HINDLEY: AN ICON OF EVIL: THE MYRA I KNEW

I BEGAN writing to Myra Hindley in 1995 in a journalistic capacity when her continued detention and a possible conflict with European law arose.

I did not truthfully expect a reply.

There was nothing exceptional in the first correspondence - inside a Christmas card - except for two paragraphs. One read: "Of course I could have stopped.

"It might have been because I was in thrall of him but I cannot in truth blame that alone."

At the head of it was her prison number and her address at H.M. Highpoint prison.

Since then I have frequently corresponded with Hindley and, at the end of it, I know a lot more about her, but I can decide nothing of her character or what motivated her to be part of probably the worst crimes ever committed against children in this country.

What I can say, is that at the end, she was a reformed character and her belief in God was absolute. She said: "I have already confessed everything to Him and He knows all of it. I have nothing left to tell Him."

Her letters were often concerned with her attempt to leave prison for she felt that she was being judged as she was in 1965 and not, as she so often said, "as I am now". She was, obviously enough, no friend of the tabloid Press but her vitriol was reserved as much for what she perceived as the constant hounding of the relatives of those who had been murdered.

She once asked: "If they must have a hate figure am I not enough? Surely it must hurt the relatives for it all to be dragged up again?"

Neither can there be any doubt that she was haunted by the guilt of her crimes, despite her confessions. "It will never leave me and perhaps that is right, but I do envy those who can confess and have the complete Peace of God.

"So far that is denied me but, of course, I hope."

She first became a Catholic in 1957 at the age of 15 after a young friend drowned - not as it is often reported - in jail after the murders.

Her friend's death affected her deeply and then, after she met Brady, the die was cast. "I did love him," she wrote, "but I had no one else much to love then."

She once wrote: "When I die all the hatred will stop I suppose and that will be better for people."

Alan Watkins has asked that his fee for this article be donated to two children's charities.

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