The body of Moors murderer Myra Hindley has been cremated following a private funeral in front of 12 friends.

Covered in floral tributes, her coffin arrived at Cambridge crematorium on Wednesday for the 20-minute service.

The public appeared to have heeded police advice and stayed away, although there was one banner at the entrance to the crematorium which read "Burn in hell".

Around 25 police officers ringed the area and there was a large media presence.

No members of Hindley's family attended, a police spokeswoman added.

She wanted Albinoni's Adagio to be played and would like a mass to be offered for repose of her soul

Andrew McCooey, Hindley's former solicitor

The child killer was jailed for life in 1966 with Ian Brady for the murders of 10-year-old Lesley Ann Downey and Edward Evans, 17.

She later admitted killing 12-year-old Keith Bennett and Pauline Reade, 16, and helped police to unearth the latter's body on Saddleworth Moor. Keith's body has never been found.

Superintendent John Raine said the funeral had gone ahead "without any problems".

"A few cars driving past on the A14 either tooted or shouted but apart from that there were no problems at all.

Hindley was Britain's longest serving female prisoner

"We have not been expecting any problems but we were aware some people might want to voice their disapproval and forewarned is forearmed.

"We were here to allow the service to be conducted in a dignified fashion."

The service was conducted by Father Michael Teader, Roman Catholic Priest at Highpoint Prison, Suffolk, where Hindley spent her final years in jail.

Her former solicitor and executor of her will, Andrew McCooey, said that before she died she had issued details of what she wanted at the service.

"She wanted Albinoni's Adagio to be played and would like a Mass to be offered for repose of her soul," he said.

A police spokesman said any floral tributes would be destroyed, although any cards would be kept and given to Hindley's family.

New charges

Cambridge City Council's head of parks and recreation, John Roebuck, said holding the funeral in the evening meant there would be less disruption to the crematorium.

He had not been prepared to cancel any cremations to accommodate Hindley's service, he added.

Hindley's cremated remains will be handed to the Prison Service, and then passed on to her family.

An inquest into her death was opened and adjourned on Monday.

A Home Office pathologist told the hearing the 60-year-old had died from a combination of bronchial pneumonia and hypertension.

The room at West Suffolk Hospital in Bury St Edmunds in which she died has been cleaned and redecorated.

Hospital officials said everything that could be burned was incinerated because they were "sensitive" to the feelings of future patients using the room.

No local undertakers would conduct funeral

"The room has been cleared of everything that was used during her care and the room has been redecorated," a spokesman said.

Local funeral directors refused to handle Hindley's body. Instead, a company based 200 miles away looked after her body.

It emerged on Monday that Greater Manchester Police and the Crown Prosecution Service were compiling a file which could have seen her charged with the murders of Keith Bennett and Pauline Reade.

Brady, now 64, is being held at the high security Ashworth Hospital on Merseyside and has said he never wants to be freed.