Relatives of victims of the Moors murderer, Ian Brady, declared their satisfaction with a High Court ruling in Liverpool yesterday that medical staff acted lawfully in preventing his attempt to end his life on hunger strike.
Mr Justice Maurice Kay rejected Brady's argument that he should be allowed to continue his five-month hunger strike unhindered and ruled the decision by his doctor at Ashworth hospital on Merseyside, Dr James Collins, to force-feed him was "in his best interests".
After the judgment was read out in court, Mr Norman Brennan, a spokesman for the victims' families, said: "On behalf of the families, I welcome the decision, it was sensible and right . . . What the families would really like now is to have some sort of peace and for Brady and Hindley [his accomplice in the murder of five children in the 1960s] to get on with their sentences and realise there is no possible chance of release and stop manipulating anyone who shows them some type of sympathy."