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THE mother of Moors Murders victim Keith Bennett has died – tormented to the end by the monster who robbed her of her son.

Winnie Johnson, 78, passed away from cancer just after midnight yesterday, as speculation mounted that Ian Brady had finally told where Keith Bennett was buried.

She had spent 48 years searching in vain for Keith’s grave on Saddleworth Moor near Manchester.

Brady, no doubt revelling in Winnie’s anguish, had refused countless pleas to reveal where he dumped the 12-year-old’s body.

The claims that Brady had at last revealed his secret emerged after his mental health advocate told a Channel 4 documentary team that the killer had given her a sealed letter for Winnie, with instructions that it should only be opened when he was dead.

The advocate, Jackie Powell, said she believed the letter contained details of Keith’s grave site.

Police arrested her on suspicion of preventing the youngster’s decent burial. Their investigation is continuing.

The Channel 4 Cutting Edge documentary is due to be shown tomorrow night, but producers are in talks about postponing it out of respect for Winnie and her family.

Winnie died peacefully at a hospice with her family around her. Her son Alan said: “She was a much- loved mother, grandmother and great-grandmother and is survived by one younger brother.

“She has died without knowing Keith’s whereabouts.

“Winnie fought tirelessly for decades to find Keith and give him a Christian burial.

“Although this was not possible during her lifetime, we, her family, intend to continue this fight now for her and for Keith.

“We hope the authorities and the public will support us in this.”

Family lawyer John Ainley said Winnie always believed Brady could end her torment but

chose instead to prolong her suffering. He added: “Over the years and in all our personal meetings, Winnie has insisted Brady is the only person who could put her mind to rest and give her the chance to give Keith a decent burial before she passed away.

“It is a truly heartbreaking situation that this opportunity has been irrevocably lost.”

Martin Bottomley, of the Cold Case Unit of Greater Manchester Police, said: “There is only one person who knows where Keith is buried, and that is Ian Brady.

“I would implore him, at this extremely sad time, to at last do the decent thing.”

Mr Bottomley said Winnie was a “tenacious and courageous woman” who was “now at peace with the little boy she missed so much”. Glasgow-born sadist Brady and his lover Myra Hindley sexually tortured and murdered five children between 1963 and 1965 and buried their bodies on Saddleworth moor.

Keith’s body is the only one that has not been recovered. And despite Powell’s claims, scepticism remains about whether psychopath Brady will ever reveal where it is.

Powell told the Cutting Edge team: “He says that he doesn’t wish to take secrets to his grave.

“He says that within the sealed envelope is a letter to Winnie Johnson, and that within that is the means to her possibly being able to rest.

“Clearly there’s something within the letter that may be able to find her son, I would suggest.’

Powell added that she had not opened the letter for “professional reasons” – presumably a loyalty to her client, Brady. She speaks on his behalf to bosses at Ashworth secure mental hospital on Merseyside and is also an executor of his will.

Producers of the Cutting Edge programme informed police – 10 days after their interview with Powell – and officers raided her home in north Wales. But there were doubts yesterday over whether the letter ever existed.

Powell is said to have become vague under police questioning.

She is also said to have told officers she gave the letter back to Brady, a claim which led to a fruitless search of the killer’s room at Ashworth.

Some believe the whole situation may have been orchestrated by Brady – as a final taunt to Winnie, or as a bargaining chip in his long-running campaign to be transferred from Ashworth to a prison in Scotland and allowed to die.

Brady, 74, was due to take his case to a mental health tribunal last month but the hearing was delayed after he had a seizure.

He has refused to eat for the last 12 years and is fed through a tube.

Channel 4 last night said they were in talks with Winnie’s family over the screening of the Cutting Edge documentary, titled Endgames of a ­Psychopath.

A spokeswoman said: “A decision on whether to show an updated version of the documentary will depend on the outcome of those discussions.

“At the moment the whole thing is under review.”

Brady and Myra Hindley’s terrible crimes still provoke genuine emotion after almost 50 years.

Their campaign of torture and murder began in July 1963 with the death of 16-year-old Pauline Reade.

Later that year, 12-year-old John Kilbride was snatched. Keith Bennett, also 12, was taken the following year.

Lesley Ann Downey, 10, was lured to her death from a funfair on Boxing Day 1964.

Their fifth victim was Edward Evans, 17. During their trial, the court heard recordings made by Brady and Hindley of their young victims pleading for mercy before being tortured and killed. The evil pair were jailed for life in 1966 over the deaths of John, Lesley Ann and Edward.

In the mid-1980s they admitted they had also killed Keith and Pauline. All five victims were buried on Saddleworth Moor, near Oldham, but only Keith’s remains have not been found.

Hindley died aged 60 in 2002.