The journalist who covered the Moors Murders trial in Chester for The Chronicle said reporting on it ‘felt like a bad dream and still does today’.
Following the death of Ian Brady this week, David Parry-Jones, who later became The Chronicle’s editor, recalled that even ‘toughened Fleet Street journalists’ flinched when Chester Assizes was played a tape of 10-year-old victim Lesley-Ann Downey pleading for her life.
“The court was totally silent but throughout, Ian Brady sat stony-faced without emotion next to his easily led solemn looking partner Myra Hindley,” remembers David. “I sat through the weeks of evidence, witnessing first hand the gruesome events unfolding.
“Brady and Hindley were seated behind specially erected bullet proof glass screens for security reasons, as emotions ran high. The pair never uttered a word in the dock, even to each other.
“Their game was up and they sensed it - thanks to plucky Cheshire policeman Bob Talbot dressing as a milkman to gain early morning entry to their Hyde house in 1965, where the murders took place,” added David.
“Reporting on it for The Chronicle felt like a bad dream then and still does today. Many who witnessed the sordid evidence of the Moors Murders trial and wished ill to evil Ian Brady and his partner Myra Hindley can rest satisfied both are now dead.”
