Newspaper review: Brady evidence assessed

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-23058633

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When Ian Brady appeared at a mental health tribunal on Tuesday, it was the first time he had been heard since his trial for the Moors murders.

"We finally gave him the oxygen of publicity and he sucked it into his puffed-up lungs like a man freed after years in an underground mine," writes Brian Reade, of the Daily Mirror.

The Daily Express thought "he looked like a mourner at an aged gangster's funeral" - but "his calculating if warped mind was as sharp as ever".

It was a "breathtakingly arrogant performance," says the Daily Mail.

"Four hours of rambling, self-serving drivel" that reawakened memories of his appalling crimes and "reopened the question of the wisdom of the state's insistence on keeping this unrepentant child killer alive".

'Demon barber'

The Sun calls Brady the "demon barber of the scrubs" because, as a prisoner at Wormwood Scrubs, he would trim the hair and beards of guards at the jail.

The Independent sums him up as "boastful and callous", and says that, even after 50 years of silence, there was "still no remorse".

"Show him no mercy," says the Daily Star, adding that "not a single ounce of compassion should be wasted on this vile monster".

"What Brady has failed to grasp," says the Daily Telegraph, "is that the manner of his incarceration is not about him, but about us."

The paper concludes that "Brady, the incarnation of evil... has had his day in the sun. Let it be his last."

'Goodbye to the King'

The final public appearance of Sir Mervyn King as governor of the Bank of England is also appraised.

"His sentences are fully formed and his grammar perfect," says the Financial Times, which compares him to an "aristocratic gentleman silkily batting away" the bouncers that were aimed at him.

"It's goodbye to King but not to the slump," says the Guardian.

The Independent suggests that when Sir Mervyn spoke of the recovery being "in sight" he meant "like the stars in the night sky - visible but possibly light years away".

The Telegraph thinks he should not be let off too lightly, arguing that, "in the wasted years" leading up to the financial crash of 2008, he was "spectacularly, epoch-definingly wrong".

'Stop snooping'

Concerns about security surveillance by intelligence agencies and the police both in the UK and abroad are widely ventilated.

The Times highlights the views of the British scientist who invented the world wide web, Tim Berners-Lee.

Sir Tim sets out his fears that people will not use the internet to improve their lives if, as he puts it, they believe "there is somebody looking over their shoulder".

Spying, he argues, is "insidious".

Winning ways

A first round victory at Wimbledon for a British player is something to savour.

So Laura Robson is declared by the Star to be "a top 10 hit".

It must be something about her name that has the headline writers looking to pop music for inspiration.

"Whole Laura love," says the Sun. "Hey Laura we love you," says the Express. And the Independent says "Here's to you, Ms Robson."

The reality is, of course, that one round into the tournament, she is, as the Mail notes, the "last British girl still standing".