Coroner keen to ensure Ian Brady's ashes are not scattered on Saddleworth Moor

Ian Brady's body will not be released until assurances have been given that his ashes will not be scattered on Saddleworth Moor, a coroner has said.

Opening an inquest at Southport Town Hall into the 79-year-old killer's death, senior coroner for Sefton Christopher Sumner said he also wants assurances a funeral director and crematorium willing to take Brady's body have been found.

The Moors Murderer died at Ashworth High Secure Hospital in Maghull, Merseyside, just after 6pm on Monday.

The inquest heard his cause of death was cor pulmonale, a type of heart failure, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or lung disease.

Mr Sumner told the hearing he had received a request to release the body of Brady, also known as Ian Stewart-Brady.

He said: "I would like an assurance before I do so that first of all the person who asked to take over responsibility for that funeral has a funeral director willing to deal with the funeral and that he has a crematorium willing and able to cremate Mr Stewart-Brady's body.

"Emotions are high, I have looked at some of the newspaper headlines, they are bound to be.

"Emotions are high, they are bound to be, not so much in this area but in the Manchester area.

"I also wanted to have assurance that when Mr Stewart-Brady is cremated his ashes will not be scattered on Saddleworth Moor.

"I think that's a right and proper moral judgment to make.

"I think it would be offensive if Mr Stewart-Brady's ashes were scattered on Saddleworth Moor."

Brady's lawyer Robin Makin, the executor of his will, visited him in the hours before his death to discuss his legal wishes and funeral arrangements.

The Liverpool-based solicitor told the Press Association: "He was in the last hours of his life so he was pretty weak but we were able to discuss a few things and sort out what he wanted to be done."

Mr Makin said he did not think Brady had any information which would help the search for the body of 12-year-old Keith Bennett, the only victim of Brady and Myra Hindley whose remains have never been found.

He said: "I don't think useful information is going to come from him.

"I think that if he had been able to assist in its location it would have happened in the 1980s."

Solicitor John Ainley, who represented Keith's mother Winnie Johnson and works closely with Keith's brother, Alan, said he had written to Brady less than two months ago and appealed to him to "look at his conscience" and agree to a meeting to aid the search on Saddleworth Moor for missing Keith's body.

He received no reply.

He said: "It just remains to be seen whether information is passed over to the police after his death from his representatives but we have no information to confirm that as of yet.

"It seems a bit unlikely but we are not giving up hope."

Martin Bottomley, head of Greater Manchester Police's cold case review unit, said the case remained open and officers would act on "credible and actionable" information which would help them find the body of Keith.

He said: "Whilst we are not actively searching Saddleworth Moor, Greater Manchester Police will never close this case.

"Brady's death does not change that."

The eight-minute inquest hearing was told the serial killer, who had been on intermittent hunger strikes since 1999, had been treated by a palliative care team for the past two weeks because of his deteriorating health.

Coroner's officer Alby Howard-Murphy said no relatives of Brady's were known to the court.

The case was adjourned to a pre-inquest hearing on June 29.

In 1966, Brady and Hindley were jailed for life for the killings of John Kilbride, 12, 10-year-old Lesley Ann Downey and Edward Evans, 17.

They went on to admit the murders of Pauline Reade, 16, and Keith Bennett.

Glasgow-born Brady had been held at Ashworth since 1985.

Hindley died in jail aged 60 in November 2002.

In 2013 Brady asked to be moved to a Scottish prison so he could not be force fed, as he could be in hospital, and where he could be allowed to die if he wished.

His request was rejected after Ashworth medical experts said he had chronic mental illness and needed continued care in hospital.

In February, he was refused permission to launch a High Court fight to have the lawyer of his choice representing him at a tribunal where the decision would be reviewed.