Police working on Bennett murder
A file was being compiled by police and the Crown Prosecution Service which could have seen her charged with the murders of Keith Bennett and Pauline Reade.
Hindley, who died in hospital last Friday, and Ian Brady both admitted the killings during the 1980s, around 20 years after being jailed for the murders of 10-year-old Lesley Ann Downey and Edward Evans, 17.
Brady was also convicted of the murder of 12-year-old John Kilbride.
Now, it is thought fresh charges were being prepared that could have thwarted any hopes Hindley had of winning freedom through the European Courts.
The move followed a ruling by the European Court in June which said Home Secretaries had no right to
determine how long killers be kept behind bars.
Police began working on the file after being contacted by lawyers working for Winnie Johnson, the mother of Keith Bennett.
Throughout much of her incarceration, Hindley had clung to the hope that she might one day win her freedom despite the determination of successive home secretaries that she should die behind bars.
She had spent 36 years in jail before she died, aged 60, last Friday. She was originally ordered to be imprisoned for no longer than 30 years.
But yesterday, it emerged new charges against both she and Brady, now 64, were being considered. If charges were brought, Hindley would have been kept in prison while they were sent to crown court, where it was hoped she would plead guilty to the killings she admitted in the mid-1980s.
A police spokesman said: “Greater Manchester Police and the CPS were contacted by Winnie Johnson, the mother of Keith Bennett, following the European Court ruling in June and the forthcoming case of Anderson. Since then, we have reviewed the situation with regard to the possibility of further criminal charges, including examining the evidence from the 1960s and 1980s alongside specialists from the CPS.
“That work is still ongoing and a report will be produced. At the time of Hindley’s death, the matter was being considered by us and the CPS and the report is likely to be completed in the next few weeks. No options have as yet been ruled out.”
Greater Suffolk Coroner Peter Dean was yesterday conducting an inquest at Highpoint Prison near Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, where Hindley served the last years of her life sentence.
A post-mortem yesterday on Hindley found she had died from from a combination of bronchial pneumonia and hypertension.
Earlier, the executor of Hindley’s will revealed she would be cremated later this week.
Her solicitor for 15 years, Andrew McCooey, said the date of the funeral had not yet been fixed.
He said Hindley was genuinely repentant for the horrific crimes she committed with Ian Brady.
