I recently wqtched someone trying to describe what it was like having listened to the tape of Ian Brady and Myra Hindley's prolonged torture, rape and murder of little Leslie Ann Downing,
They said after hearing the tape it was if their soul had been contaminated.
n 1966, a tape recording of Lesley Ann Downey's terrified last moments was played to the all-male jury at Chester Assizes years after her callous murder.
The Telegraph reported at the time: "For its 16 minutes, the people in the courtroom sat still and silent."
Sir Elwyn Jones QC, the Attorney General, who led the prosecution, said the voices of the man and woman were those of Brady and Hindley.
As the jury had been warned, some passages were harrowing.
The phrases "Let me go" and "Please" were audible, and also "Don't undress me, will you?" and "I want to see mummy".
At one point there was a blowing sound into the microphone and a child screaming: "Don't" and "Mum, ah". The tape ran on: Woman (Hindley): "Shut up" Child: "Please God help me, ah, please, oh." Woman: "Come on." Child: "Please, please - Oh (then faintly),"Help, oh, I cannot while you have got hold of my neck. Oh (followed by scream) - Help (followed by gurgling noise)." There were "screams and gurgles". Woman: "Sit down and be quiet" Man (Brady): "Go on."
At another point, the woman said: "Hush, Hush, shut up or I will forget myself and hit you one. I will hit you one."
In another passage, Lesley Ann pleaded: "Can I tell you summat. I must tell you summat. Take your hands off me for a minute, please… Please, mum, please - I cannot tell you. I cannot breathe…Please God …Why? What are you going to do with me?" Man: "I want to take some photographs, that is all." Child: "I want to see my mummy…Honest to God. I will swear on the Bible… I have got to go because I am going out with my Mama. Please, please help me, will you." Man: "The longer it takes you to do this, the longer it takes you to get home."
At another point Brady said: "If you don't keep that hand down, I will slit your neck."
As The Telegraph noted: "The court was still and quiet. Suddenly a child's scream and a cry filled the room."
