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Thursday, 21 November, 2002, 06:56 GMT
Few witness Hindley's final journey
![]() Hindley wanted prayers said for her soul
![]() Through the black Volvo's steamed up windows the pale wood coffin of the woman whose crimes have cast such a long shadow over the UK for 40 years seems small.
The vehicle stops under the porch of a small chapel and the pall bearers step out into the cold wind. It is not just the inclement weather and the evening scheduling which had made their current job so undesirable. The notoriety of their passenger reportedly prompted every local undertaker to decline this contract. Notoriety in life and death These men have been hired from more than 200 miles away. Perhaps understandably, few people are eager to be loosely associated with Hindley - even in death. The funeral was deliberately scheduled so as to start long after the day's other services had concluded.
The hearse's rear door swings up allowing a single bunch of white flowers to be gently removed to the chapel. Father Michael Teader, Hindley's Roman Catholic priest during her final years of incarceration, steps from the building in his white cassock. Under the porch's single lamp, Father Michael sprinkles holy water on his departed parishioner's casket before it is lifted up and marched respectfully indoors. Tight security As the box topped with wreaths of pale red and yellow flowers disappears, a shout comes from the bare trees around the crematorium. Some of the 25 police officers assigned to seal off the site from prying eyes exchange concerned looks.
Operation Athletic, the incongruously named plan for the policing of Hindley's funeral, has been under consideration since it became clear that the infamous prisoner 964055 was in declining health. "We are well aware of what can happen when there is strong negative public sentiment," said Superintendent John Raine, the officer leading Operation Athletic. 'Right to dignity' "We are here to protect the family's moral and legal right to a dignified service." With the remote crematorium bordered on one side by the speeding traffic of the A14 and surrounded on all others by sodden farmland the superintendent is confident that the secure cordon has not been breached.
Inside the chapel Father Michael begins the funeral service before 11 mourners who arrived via a side entrance out of sight of the press. The list of mourners was drawn up by Hindley herself two years ago when the damaging effects of her 40-a-day cigarette habit caused a stroke. No family members, not even Hindley's elderly mother Nelly, made the journey to Cambridgeshire on this cold bleak night. It was left to people such as Hindley's executor Andrew McCooey, and her barrister, Edward Fitzgerald QC, to witness the service the 60-year-old murderer mapped out so carefully before her death. Reduced to ashes Hindley, who before she became an accomplice to Ian Brady was said to have been strongly religious, asked that prayers be said for her soul. The playing of Albinoni's Adagio was stipulated in her plans for her farewell. The service over, Hindley's wish that her body be completely consumed by fire was observed.
For their part, the police also stood careful guard over Hindley's corpse at West Suffolk Hospital to ensure that the body was not touched. The 1,000C fire reduced to ashes the woman who herself described her murderous acts almost 40 years ago as "wicked", "evil " and "monstrous".
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18 Nov 02 | England
18 Nov 02 | England
16 Nov 02 | England
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