Moors Murderer Ian Brady is to remain a patient at a maximum security hospital after losing his £250,000 legal bid to be transferred to a jail.

The decision following a week-long public hearing means the infamous Glasgow-born paedophile killer will stay in Ashworth Hospital on Merseyside for the forseeable future on the grounds that he is mentally insane.

He had wanted to end his life in a prison in Scotland.

Victims' families have criticised giving Brady, 75, who murdered five children with his accomplice Myra Hindley during the 1960s, the opportunity to "grandstand" at the mental health tribunal, while others described the hearing as a circus and a waste of taxpayers' money.

The tribunal was the first time Brady had been seen in public since the 1980s, when he was taken back to Saddleworth Moor in the search for the bodies of two of his victims, and the first time he had spoken in public since being jailed for life in 1966.

The decision was given by the three-man panel headed by Judge Robert Atherton.

He said: "The tribunal has concluded that Mr Ian Stewart Brady continues to suffer from a mental disorder which is of a nature and degree which makes it appropriate for him to continue to receive medical treatment and that it is necessary for his health and safety and for the protection of other persons that he should receive such treatment in hospital and that appropriate medical treatment is available for him."

Brady, whose legal costs are estimated to be around £250,000 and paid by the taxpayer as he had legal aid, has the right to challenge the decision, which would require a further hearing at an Upper Tribunal.

The reasons for the tribunal's decision will be released at a later date. Brady had told the hearing he was merely a "a petty criminal" and described his crimes as "recreational killings" which were part of an "existential experience".

Brady and Hindley, who died in prison in 2002, lured children and teenagers to their deaths, with their victims sexually tortured before being buried on Saddleworth Moor above Manchester.

Their victims were Pauline Reade, 16, John Kilbride, 12, Keith Bennett, 12, Lesley Ann Downey, 10, and Edward Evans, 17.

Keith's mother, Winnie Johnson, made repeated calls for Brady to reveal the location of his grave. She died on August 18 last year, aged 78, without being able to fulfil her last wish of giving her son a proper burial.

John Ainley, who was Mrs Johnson's solicitor, said: "I think Winnie would have been satisfied by the decision.

"She always felt that Ian Brady did not give the children any choice and consequently he should not have the choice to leave the hospital environment."

Brady's legal application challenged the order made under the Mental Health Act when he was transferred from prison to Ashworth in 1985. At that time he was diagnosed as being a paranoid schizophrenic. His legal team argued that, despite his severe personality disorder, he was not mentally ill and therefore no longer fulfilled the legal criteria for detention in hospital.

Brady has suggested that, if he is allowed to go back to a jail, he would be free to end his own life by starving himself to death.

Dr David Fearnley, medical director at Ashworth, said: "We appreciate the time and effort the mental health tribunal has given to this case and its judgment is consistent with the expert opinions of our clinicians."

The tribunal heard that Brady, who claims to have been on hunger strike since 1999, eats toast and this is simply a "protest" rather than being suicidal.