At last, Winnie can say farewell to ‘lost boy’

The mother of the lost Moors murder victim spoke of her joy after he was finally granted a memorial — 46 years after his death.

Keith Bennett was 12 in June 1964 when monsters Myra Hindley and Ian Brady abducted and murdered him and buried his body on Saddleworth Moor.

Known as “The Lost Boy’, Keith was the only Moors victim never to be found. Now he has been granted a memorial service on 5 March at Manchester Cathedral so his family can at last say a proper goodbye.

The Bishop of Manchester, the Rt Rev Nigel McCulloch, will oversee the 11am service for victim’s relatives, family, friends and the public with readings and hymns.

His mother Winnie Johnson (75), from Manchester, wept at news that her 46-year wait to say goodbye to Keith was finally coming to an end.

She said: “All these years since Brady and Hindley took my Keith away I have never been able to properly say goodbye.

“The only funeral I have read about is Hindley’s when she died. Keith has been left forgotten.

“Even the police last year gave up the search for his body, meaning we’re having to carry on looking for his body ourselves.

“This service is what I have hoped for, although I still pray for the day we can find him and give him a decent, Christian burial.

“It is so hard to grieve without him found, yet for 46 years I have dreamed of a funeral that celebrates his life, however short it was.

“Now thanks to the bishop, and my priest, Rev Ian Gomersall, this is finally going to happen.

“Hindley has already gone but Brady is alive in his cell and I hope he hears about this.

“Whatever he did to Keith will not stop us celebrating what a wonderful boy he was.”

Winnie asked Mr Gomersall, the vicar of her church, St John Chrysostom in Victoria Park, for help in getting a service.

He said: “Winnie now feels it is appropriate to hold a public memorial service for Keith and she does so with the prayers and support of her family, her church and her friends.”

Brady and Hindley, who also murdered Lesley Ann Downey (10), John Kilbride (12), Pauline Reade (16) and Edward Evans (17), were jailed for life in 1966.

After the first three bodies were found, Brady was taken back to Saddleworth in 1987 to help police find Pauline’s remains. Hindley died in November 2002, aged 60.

Last July, Greater Manchester Police declared that they had stopped their 45-year search.

Winnie has now launched the Keith Bennett Trust to raise funds for their own search of the moors.

For details visit www.searchingforkeith.com