MOORS murderer Ian Brady has started the first stage of a legal bid to be allowed to kill himself.

Brady, 69, is applying to be moved out of a mental health unit to a conventional prison so he can starve himself to death.

He was jailed with Myra Hindley in 1966 for murdering five children in Greater Manchester and has been on hunger strike for several years. He is being kept alive by forced feeding.

The procedure is not allowed in normal circumstances, but as long as he is classed as a mental patient, doctors can force feed him through a tube as a form of treatment.

His lawyer Giovanni Di Stefano said Brady now weighed about just 7st 12lbs and was determined to end his life if given the chance.

Mr Di Stefano believes Brady, who is in Ashworth Hospital, Liverpool, should be allowed to do so as he serves `no purpose in life' and was costing up to £1 million a year through legal fees and health costs.

He said: "My personal view, and I have made that very clear, is that this man is saner than me or you - certainly me." Brady had said he was prepared to help police find the body of 12-year-old victim Keith Bennett as a way of proving his sanity.

Mr Di Stefano said: "He is prepared to help them because in helping them find the body, it is a retentive memory test."

A Mental Health Review tribunal is set to consider Brady's application to be moved to a standard jail. Most hearings are behind closed doors, but Brady, whose victims were buried on Saddleworth Moor, near Oldham, has applied for the public or media to be admitted.

The request for public access is being considered at a special hearing at the hospital.

"Brady wants it public, they want it private," Mr Di Stefano said. "They say there are pieces of information in there which could be distressing, but most of the information is out there anyway."

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