A former weekly newspaper editor has recalled covering the Moors Murders trial following the death of serial killer Ian Brady.

David Parry-Jones, left, covered the trial of Brady and his partner Myra Hindley for the Chester Chronicle at Chester Assizes in 1966.

Speaking after Brady’s death at the age of 79 on Monday, David, who would later go on to edit the Chronicle, recalled that even ‘toughened Fleet Street journalists’ flinched when Chester Assizes was played a tape of 10-year-old victim Lesley-Ann Downey pleading for her life.

She was one of five children to die at the couple’s hands.

David told the Chronicle: “The court was totally silent but throughout, Ian Brady sat stony-faced without emotion next to his easily led solemn looking partner Myra Hindley. I sat through the weeks of evidence, witnessing first hand the gruesome events unfolding.

“Brady and Hindley were seated behind specially erected bullet proof glass screens for security reasons, as emotions ran high. The pair never uttered a word in the dock, even to each other.

“Their game was up and they sensed it – thanks to plucky Cheshire policeman Bob Talbot dressing as a milkman to gain early morning entry to their Hyde house in 1965, where the murders took place.

“Reporting on it for the Chronicle felt like a bad dream then and still does today. Many who witnessed the sordid evidence of the Moors Murders trial and wished ill to evil Ian Brady and his partner Myra Hindley can rest satisfied both are now dead.”