MOORS MURDERER IAN BRADY CREMATED AND ASHES BURIED AT SEA

Serial child killer Ian Brady was cremated and his ashes buried at sea in the middle of the night in a top secret operation, it can be reported.

The Moors Murderer, who used the name Ian Stewart-Brady, died aged 79 on May 15 this year and was incinerated without ceremony.

Ian Brady's ashes were buried at sea after being driven to Liverpool Marina last Wednesday, it has been confirmed.

The body was collected from the mortuary at Royal Liverpool hospital by a Tameside Council official at around 9pm on October 25, court documents show.

Under police escort the corpse was then taken to Southport Crematorium, where the cremation began at 10pm exactly.

No music or flowers were allowed.

Following this, Brady's ashes were placed in a weighted biodegradable urn, driven to Liverpool Marina and later dispatched at sea on Thursday, October 26, at 2.30am.

Brady had requested that he be cremated while a macabre piece of classical music which envisages a Satanic orgy was played.

Brady, who tortured and murdered five children in the 1960s with Myra Hindley, was rumoured to have requested his ashes were then scattered either on the Saddleworth Moors, where he buried his victims, or in Glasgow where he was born.

None of those requests were permitted thanks to a legal ruling.

A High Court judge said Brady's body must be disposed of without ceremony or music.

Tameside Council in Greater Manchester was given permission to make arrangements for the disposal of his ashes.

And today it can be reported that they were buried at sea.

The families of Brady's victims breathed a sigh of relief at the ruling against his final wishes.

The Chancellor of the High Court, Sir Geoffrey Vos, said details of Brady's cremation could not made public until a week after it had happened.

Terry West, the brother of Lesley-Ann Downey who was murdered aged 10 said: "My little sister didn't get to choose how she was buried, so I can't see why that evil swine should have any say in what happens to him.

"If I had my way, I would just flush his ashes down the toilet."

Brady died in May this year but his body remained in a secret location.

The twisted killer wanted the fifth movement of Hector Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique played at his funeral - a piece that the composer envisaged as a 'witches sabbath', where hideous monsters gathered to laugh at a burial.

But Judge Vos said it would be 'legitimately offensive' to the families of Brady's victim's to have the music played.

Sir Geoffrey had been asked by two local authorities to make decisions relating to the disposal of the serial killer's body so that it can be "lawfully and decently disposed of without further delay".

In his ruling, the judge said: "As to the playing of the fifth movement of the Symphony during the cremation, I need only quote the description of that movement from Wikipedia for it to be seen how inappropriate it would be:

"'Fifth movement: "Songe d'une nuit du sabbat" (Dream of the Night of the Sabbath): In both the program notes, 

Berlioz wrote:

"'[The musician] sees himself at a witches' sabbath, in the midst of a hideous gathering of shades, sorcerers and monsters of every kind who have come together for his funeral.

"'Strange sounds, groans, outbursts of laughter; distant shouts which seem to be answered by more shouts.

"'The beloved melody appears once more, but has now lost its noble and shy character; it is now no more than a vulgar dance tune, trivial and grotesque: it is she who is coming to the sabbath ... Roar of delight at her arrival ... She joins the diabolical orgy ...

"'The funeral knell tolls, burlesque parody of the Dies irae, the dance of the witches ...'.

"I have no difficulty in understanding how legitimate offence would be caused to the families of the deceased's victims once it became known that this movement had been played at his cremation. I decline to permit it."

Four of Brady and Hindley's victims were buried on Saddleworth Moor in the south Pennines.

Oldham and Tameside councils, which cover the hilly area near Manchester, made an application at the High Court to block Brady's ashes being scattered on Saddleworth Moors, where his victims are buried.

At the inquest in May, Coroner Christopher Sumner had sought assurances the ashes would not be scattered there.

Amid protests from Brady's lawyer Robin Makin, Mr Sumner said he did not have the power to make the request but believed it was the "right moral judgement".

Brady and Hindley were jailed for life for torturing and murdering John Kilbride, 12, Lesley Ann Downey, 10, and Edward Evans, 17.

They admitted killing Pauline Reade, 16, and Keith Bennett, 12, whose body has never been found.