Ian Brady was a monster but Britain hated Myra Hindley more

Ian Brady has died, and it is already obvious that there will be nothing like the fanfare as when his partner in crime, Myra Hindley, died in 2002.

Hindley's obituary, aside from it being confirmed over and over again that she was "evil", was that even her remains were toxic and that apparently no funeral director would deal with her burial.

Unlike Brady, who seems to be accepted as some kind of charming monster at least within popular culture, Hindley epitomises all that is horrific about the terrible crimes in the 1960s that we know as the Moors Murders.

I remember sitting in a café in 2012 with tears running down my face on hearing on the radio that Winnie Johnson, mother of Moors murder victim Keith Bennett had died. Johnson never did get to find her son's body, despite writing to his killer Brady, begging him to give her a chance to afford her son a proper burial.

Johnson had lived in hell since her son Keith was abducted and murdered by Brady and his accomplice Hindley in 1964, as were all the loved ones of Brady's five victims. But Keith's was the only body not to be found, and I always assumed that Brady did not reveal where his victim lay in order to play a sadistic game with Johnson, which involved her dangling on a string, controlled by him.

The story of the Moors murders is now folklore, but it is the face of Hindley that is the most well-known of the two, despite the fact that there can be no doubt that Brady was the instigator of these terrible crimes.

During his prison sentence, Brady was the quieter of the two, not bothering to defend himself, or ask for influential people to campaign on his behalf for his release from prison.

Brady relished his part in the crimes, because was a sadistic sociopath. Hindley, on the other hand, was clear that she did not want to die in jail.

I was born in 1962 and remember from a very young age, whether meant in twisted jest, or as a genuine warning, being told never getting into ''strangers''' cars. It was always Myra Hindley's name that was mentioned, never Brady. I remember someone saying to me, "He is evil, but she is worse, because she is a woman."

Hindley was put in the role by Brady of picking up children when they were out cruising in their car for victims. Hindley's crimes were indescribable, and I certainly would have convicted her and imprisoned for life myself were I judge or jury in that case.

But a feminist, and a lifelong campaigner against sexual violence towards women and girls, I am well aware of how the very few women involved in sadistic sexual crimes – such as Hindley and Rose West – are always more notorious, and often punished even harsher than their male counterparts.

Why do we appear to accept the fact that some men enjoy torturing vulnerable victims to death? These men, such as Brady and Fred West, become almost invisible when women are involved. Brady took a far more active role in the sexual abuse and murder of his victims, but Hindley, like Rose West, is the name uttered far more often than her male co-defendant.

On a late night TV programme back in the 1990s, Winnie Johnson was asked what punishment was appropriate for Brady.

Like many of the loved ones of the Moors murder victims, Johnson had been used by certain tabloid newspapers who continually used the notorious photograph of Myra Hindley taken when she was arrested.

With her hard stare, red lips and peroxide hair, Hindley would feature on the front page with some minor ''news'' item as a peg, in order to drag up hatred towards her and squeeze out more pain from the mother whose child could not be buried.

"I would tie him to a lamppost, and flay bits of skin from his naked body, bit by bit, and then pour acid into his wounds," answered Johnson, visibly shaking.

This woman was a kind and decent human being, but her pain was so vast, that all she could think about as a just punishment was inflicting agonising wounds on the man who had always refused to respond to her desperate pleadings to help him find her son's body.

Ian Brady will have his obituaries in the tabloid and broadsheet press, but if I had my way he would be buried in a shallow grave in a location that would never be revealed.

Brady's remains would be as anonymous as the remains of poor Keith Bennett. Brady's obituary should only read, "A sadistic sex murderer is dead. Let us all do what we can to make sure there is never another Ian Brady."