I came home to the news today to find the Moors Murders making the bulletins again.

As the item progressed I found myself getting more and more irritated with the coverage.

For what has happened? What is new?

Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

The item was a non-story about the possibility of Ian Brady maybe revealing where the body of Keith Bennett may be buried. He is said to have written a letter to be opened only in the event of his death and the assumption is that it contains information about the location of the remains. (Any such letter has not yet come to light.)

The fact that Brady has shown not the slightest inclination to give any information at all about this over the many years since he was imprisoned for his crimes is brushed over in the rush to remind us of his enormity. The evidence for his having done so now is slight. It seems more likely that it is all a hoax on Brady’s part; another cruel example of his controlling nature.

I feel real sympathy for Keith Bennett’s family – especially his mother. Why has this got to be dragged up every so often? Why does she have to be confronted with it for no good reason? Her thoughts surely can’t escape it anyway but there is no need to exacerbate her situation.

To highlight the case on any national forum on such tenuous grounds can only twist the knife of the family’s anguish further. Notwithstanding the prurient interest any members of the public may have in Brady the news organisations peddling this are being complicit in increasing that anguish.

The time for this subject to be on the news again is only if the boy’s body is actually discovered and he can have a decent burial; or when Brady finally dies. Not before.