Hindley returns to jail after hospital tests

Myra Hindley was back behind bars yesterday afternoon after being taken to hospital hours after hearing that she is to spend the rest of her life in prison.

The Moors murderer was moved to hospital under police guard last night when staff at Durham Prison became concerned about her health.

But after undergoing tests yesterday she arrived back at the jail's women's wing at lunchtime. A prison spokesman would not comment on her condition.

Hindley, 55, had spent yesterday in her cell after being told that the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Bingham, had ruled she should never be freed.

Staff reported that she became increasingly upset as it sank in that her bid for freedom had failed.

Her short stay in a single room at Dryburn Hospital, Durham, where she was kept under guard, was the first time she had left prison in nearly three years.

Fears for her safety had kept her away from the London court hearing. She has served 31 years since she was jailed in 1966 as Ian Brady's co- accused in the horrific murders of Lesley Ann Downey, 10, and Edward Evans, 17.

Her lawyers challenged the decision of former Home Secretary Michael Howard last February, reaffirmed in November by his successor Jack Straw, that she will die behind bars.

But yesterday in the High Court Lord Bingham and two senior judges unanimously ruled that the Home Secretary is entitled to keep her locked up.

Hindley has been given leave to appeal against the ruling.