Brady: I’m a petty criminal, not insane

Offering his first ever public explanation for why he committed the Moors murders, Ian Brady said he was “a petty criminal” who killed his child victims for an “existential experience”.

The notorious killer told a mental health tribunal he was not psychotic or insane, and should be allowed to serve the rest of his whole life term in prison rather than a maximum security hospital.

He said he had used Stanislavski method acting skills to trick prison officials into believing he was mentally ill so that he could be moved to hospital in 1985. But he refused to be drawn on his previous stated intention to starve himself to death in jail as he told the tribunal panel: “I know what my plans are. They are nothing to do with anyone else.”