This week we are reflecting on the need to care for relatives of murder victims…
Described by his court judge as 'wicked beyond belief', the late Ian Brady and his accomplice the late Myra Hindley are regarded as two of Britain's most depraved criminals. Back in the 1960s they abducted, tortured and murdered five children. They buried their first four victims on Saddleworth Moor in West Yorkshire, but then were caught before they could bury the final child. Two of the buried children were discovered soon afterwards before The Moors Murderers, as Brady and Hindley became known, were jailed on whole life sentences.
Bodies
I first became aware of these horrors, which took place a full decade before I was born, during a 1980s school trip. It was a biology field trip requiring us to drive through the West Yorkshire Moors, but our bus was not allowed to go the way the driver had planned. In the distance we noticed lots of police officers. What was going on? That night's TV news provided the explanation: one of the notorious Moors Murderers had been taken back to Saddleworth Moor to assist police in locating the two missing bodies. Indeed, that search was partially successful because later that year a fourth body, that of Pauline Reade, was discovered.
And now, 35 years later and acting on information regarding the recent discovery of possible human remains, police officers have returned once more to Saddleworth. Will the final body, that of Keith Bennett, now be discovered? We won't know for some time. And while we wait to hear the police's conclusions, I have been reflecting on the long-term consequences for the relatives left behind...
Living
This particular atrocity - the killing of Pauline Reade, John Kilbride, Keith Bennett, Lesley Ann Downey and Edward Evans - happened in 1963-1965. From then on the perpetrators were tucked away in prisons and a psychiatric hospital, until they died in 2002 and 2017 respectively.
The five children's families though remained in the real world, having to get on with the business of living…
Not having a body to grieve over may be tremendously hard: Keith's mother spent the rest of her life searching for his remains until her own death in 2012 when her mission passed onto her surviving son, Keith’s brother; and Pauline's mother ended up in a psychiatric hospital.
Although finding a body may help the grieving process, it does not necessarily stop the pain and stress. John's parents divorced. And Lesley Ann's mother had persistent nightmares requiring medication for years, though she still campaigned tirelessly to ensure that Hindley remained in prison; when she died in 1999, it is said that she vowed to haunt Hindley who survived her by three years.
Sequelae
Several of these relatives tried to communicate with their children’s killers. They wanted information. What might or might not have been communicated each way is outside the scope of this article. Yet, even if Hindley and Brady had seen fit to cooperate fully in what these days is often termed restorative justice initiatives, it may not have been enough to end the relatives’ distress.
Living in the knowledge that a loved one has been killed in a brutal fashion can have dreadful long-term sequelae for one's mental, physical and social functioning. So we healthcare professionals need to keep a special lookout for the health and wellbeing of patients known to be living in the shadow of such trauma.
Be merciful to me, Lord, for I am in distress; my eyes grow weak with sorrow, my soul and body with grief. My life is consumed by anguish and my years by groaning; my strength fails because of my affliction, and my bones grow weak.
Dr Rachael Pickering is our voluntary Chief Medical Officer.
Her personal opinions are not necessarily the same as those of Integritas Healthcare.
This article was originally posted elsewhere on this site on 30th September 2022