the killers stayed incarcerated for “ever”. 

Mrs Thatcher also ordered extra security for Ian Brady when he was being transferred into a new prison “to make doubly sure that this maniac cannot escape”. 

I do not think that  either  of these prisoners should ever be released from custody. Their crime was the most hideous and evil in modern times

Margaret Thatcher

The intervention came after it was suggested during her premiership that Myra Hindley might be put up for release in 1995 and Brady in 2005. 

The comments are contained in a note from Mrs Thatcher scrawled in blue ink which has been uncovered by Government officials.

The document – stamped with the Home Office’s seal – has not yet been made public but has been seen by this newspaper. 

The Moors murders were a spate of killings which took place in 1963 and 1964 which became known as one of Britain’s most notorious crimes. 

Brady and Hindley sexually assaulted children aged between 10 and 16 and buried their bodies on Saddleworth Moor, near Manchester in northern England.

Both were sentenced to life imprisonment in 1966, with the judge noting the “utmost skill and thoroughness" of the police had bought the killers to justice. 

Whitehall officials have now discovered that decades later Mrs Thatcher had a role in keeping the killers in jail. 

A note from Mrs Thatcher on a letter from Leon Brittan, her Home Secretary, has been found about when the killers could be put up for release.

Profile | Ian Brady

Mr Brittan wrote on 25 February 1985 suggesting that that Hindley could be put up for release in 1995 and Brady in 2005. 

However Mrs Thatcher wrote in response: “I think the sentences you are proposed are too short. I do not think that  either  of these prisoners should ever be released from custody. Their crime was the most hideous and evil in modern times.”

Mrs Thatcher is understood to also comment on the proposed transfer of Brady from Gartree prison to Park Lane Hospital, a high security psychiatric hospital. 

“I hope that extra security will be put on to make doubly sure that this maniac cannot escape,” she writes. 

The notes are understood to have been uncovered by Whitehall officials looking into a request for documents linked to the Brady case.

Reference to Mrs Thatcher’s comments is believed to have been made in emails between civil servants at a later date. 

About | The Moors Murders

Mrs Thatcher's intervention came at a time when a debate was raging in British politics about the leniency of sentences.

Her government was under pressure from Tory backbenchers to bring back the death penalty for murder. 

Motions bringing about the change had been debated in Parliament in 1979, 1982 and 1983 but failed to win a majority. 

Polls at the time showed that a majority of the public favored capital punishment for at least some offenses. 

In response, Mr Brittain proposed toughen up sentencing in Britain by giving people the power to appeal if the ruling was felt to be too lenient.