Ann West

Gertrude Ann West (11 September 1929 – 9 February 1999) was a British media campaigner.

Abduction and murder of Lesley Ann Downey
West's daughter, Lesley Ann Downey, was the youngest of the five Moors Murders victims. On 26 December 1964, aged 10, Lesley was lured away by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley from a fairground near her home in Ancoats, Manchester, and subjected to sexual abuse and torture before being killed at Brady and Hindley's house in Hattersley. Her body was buried on Saddleworth Moor and police were led to her grave in October 1965 when they arrested Brady and Hindley for the murder of 17-year-old Edward Evans and found evidence which led to the grave of Lesley as well as that of another missing child, John Kilbride. As part of the subsequent prosecution against Brady and Hindley, the police on the investigation asked Ann West to identify her daughter's voice from a tape recording that the pair had made of her being attacked, and from indecent photographs that Brady had taken during the attack.

Brady and Hindley were found guilty of Lesley's murder, along with that of Edward Evans, at Chester Crown Court on 6 May 1966 and sentenced to life imprisonment. Brady was also found guilty of murdering John Kilbride.

Debate with Lord Longford
By 1977, penal reformer Lord Longford was at the centre of a campaign for the parole of Myra Hindley, who by this stage had served more than a decade in prison. On 6 July that year, the first episode of the BBC series Brass Tacks featured a debate on whether Hindley should be considered for release from prison. Lord Longford was the most prominent figure on the side arguing for Hindley's parole, while Ann West appeared on the side arguing against any suggestion of release. In this program, Ann West vowed to kill Myra Hindley if she was ever set free, and later collected signature for a petition to the Home Secretary at the time for Hindley to remain in prison. She repeated this threat on an ITN news bulletin in March 1985, when it was reported that Hindley's case was to be reviewed by the Parole Board.

West's campaign against the release of Myra Hindley from prison won her substantial public support and was also backed by the relatives of other Moors Murders victims, including John Kilbride's brother Danny.

Home Office ruling
In 1990, the Home Office ruled that life must mean life for Myra Hindley and she should never be released from prison; following previous decisions that she should serve a minimum of 25 years before being considered for parole, before that minimum term was increased to 30 years. Hindley was informed of the decision in December 1994, but vowed to challenge the ruling in court.

Opposition to Myra Hindley's parole
In March 1996, Hindley claimed in an Oxford University magazine that she was still in prison so that the Conservative Party government could win votes and be seen as being tough on crime, and that she had qualified for parole as she was rehabilitated and had ceased to pose a threat. Ann West hit back by telling the Daily Record that Home Secretary Michael Howard was "keeping her in for murdering four children", and once again repeated her threat to kill Hindley if she was released.

In late 1997, Hindley took her case to the High Court in an attempt to quash the whole life tariff. Ann West once again gave television and newspaper interviews to speak of her determination that Hindley would never be freed, despite being terminally ill with cancer by this stage and being warned by doctors that she was likely to die within a few weeks. The appeal was rejected in December that year, and despite the prognosis, Ann West was still alive nearly a year later when in November 1998, Hindley lost a second appeal against her life sentence.

Lord Longford remained at the centre of the campaign for Myra Hindley to be given parole, and met Ann West on a number of occasions. He regularly condemned the media for their "exploitation" of her, and in 1986 he reportedly warned West that unless she forgave Hindley and Brady, she would not go to heaven when she died.

Death
Ann West died in February 1999, aged 69, after a long battle against cancer. She had been determined to outlive Myra Hindley, and although Hindley did outlive her, she died in November 2002 having never succeeded in her bid to win release from prison. Ian Brady is still living.

Death of son and granddaughter
Ann West was outlived by her second husband Alan, and her three sons from her first marriage. Almost three years after her death her 45-year-old son Tommy and 7-year-old grand-daughter Kimberley were killed in a fire at the house in Fallowfield in which her husband Alan still lived; he was not in the house at the time. A 41-year-old woman was later found guilty on manslaughter charges relating to the fire and jailed for 18 years.