Editing Moors murders (section)

===Hindley===
Hindley lodged an unsuccessful appeal against her conviction immediately after the trial.<ref>{{cite news |title=Myra Hindley Loses Murder Appeal |newspaper=The Times |publisher=Times Digital Archive |date=18 October 1966 |page=1 |issue=56765 |url=http://infotrac.galegroup.com/itw/infomark/535/223/73522511w16/purl=rc1_TTDA_0_CS18443090&dyn=29!xrn_2_0_CS18443090&hst_1?sw_aep=mclib |access-date=25 September 2009 |mode=cs2 |url-access=subscription}}</ref> She corresponded with Brady by letter until 1971, when she ended their relationship. The two remained in sporadic contact for several months,{{sfnp|Ritchie|1988|p=162|ps=none}} but Hindley had fallen in love with one of her prison warders, Patricia Cairns. A former assistant governor claimed that such relationships were not unusual in Holloway at that time, as "many of the officers were [[lesbianism|gay]], and involved in relationships either with one another or with inmates".{{sfnp|Staff|2007|p=250|ps=none}} Hindley successfully petitioned to have her status as a [[Prisoner security categories in the United Kingdom|Category A]] prisoner changed to Category B, which enabled Governor Dorothy Wing to take her on a walk round [[Hampstead Heath]], part of her unofficial policy of reintroducing her charges to the outside world when she felt they were ready. The excursion caused a furore in the national press and earned Wing an official rebuke from the then-Home Secretary [[Robert Carr]].{{sfnp|Ritchie|1988|pp=164–166|ps=none}} With help from Cairns, and the outside contacts of another prisoner, Maxine Croft, Hindley planned a prison escape, but it was thwarted when impressions of the prison keys were intercepted by an off-duty policeman. Cairns was sentenced to six years in jail for her part in the plot.{{sfnp|Staff|2007|pp=250–253|ps=none}}

Hindley was told that she should spend twenty-five years in prison before being considered for parole. The [[Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales|Lord Chief Justice]] agreed with that recommendation in 1982, but in January 1985 Home Secretary [[Leon Brittan]] increased her tariff to thirty years.<ref name="bbcsummary">{{cite news|title=What will Hindley's lawyers argue?|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/special_report/1997/myra_hindley/37335.stm|work=BBC News|date=7 December 1997|access-date=12 June 2007|mode=cs2}}</ref> By that time Hindley claimed to be a reformed Catholic. Downey's mother was at the centre of a campaign to ensure that Hindley was never released from prison, and until her death in February 1999, she regularly gave television and newspaper interviews whenever Hindley's release was rumoured.<ref>{{cite news|title=Last wish of Moors murder mother|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/277440.stm|date=11 February 1999|work=BBC News|access-date=5 July 2009|mode=cs2}}</ref> In February 1985, [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|Prime Minister]] [[Margaret Thatcher]] told Brittan that his proposed minimum sentences of thirty years for Hindley and forty years for Brady were too short, saying, "I do not think that either of these prisoners should ever be released from custody. Their crime was the most hideous and cruel in modern times."<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/jul/20/margaret-thatcher-moors-murderers-ian-brady-myra-hindley|title=Thatcher overruled minister to keep Moors murderers locked up for life|last=Travis|first=Alan|date=20 July 2017|work=The Guardian |access-date=20 July 2017|mode=cs2}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-39938520|title=Ian Brady: How the Moors Murderer came to symbolise pure evil|last=Easton|first=Mark|date=20 May 2017|work=BBC News |access-date=14 February 2018|quote=Margaret Thatcher described their crimes as "the most hideous and evil in modern times".|mode=cs2}}</ref>

In 1987, Hindley admitted that the plea for parole she had submitted to the Home Secretary eight years earlier was "on the whole&nbsp;... a pack of lies",{{sfnp|Topping|1989|p=140|ps=none}} and to some reporters her co-operation in the searches on Saddleworth Moor "appeared a cynical gesture aimed at ingratiating herself to the parole authorities".<ref name="GuardianObit" /> Then-Home Secretary [[David Waddington, Baron Waddington|David Waddington]] imposed a [[whole life tariff]] on Hindley in July 1990, after she confessed to having been more involved in the murders than she had admitted.<ref name="bbcsummary"/> Hindley was not informed of the decision until 1994, when a [[Law Lords]] ruling obliged the [[Her Majesty's Prison Service|Prison Service]] to inform all life sentence prisoners of the minimum period they must serve in prison before being considered for parole.<ref name="gtl">{{cite news|title=Timetable of Moors murders case|url=https://www.theguardian.com/crime/article/0,2763,841020,00.html|newspaper=The Guardian|date=15 November 2002|access-date=12 June 2007|mode=cs2}}</ref> In 1996, the [[Parole Board for England and Wales|Parole Board]] recommended that Hindley be moved to an [[open prison]].<ref name="IT96">{{Cite news|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/news/howard-considers-moving-hindley-to-open-prison-1.29391|title=Howard considers moving Hindley to open prison|last=Borrill|first=Rachel|date=10 February 1996|newspaper=The Irish Times |access-date=22 August 2019|mode=cs2}}</ref> She rejected the idea and in early 1998 was moved to the medium-security [[HM Prison Highpoint North|HM Prison Highpoint]];{{sfnp|Lee|2010|p=354|ps=none}} the House of Lords ruling left open the possibility of later freedom. Between December 1997 and March 2000, Hindley made three separate appeals against her life tariff, claiming she was a reformed woman and no longer a danger to society, but each was rejected by the courts.<ref>{{cite news|title=Regina v. Secretary of State For The Home Department, Ex Parte Hindley|url=https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld199900/ldjudgmt/jd000330/hind.htm|publisher=House of Lords|date=30 March 2000|access-date=16 March 2007|mode=cs2}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=1966: Moors murderers jailed for life|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/6/newsid_2512000/2512119.stm|work=BBC News|access-date=12 June 2007|date=6 May 1966|mode=cs2}}</ref>

