Revealed: Myra Hindley's FAN mail - and the 13-year-old who told her: 'You deserve to be released'

Myra Hindley: She received letters from hundreds of people, many of them well wishers

Moors Murderer Myra Hindley was swamped with fan mail including a letter from a 13-year-old child who said she deserved freedom, previously secret prison documents reveal today.

'In my opinion, I don't agree with all you have done in the past but I also believe you have served your time and deserve to be released - as a child I do not think you are a threat or danger,' the teenager wrote.

The letter, to Highpoint Prison in Suffolk in 1999, added: 'You may think it is strange to receive a letter from a total stranger. I am 13 years of age. I've asked my parents' permission to write to you and they agreed.'

Another supporter wrote to Hindley after she lost an appeal for release saying: 'I am so sorry to read the news. Don't despair, Myra.'

The archive reveals that hundreds of well-wishers wrote to Hindley, some sending her gifts, flowers and even money.

Some asked for permission to visit, including a regular writer who signed letters 'the stranger who's just a friend you do not know'.

But one letter sent from Highpoint in April 2000 shows Hindley was very particular about her correspondents.

'Myra has a small, rather select group of long-standing friends who are in contact with her and she has neither the time nor the ability to write back to the hundreds of well-meaning, and sometimes not so well-meaning, people who write to her.'

The letter - possibly from the prison chaplain, though the sender's name is blacked out - begins: 'I've been asked to write to you on behalf of Myra Hindley. I am concerned by the attention you are unwittingly causing by your letters and gifts to Myra.

'Myra is in a state of high security and letters, etc., are screened. If you really wish to help her, may I suggest that you speak well of her and remember her, and her case, in your daily prayers.'

Revelations come in newly released documents at the National Archives

Money Hindley received boosted her 'inmate cash account', which stood between £200 to £300 around the start of 1995.

The records were produced after a request to then Home Secretary Michael Howard from Tom Pendry, Stalybridge MP at the time, for an assurance that Hindley had not been paid for a recent newspaper interview.

An internal Home Office background note says: 'Scrutiny of Ms Hindley's cash record shows that she received only one sum of £50 in the month of December, and that this was from a regular benefactor.'

Hindley's documents show how much she complained about the irritants of prison life.

She was issued with an extra reading lamp for her cell to study for an Open University degree course. But, in a petition to the Home Office, she said the batteries were too expensive.

'The battery is a 12-volt one and costs £9.39. This is more than the £8 I can spend in one month,' she wrote.

'Though of course I shall be very sparing with the lamp because of the cost of the battery, I am afraid it won't last long before a new one is required. Could you please take this into consideration?'

In the same letter, Hindley complains at not having sufficient access to a prison sound system to play cassettes and LPs needed for her coursework.

In another complaint, she asks if the prisoners' annual allowance, which covers items including toiletries and cosmetics, can be increased. She says the £95 which they received annually is not enough.

One of the files released to the National Archives contains letters and receipts for a series of grants paid to Hindley's mother, sister and loved ones by the National Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders (NACRO) and a charity. They were paid more than £1,500 to visit her.