Moors murderer Ian Brady was jailed for life more than half a century ago.
For 32 years before his death, the serial child killer was detained not in a prison, but — after being diagnosed as a psychopath — at high-security Ashworth psychiatric hospital.
The inquest this week heard that Brady was hostile towards hospital staff throughout his time at Ashworth and that he displayed ‘demanding and entitled behaviour’.
Dr Noir Thomas, a consultant psychiatrist at Ashworth, said Brady’s detention was ‘largely marked by opposition to his care and treatment, allegations of brutality, and serial complaints’.
‘The elderly and defenceless are left without food or water and are abused and neglected’
Brady claimed to be on hunger strike but was secretly eating and would repeatedly pull the feeding tube out of his body, forcing nurses to reinsert it. Yet hospital staff — who have described him as an exceptionally difficult patient — were meticulous in their care, treating him for severe lung disease, recurrent chest and urinary infections, an enlarged prostate and cataracts.
The result of all this medical attention — costing millions over the decades — is that Brady died aged 79 of natural causes, a dignity denied the five children he and Myra Hindley tortured and killed in the Sixties.
Compare the attention devoted to this monster to the heartless way we treat those who genuinely deserve care in the last years of their lives. Yesterday’s revelations about Brady came in the week the Mail exposed once again the shocking level of the crisis in care for the elderly in this country.
Inspectors are called out to deal with four elderly care complaints every day, and enforcement actions against care homes and home helps have increased by a shocking 68 per cent in 12 months.
The elderly and defenceless are left without food or water and are abused and neglected. In one home, the frail were not even bathed or showered for three weeks.
Fifty care firms were fined and four taken to court in 2016/17 after complaints about unsafe care, abuse and not treating people with dignity. More than 100 operators were forced to close down, while four out of ten care homes failed inspections by the Care Quality Commission.
What a terrible indictment of our society. Decent people who have contributed to this country throughout their lives are all too often condemned to sad, undignified deaths in institutions which treat them worse than mass murderers.
Doc’s smart move
The third episode of Dr Foster had hardly begun before the dumped doc had ‘revenge sex’ with her ex-husband Simon
The third episode of Dr Foster had hardly begun before the dumped doc had ‘revenge sex’ with her ex-husband Simon on the dining table while their emotionally unhinged son Tom was upstairs.
The GP is back on the booze, has already admitted paying for sex and is sleeping with young Tom’s teacher.
She even tried to video sex with the ex on her smartphone. Something she’ll regret — or a lucrative move? After all, it didn’t do Kim Kardashian’s career any harm.
Romps: Suzanne Jones plays Dr Gemma Foster in the BBC series
Austerity? Tell it to the marines
One thousand Royal Marines are in the Treasury’s sights for defence cuts, reducing their already depleted force of 7,760.
One of the finest elite forces in the world, they have fought for this nation in every major conflict since the Napoleonic Wars.
Their motto’s ‘By Sea, By Land’. And By God it would be a national disgrace if cost-cutting pen-pushers led us to lose a single one of their green berets. Yes, austerity is being blamed.
As Major-General Julian Thompson, who led 3 Commando Brigade in the Falklands, said: ‘The defence you need is dictated by your enemy, not your economics.’
Nadiya’s family recipe
Bake Off’s darling Nadiya Hussain
Bake Off’s darling Nadiya Hussain has suffered crippling panic attacks since she was seven.
‘Sometimes my monster shouts in my face, other days I can put him in my pocket. He’s always there,’ she says.
Nadiya, 32, was prescribed drugs but said they deadened her emotions. ‘What’s the point of not feeling anything?’ Instead, she had her family, husband and children to keep her centred.
How refreshing in an age when many people seem to rely on medication to cure everything.
Last week three British troops, including a major, were told they were cleared of any charges involving the drowning of an Iraqi more than a decade ago.
Now they face a fourth inquiry to satisfy human rights laws. Is it any wonder Army recruitment is at an all-time low?
On the day Wayne Rooney was in court for drink-driving, the lady with whom he shared his drunken escapade turned up for work wearing a mini skirt, teetering like a show pony in stilettoes in the very VW she denied she and the star had cavorted in.
Can she sink any lower?
Nigella Lawson’s latest culinary offering is the £26 cookbook At My Table, which includes a recipe for a parma ham, brie and figs toastie.
Crickey, Nigella, you can buy a Breville sandwich toaster for less than that.
And most of us prefer a Breville toastie anyway — buttered on the outside, lashings of deli ham and oozing cheddar. That’s what you get at my table.
Defending a saucy blonde who had sex in a Domino’s pizza shop with her boyfriend, her lawyer said: ‘They were in drink and let their exuberant spirits get the better of them.’
Next stop, an audition for Love Island.
Westminster wars…
- The biggest crisis at the Lib Dem conference was when the main hotel ran out of gin. The mystery is how it happened, given that their membership is barely in double figures.
- So very sad as Tessa Jowell reveals she is battling brain cancer. Given all the charlatans in Westminster, she has always been a rare politician — genuine, loyal, principled and a great friend to many on both sides of the House. Tessa tweeted: ‘Thank you for so much love and support. More people living longer better lives with cancer.’ Which is exactly what I wish for you, my friend.
- No surprise that more than 100 peers claim their £300 plus expenses a day while not taking part in debates. For most of them, the Lords is just a free posh club to impress cronies.
- Labour’s unctuous deputy leader Tom Watson demands half of all political journalists should be women. I don’t think we need any lectures from the Labour Party, which has never had a female leader and whose most senior woman is the hapless Diane Abbott.
Tessa Jowell has revealed she is battling brain cancer
Can’t wait to see comedian Susan Calman, 42, and partner Kevin Clifton on Strictly tonight.
It’s the first time the diminutive lesbian has danced with a man for a decade, and she has had some vicious trolling on social media as a result.
‘For years I thought I was fat and ugly,’ she responded. ‘I’m not and I won’t let anyone say I am. I’m preparing a beautiful dance for the biggest show on TV. Suck on that haters.’
That’s how to deal with trolls. Go for it girl!
Amis misses the point
The once best-selling writer Martin Amis arrives in the UK to share his views on Brexit. It is, he opines, a ‘self-inflicted wound’, a retrograde step back into a ‘nostalgic utopia’.
‘It would return to just the sort of England that I don’t like, which is the country town, rustic, beer-drinking, family-butcher England.’ Indeed, that is what most people like about England, Mr Amis, .
But it’s something a luvvie who flits between chattering-class salons in New York and London will never understand.
The council of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists voted yesterday to try to usher in abortion on demand. Already 650 doctors have voiced their protests.
President Lesley Regan says terminating a foetus should be as easy as removing a bunion. It’s Professor Regan who’s the carbuncle that needs removing.
British star Riz Ahmed became the first Asian man to win an Emmy for acting in TV’s The Night Of.
Ahmed says he almost gave up acting having been insultingly stereotyped playing roles like ‘the Asian shop keeper and the cab driver’.
Odd that — because in The Night Of he plays a Muslim driving a cab.