THE former wife of notorious gangster-turned-artist Jimmy Boyle has revealed she regularly visited Myra Hindley in prison but the 
pair never discussed the Moors murders.

Sarah Trevelyan became a noteworthy figure nearly four decades ago when she met and married convicted killer Boyle in 1980.

Speaking ahead of the launch of her autobiography, Ms Trevelyan — now known as Sara — said she first visited Hindley in Holloway Prison with her father James Trevelyan, secretary of the British Board of Film Censors, who was also an advocate of prison reform.

READ MORE: Freedom Found: Sara Trevelyan on her life with Jimmy Boyle

She said her father, a “compassionate, humane man”, had wanted Hindley to meet someone more of her own age and had invited Ms Trevelyan along.

In an interview with The Herald Magazine said: “It was my first experience of Holloway Prison. It was intimidating. 

“But people don’t match the headlines. Myra was dark-haired at that time, smoked heavily, and spoke in a very quiet voice. She was well-educated and well-informed of events around her.”

Hindley, who died in prison in 2002, was convicted alongside Glasgow-born Ian Brady for the murder of five children in the 1960s.

Hindley initially protested her innocence and attracted a number of famous and influential supporters, such as prison reformer Lord Longford, wealthy aristocrat and former Observer editor David Astor, and a prison officer who became a priest, the Reverend Peter Timms. She was also visited in prison by others, including broadcaster Ludovic Kennedy and Cardinal Basil Hume.

In 1985, Hindley confessed to the murders of Pauline Reade and Keith Bennett.

Though Ms Trevelyan has said in the past that she believed what Hindley had told her, she discovered there was a lot of information she did not disclose. 

Ms Trevelyan revealed: “We didn’t touch upon the past. I didn’t see that as my role.” She said the same for her former husband Boyle, adding: “I tend to be in the moment with people I meet ... I don’t dwell on the past.”

Ms Trevelyan met Boyle when he was behind bars in Barlinnie Prison for the murder of fellow gangster William “Babs” Rooney 
in 1967, a crime he always denied.

A young, public-school psychiatrist from England, she had requested to speak to Boyle after reading his memoir A Sense Of Freedom, though she did so in a personal, not professional, capacity. 

In the memoir, which later became a film starring David Hayman, Boyle documented his violent life in Glasgow before his imprisonment, as well as his equally violent experiences in prison.

A later move to the special unit in Barlinnie was the one that allowed him a form of autonomy to explore and learn about art. 

READ MORE: Freedom Found: Sara Trevelyan on her life with Jimmy Boyle

He was released in 1982 and continued his artistic career, becoming a well-known sculptor. Ms Trevelyan and Boyle had two children together on his release, Suzi and Kydd, and settled in Edinburgh

There they established the Gateway Exchange, an outreach to help former convicts stay off drugs, although this ended after five years.
Ms Trevelyan and Boyle were to split decades later in 2000.