When in 2002 another life sentence prisoner challenged the [[Powers of the home secretary|Home Secretary's power]] to set minimum terms, Hindley and hundreds of others, whose tariffs had been increased by politicians, looked likely to be released.<ref>{{cite news|title=Killer challenges "whole life" tariff|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/2345049.stm|work=BBC News|date=21 October 2002|access-date=12 June 2007|mode=cs2}}</ref> Hindley's release seemed imminent and plans were made by supporters for her to be given a new identity.<ref>{{cite news|title=Hindley could be freed 'in months'|newspaper=[[London Evening Standard]]|date=10 September 2002|mode=cs2}}</ref> Home Secretary [[David Blunkett]] ordered the GMP to find new charges against Hindley to prevent her release from prison. The investigation was headed by Superintendent Tony Brett, and initially looked at charging Hindley with the murders of Reade and Bennett, but the advice given by government lawyers was that because of the DPP's decision taken fifteen years earlier, a new trial would probably be considered an [[abuse of process]].{{sfnp|Staff|2007|pp=17–18|ps=none}}

On 25 November 2002, the Law Lords agreed that judges, not politicians, should decide how long a criminal spends behind bars, and stripped the Home Secretary of the power to set minimum sentences.<ref>{{cite news|title=Raising killers' hopes of freedom|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2511361.stm|work=BBC News|date=25 November 2002|access-date=12 June 2007|first=Peter|last=Gould|mode=cs2}}</ref> Just prior to this, on 15{{nbsp}}November 2002, Hindley, aged 60 and a [[chain smoking|chain smoker]], died from [[bronchial pneumonia]] at [[West Suffolk Hospital]].{{sfnp|Lee|2010|p=346|ps=none}} She had been diagnosed with [[angina]] in 1999 and hospitalised after suffering a [[brain aneurysm]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/3304454/Myra-Hindley-the-Moors-monster-dies-after-36-years-in-jail.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220111/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/3304454/Myra-Hindley-the-Moors-monster-dies-after-36-years-in-jail.html |archive-date=11 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=Myra Hindley, the Moors monster, dies after 36 years in jail|last1=Sapsted|first1=David|date=16 November 2002|work=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |access-date=20 September 2018|last2=Bunyan|first2=Nigel|mode=cs2}}{{cbignore}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Inquest tribute to Hindley's victims|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/2489539.stm|work=BBC News|date=18 November 2002|access-date=1 October 2009|mode=cs2}}</ref> Camera crews "stood rank and file behind steel barriers" outside, but none of Hindley's relatives were among the small congregation of eight to ten people who attended a short service at [[Cambridge]] crematorium.{{sfnp|Lee|2010|p=10|ps=none}} Such was the strength of feeling more than thirty-five years after the murders that a reported twenty local undertakers refused to handle her cremation.<ref>{{cite news|last=Addley|first=Esther|title=Funeral pariah|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2002/nov/21/ukcrime.estheraddley|newspaper=The Guardian|date=21 November 2002|access-date=29 September 2009|mode=cs2}}</ref> Four months later, her ashes were scattered by her ex-partner, Patricia Cairns, less than {{convert|10|mi|km}} from Saddleworth Moor in Stalybridge Country Park.{{sfnp|Staff|2007|p=18|ps=none}}{{sfnp|Lee|2010|p=22|ps=none}} The ''[[Manchester Evening News]]'' reported on possible fears that this would result in visitors choosing to avoid or vandalise the park.<ref>{{cite news|title=Hindley's ashes "scattered in park"|url=http://docs.newsbank.com/openurl?ctx_ver=z39.88-2004&rft_id=info:sid/iw.newsbank.com:AWNB:MENB&rft_val_format=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:ctx&rft_dat=0F9C7BC5D0C70968&svc_dat=InfoWeb:aggregated5&req_dat=1054640702C8DBC0|newspaper=Manchester Evening News|date=27 February 2003|access-date=8 August 2009 |mode=cs2 |url-access=subscription}}</ref>