Last surviving relative of Moors murders victim Lesley Ann Downey dies still blaming himself for failing to protect her after she was abducted and killed by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley

The last surviving relative of Moors Murders victim Lesley Ann Downey has died – still blaming himself for failing to protect her.

Terry West, 73, who was married with two adult children is believed to have passed away earlier this week.

Lesley Ann was just ten when he was approached by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley at a funfair on Boxing Day 1964.

The pair then abducted her before subjecting her to sickening abuse and torture which they tape recorded. They then murdered her and buried her body in a shallow grave on Saddleworth Moor.

Lesley Ann’s older brother Terry West was haunted by the suffering his sister experienced in her final hours and spoke about how he blamed himself.

Terry, then 12, had been due to take his little sister to the fair that day but was struck down by flu, and Lesley Ann went along with a neighbour instead.

Speaking on television in 2017 about the circumstances surrounding his sister’s abduction and murder by the notorious serial killers, he insists: ‘It wouldn’t have happened if I had been with her.’

Terry’s death was confirmed by the brother of fellow Moors victim Keith Bennett, whose body has never been found.

Alan Bennet posted on social media: ‘So very sad to learn of the death of Terry West. A very kind and caring man. Thinking of Terry’s family also.’ Terry’s adult daughter Terri posted a picture of her father this morning and friends sent messages of commiseration.

Terry also had a son, Daniel, with his wife Linda – they would have celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary next April. Despite his family tragedy he remained in the Manchester area his entire life.

When Ian Brady died aged 79 in 2017, Terry said: ‘We’ve been waiting for this day for such a long time,’ the 66-year-old said last night. ‘I poured myself a glass of wine when I found out. It’s closure for our family.

‘But I really feel for Keith Bennett’s brother Alan and the rest of his family – this probably means they’ll never know where his body was buried.

‘He’s taken it to the grave. There’s still one poor kiddie up there on the Moors.

My heart goes out to Alan – at least I’ve got somewhere that I can visit our Les, he hasn’t even got that.’

Mr West added: ‘What Brady did will never be forgotten – it’s had such an effect on all our lives.

‘I had to protect my children when they were growing up, I wouldn’t let them play out in the street.’

Although they had different names, Terry is understood to have been a full sibling of Lesley Ann. And he too was given the name Downey at birth but, following his sister’s death, his father died and his mother remarried another man – and Terry took his adoptive new father’s surname.

The Moors murderers: The couple behind the killings that rocked the nation 

Ian Brady and his partner, Myra Hindley, were responsible for the murders of five youngsters in the 1960s.

They lured children and teenagers to their deaths, with their victims sexually tortured before being buried on Saddleworth Moor above Manchester.

Pauline Reade, 16, disappeared on her way to a disco on July 12, 1963 and John Kilbride, 12, was snatched in November the same year.

Keith Bennett, 12, was taken on June 16 1964 after he left home to visit his grandmother, Lesley Ann Downey, ten, was lured away from a funfair on Boxing Day 1964, and Edward Evans, 17, was killed in October 1965.

Brady was given life at Chester Assizes in 1966 for the murders of John, Lesley Ann and Edward.

Hindley was convicted of killing Lesley Ann and Edward and shielding Brady after John’s murder, and jailed for life.

In 1987 the pair finally admitted killing Keith and Pauline. Hindley died in prison aged 60 in 2002.

Ian Brady died in May this year at the age of 79.