Ian Brady's chilling five-word response to pleas to open mystery locked suitcases

Ian Brady had a short and infuriating answer for police begging him to handover briefcases they believed would blow open the final and unsolved Moors murder case.

This month, a lawyer for the family of the final victim, whose remains were never found after Brady refused to reveal the little boy's location, said he has fresh hope for accessing the briefcases left behind by Myra Hindley's lover.

John Ainley represents the family of 12-year-old Keith Bennett - one of five children killed by the notorious couple.

Keith's mother Winnie Johnson tragically died in 2012. Her devastating wish was to find her son's body and give him a proper funeral, something she could not achieve.

Ainley said Keith's family and the police had been trying for years to get their hands on the briefcases, thought to contain personal papers which could provide clues about where Keith is buried.

Moments before Brady died in 2017 he handed over the locked briefcases to his solicitor with instructions they should not be opened before his death.

The day after his death a district judge refused police access to the suitcases deciding there was no point for Brady and Hindley to be tried for the murder of Keith.

The judge had concluded there was no prospect of an investigation leading to a prosecution. According to Duncan Staff, the author of Lost Boy, when Professor Malcolm McCulloch interviewed Brady to learn more about the fate of Keith, Brady said simply: "I know. You don't know. You want to know. And I'm not going to tell you."

Brady buried four of his victims in graves on Saddleworth Moor, Greater Manchester. Despite extensive searches, Keith was not found there. Keith's brother, Alan, has previously claimed the cases were left with Brady's solicitor Robin Makin, based in Liverpool, who has refused his "personal plea" as well as police requests to hand them over.

Ainley said Greater Manchester Police had unsuccessfully applied for a warrant to access the briefcases after Brady's death in May 2017 at Ashworth Hospital, a secure psychiatric unit in Merseyside where he had been detained since 1985.

However, the court had not granted the warrant to the force, despite the law changing in 2022 in a bid to make it easier for police to obtain evidence which could help them find human remains.

Ainley said: "That law was passed and I think the police tried to act upon that but it didn't give them, it appears, any additional powers.

"I think the police have been informed there is no such information [about Keith's whereabouts] in the hands of the solicitors and consequently we've not been able to so far take it any further."

In a BBC documentary on the case it was revealed there were 200 pages missing from an autobiography written by Brady. Ainley added: "The latest information that some pages from the autobiography have been passed to this solicitor - that will enable them to, I assume, apply to the court in order that they can have access to them.

"So we'll be having further discussions with Greater Manchester Police to see just what action they propose to take. I don't think they're connected, but the combination of those pages and the contents of the cases, if those are all examined and put together, it might form a picture that is really helpful," he said.

"The family are desperate to get closure and find Keith's body." A GMP representative said the force had "always remained committed to finding answers for Keith Bennett's family".

They said: "Keith's family is central to any action we take in relation to this case and our thoughts remain with them." The force said it would "carefully consider and respond" to any "credible evidence".