Moors Murderer Brady 'treated as a special case'

Moors Murderer Ian Brady is being treated as a “special case” by the hospital fighting to halt his transfer to prison, his mental health tribunal heard today.

His barrister questioned whether Ashworth Hospital had “lost perspective” in being drawn into a battle with the child killer who has previously claimed he wants to kill himself in jail, where he cannot be force-fed.

Yesterday, Brady, 75, told the tribunal panel sitting at the maximum security hospital in Merseyside that he is not psychotic or insane and should be allowed to the serve the rest of his whole life term in prison.

Three independent experts called by Brady’s legal team have concluded that he is not mentally ill but agree he has a severe personality disorder.

Lawyers for Brady contend that that personality disorder can be managed by the prison system but officials at Ashworth argue that he is also a paranoid schizophrenic who still shows signs of chronic psychosis and needs round-the-clock care.

In her closing submission, Nathalie Lieven QC, for Brady, said there was no therapeutic benefit in Brady staying in Ashworth.

“His personality disorder is fixed and effectively static,” she said. “The reality is that he is being contained but is not gaining with treatment.

“There is no therapeutic benefit for Mr Brady to remain in hospital. There is an impasse between the hospital and the patient.”

She said he refuses medication for his condition and rejects any psychiatric treatment.

“Mr Brady is being treated as a special case – whether that’s because Ashworth has lost perspective and has been drawn into a battle or because of misplaced maternalism, it is not clear,” she said.

“It is beyond doubt that prisons are overcrowded but why is there any reason to keep him in hospital with the only benefit he can gain being what can only be described as benign containment?”

She said some of the evidence from Ashworth to keep him detained would not be conceivably submitted if it was another, less notorious patient than Brady.

There had been no recurrence of the psychosis which led to his transfer from jail to Ashworth in 1985, she said.

His condition rapidly improved once he was admitted but had not changed since, Miss Lieven added.

Recent cited incidents of hallucination all happened in his room and could be reasonably explained as Brady being “an elderly, socially isolated man talking to the television”, she said.

Claims that he hid in his room through paranoia of being attacked by other patients could also be attributed to the anti-social and narcissistic traits of his disorder.

She said his personality disorder could also explain large parts of his presentation when he gave evidence yesterday in which he referred to his crimes as “recreational killing” and said he committed the murders for an “existential experience”.

“The strongest features of his presentation were probably a refusal to accept blame, a total lack of insight, a lack of empathy and a sense of grandiosity,” said Miss Lieven.

On Brady’s refusal to answer why he wanted to return to prison and if he would starve himself, she said: “For whatever reason, Mr Brady wishes to be evasive or mysterious about prison and his intentions.”

She said there was no reason to believe he would immediately go on hunger strike in jail.

Despite evidence that he regularly eats toast and soup, she said his denial yesterday that he was eating by choice was because he could not show vulnerability or “loss of face”.

He would also have been tired from giving evidence at the end of a long tribunal – although he would not admit it, the barrister said.

In conclusion, she said that Brady’s personality disorder could be properly managed by a prison system now experienced in that field and his lack of mental illness meant it would be “utterly perverse” to treat him any differently from anyone else in similar circumstances.