Former chaplain defends Hindley

London - Moors murderer Myra Hindley is a "political prisoner" kept in jail to serve the interests of successive Home Secretaries…

London - Moors murderer Myra Hindley is a "political prisoner" kept in jail to serve the interests of successive Home Secretaries, according to her former prison chaplain. There were "two Myras" - the "public icon/evil monster" image stoked by the media, and the "actual woman of today, whom I have always found to be gentle, caring, polite, sensitive and intelligent," said Father Bert White in a letter to the Guardian.

Hindley (55) was jailed for life in 1966 with Ian Brady for the "calculated, cruel and cold-blooded murders" of Lesley-Ann Downey (10) and Edward Evans (17). In 1987 the pair confessed to the murders of Keith Bennet (12) and Pauline Reade (16).