LONDON: A British judge on Friday ordered there should be "no music and no ceremony" at the cremation of notorious child serial killer Ian Brady, warning that allowing it could offend the families of his victims or the public.

Brady's lawyer Robin Makin said his client had asked for the fifth movement of Hector Berlioz's hallucinatory Symphonie Fantastique, "Dream of the Night of the Sabbath", to be played.

"I have no difficulty in understanding how legitimate offence would be caused to the families of the deceased's victims once it became known that this movement had been played at his cremation," Chancellor of the High Court Geoffrey Vos said in his ruling.

"I propose to direct that there be no music and no ceremony."

An official from Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council near Manchester, northwest England, has been asked to arrange the disposal of the ashes.

"Taking into account all the competing positions, the overwhelming factor in this case is the public interest," Vos said.

"The deceased's wishes are relevant, but they do not outweigh the need to avoid justified public indignation and actual unrest," he said.

Brady, who died aged 79 in May, and his girlfriend Myra Hindley, tortured and murdered five children between July 1963 and October 1965.

The brutality of their crimes -- which in several cases included sexual assault -- and the role of Hindley in luring innocent young children to their deaths, have made it one of Britain's most infamous cases.

Four of the couple's victims were buried on Saddleworth Moor, in a national park near Manchester, although the body of 12-year-old Keith Bennett has never been found.

Makin earlier said there was "no likelihood" that the ashes would be spread on Saddleworth Moor.

Brady and Hindley were jailed in 1966 for the murders of John Kilbride, 12, Lesley Ann Downey, 10, and Edward Evans, 17.

Years later, the pair confessed to Bennett's murder and that of 16-year-old Pauline Reade.

Brady never expressed remorse for the killings, and the judge in his trial said both he and Hindley were "evil beyond belief". Hindley died in prison in 2002.—AFP