Moors murderer Ian Brady will have his mental health tribunal hearing held in public this summer, a judge has ruled.
The hearing, only the second time such a case has been held in public, will begin on July 9th and is expected to take eight days.
The tribunal will take place at Ashworth high security psychiatric hospital in Sefton, Merseyside, and be relayed to the civil justice centre in Manchester, where the public will be able to observe the proceedings, Judge Robert Atherton ruled.
The hearing will be a rare chance to see the Moors murderer in public.
But no members of the public will be admitted to the hearing room at the hospital, and “further consideration” is being given as to whether any members of the media will be allowed in the room, the judge said.
Brady and his partner, Myra Hindley, were responsible for the murders of five children in the 1960s.
They lured children and teenagers to their deaths, with victims sexually tortured before being buried on Saddleworth Moor above Manchester.
Pauline Reade (16), disappeared on her way to a disco on July 12th, 1963 and John Kilbride (12), was snatched in November the same year.
Keith Bennett (12) was snatched on June 16th, 1964 after he left home to visit his grandmother; Lesley Ann Downey (10), was lured away from a funfair on Boxing Day 1964; and Edward Evans (17), was killed in October 1965.
Brady was given life at Chester Assizes in 1966 for the murders of John, Lesley Ann and Edward.
Hindley was convicted of killing Lesley Ann and Edward and shielding Brady after John’s murder, and jailed for life.
In 1987 the pair finally admitted killing Keith and Pauline.
Both were taken back to Saddleworth Moor in 1987 to help police find the remains of the missing victims but only Pauline’s body was found.
Keith’s mother Winnie Johnson has made repeated calls for Brady to reveal the location of his grave.
She said in December that said she wanted to come “face-to-face” with her son’s killer.
Mrs Johnson (78), of Longsight, Manchester, said she wanted to be at Brady’s hearing to see if he would reveal where he had buried her son.
“I would like to go to hear it myself,” she said. “I want to listen to what he has got to say, if he is going to say anything important.
“I have never seen him face to face. It would hurt but the point is I want to be there. The only way I can find out is going and facing him.”
Hindley died in jail in November 2002, aged 60.
Brady has spent the last 25 years at the high-security Ashworth Hospital in Merseyside.
Brady, who was born in Glasgow, wants to be transferred to a Scottish prison and be allowed to die.
In October last year, the first psychiatric patient to have an appeal against detention held in public lost his legal battle to be freed from Broadmoor Hospital.
Albert Haines (52), made legal history when he successfully argued that his case should be considered at an open hearing.
But a mental health tribunal ruled that the nature or degree of his mental disorder meant he should not be released from the high-security psychiatric institution.
PA