Brady's solicitor Robin Makin: "Not eating is a rational decision on his part"

Brady, who has served more than 30 years in jail and psychiatric hospital for his crimes, says his human rights are being infringed.

He began his hunger strike as a protest against conditions in the hospital after he was moved to a high security wing, following a review on 30 September.

Brady was jailed for child murders

His solicitor Robin Makin told BBC News 24 that Brady wanted to take legal action against a potential breach of human rights.

He said: "The critical issue is this: Do the authorities have the right to force feed somebody who does not want to be forcibly fed - even if that means they may die?

"Certainly if he was still in prison there would be no question of force feeding him.

He added: "He is very against what is being done to him and wishes to take whatever steps as can be taken."

'Risks increasing'

Managers at Ashworth hospital said in a statement: "Ian Brady has also been assessed by external clinicians and it is now the opinion of both Ashworth clinicians and the external clinicians that the risks involved will become greater the longer he refuses food."

The search for Moors victims in the 1960s

The hospital says Brady was told he could either agree to start taking nourishing drinks, or could refuse to take nourishment, in which case a programme of "re-feeding" would begin.

Brady decided not to take nourishment conventionally, and therefore a programme of re-feeding had began on Friday, the hospital said.

Doctors are feeding him through a fine tube, passed up his nose and down into his stomach.

The hospital added: "The patient's well-being is given top priority throughout the process and both the patient's physical and mental health is constantly monitored."

Brady says he was strip-searched and pinned down for over an hour during a recent move to the high security wing. He says he suffered a badly swollen wrist.

Officials at Ashworth Hospital are conducting an investigation into the matter.

Although he had refused food since 30 September, he was taking regular sweetened hot drinks.

Horrific evidence

Brady was jailed for life in 1966 with accomplice Myra Hindley, for the murders of children Lesley Ann Downey and Edward Evans.

Brady and Hindley murdered Lesley Ann Downey

Their trial, during which the jury were played an audio cassette in which Brady and Hindley tortured and mocked Lesley Ann, shocked the nation, but they escaped the death sentence as capital punishment had been abolished.

Brady received a concurrent life sentence for murdering 12-year-old John Kilbride.

The pair later confessed to the killings of Pauline Reade, 16, and 12-year-old Keith Bennett burying their bodies on Saddleworth Moor, on the edge of the Peak District overlooking Manchester.

In the mid-1980s both Brady and Hindley returned to the moor to point out their victims' graves and police recovered the remains of Pauline Reade.

But Keith Bennett's body remains missing to this day.

While Brady accepts he will never be freed, Hindley's supporters continue to campaign for her release from prison, saying she is a changed woman who is no longer under Brady's spell.