He spent his Fleet Street years on a Sunday newspaper, then called The People, in its heyday as a campaigning newspaper, completing his service as Chief Reporter in 1986.
Fred’s journalism was largely devoted to investigating criminal and anti-social behaviour, with his many exposés including the revelation that many of the world’s top speedway riders bought their World Champion titles.
But the assignment that gave Fred the deepest satisfaction was his campaign to persuade Manchester Police to re-investigate the serial child killings known as the Moors Murders.
Thanks to the jail-cell co-operation which he received from Ian Brady, who, with Myra Hindley, was convicted of three murders, Fred succeeded in persuading the police to reopen the files on two other disappearances. The body of 16-year-old Pauline Reade was recovered, but Keith Bennett, who was 12 years old when he was snatched, remains buried on Saddleworth moor.
Fred recounted his campaign in Brady & Hindley: Genesis of the Moors Murders (1986).