THE death penalty is a barbarous business and I am not comfortable with it being brought back routinely.

However, I make an exception in Ian Brady's case.

The Moors murderer has been on hunger strike for 1,000 days, at a cost of more than £1 million to the taxpayer (you and I). He was jailed for life with his lover Myra Hindley for a string of child killings in the 1960s. They buried the bodies of the children on Saddleworth Moor, but he never co-operated with the authorities and some parents have now died never knowing where their children were buried.

The man is a monster who wants to die, but is continually being force-fed -- a situation he has legally challenged and lost.

We would not prove ourselves inhuman if we let such a creature die. Unlike Motor Neurone victim Diane Pretty, he does not deserve to be allowed to die with dignity.

But his death would allow others to grieve at last, and would make many people feel that justice has finally been done.