After receiving death threats and disapproval from family, solicitor Andrew McCooey and his wife Margaret found themselves standing in their office looking at the brick that had just been hurled through their window.

The press had vilified them and friends had turned their backs on them, but their decision remained unfaltering: They were to continue representing Britain’s most hated woman – Myra Hindley.

In the late 1980s, having just opened his Sittingbourne law firm, Andrew McCooey – known for taking on unpopular cases – took on the notorious Moors Murderer’s plea for parole.

Hindley, who was serving her life sentence at Cookham Wood prison in Rochester, assisted boyfriend Ian Brady in kidnapping children who were sexually assaulted and murdered by him before their bodies were buried on the moors above Manchester between 1963 and 1965. Their victims were aged between 10 and 17.

She received two life sentences, plus seven years for harbouring Brady, who went on to be detained in a top security mental hospital.

Andrew – now 75 and stricken with Parkinson's disease – spends his days bedbound in the very room the brick crashed into as anger boiled over at his decision to represent Hindley. He can now only speak with difficulty.

Sitting in his former office, Margaret said: “It was 1987 and we’d just opened McCooey & Co.

“We were members of the Lawyers' Christian Fellowship and someone had approached the organisation to ask if they knew a local solicitor, who would be willing to take on Myra Hindley's application for parole.

“This was long after the murders and the horrific things that were done. In prison, she had become a Christian.”

During her trial the court heard how she herself was frightened of Brady and in his power totally with the judge saying he believed there was hope for her to recover her humanity.

Margaret added: “She wanted a Christian solicitor, and nobody in this area would take her on because of her dreadful name. Andrew said to me ‘What do you think? I think we should say yes and apply for parole’.”

Andrew explained to her that Hindley, who’d been in prison for 21 years at that point, had served her sentence but it was due to political reasons as to why she was being kept in prison.

Margaret continued: “Whoever [agreed to her] parole would have been so unpopular that’s why no one was willing to do anything. After he told me about his plans Andrew said to me 'We'll get a lot of flack' but I thought we should do it. The point for us was, is there anyone so evil, who was brought so low, who God couldn't forgive?”

The couple, who met at Bible College at St Albans, Hertfordshire, say it’s their faith that steered them in what they’d chosen to do and who they’ve helped.

Margaret explained: “Our families were horrified, they said things like 'How can you?' They were horribly upset.

“I also remember getting the brick through the window, we also got hate mail. But we didn't waver.

“I'm sure we lost clients, lots of people said 'How could you?' and one friend disowned us for several years. People have different ways of expressing their disapproval.

“But I think it's a lawyer's duty that you help anyone, you're not the judge, which Andrew would always point out.”

The 76-year-old, who also studied law, and her husband were only young people when Hindley’s crimes were committed.

She said: “What happened was horrendous, but Andrew took on Myra Hindley’s parole case many, many years later.

“Andrew often met her in person and I spoke to her on the phone. She seemed a very ordinary person and she looked nothing like the horrific pictures that were printed by the media.”

Margaret, a mum of three, was even plastered over the newspapers herself following Andrew’s decision to help.

She explained: “I was once on the front page of the Sun because I’d given Myra Hindley money at Christmas. We often sent the prisoners we worked with a little bit of cash so they could buy presents for family and, of course, Myra Hindley was one of our clients.

“Because of her status, I assume a prison guard leaked what we'd done, and I was on the front page.

“It said something like ‘this dreadful person, Margaret McCooey, sent money to a horrific person like Myra Hindley’ and I thought wow, I'm on the front page of the Sun. Who would have thought? Especially as I was such a goody-goody by nature.”

Margaret says Hindley was given the same “brilliant” service by Andrew he gave every client.

“It didn't matter if you were a traveller or someone very famous. He was the same to everyone. And we just did the best job we could.”

Andrew fought for Hindley's parole until she died of pneumonia in 2002.

During the years he represented her, Andrew also saved many innocent tourists from prison in Europe and even some from death row in America and the Caribbean.

It began with Tara Terry, a computer operator from Surrey who was arrested in Florida for arson.

“At that time in that state, you went to the electric chair for arson, you were actually executed,” Margaret explained.

“This was in the late ‘80s and a distraught father rang us up. He had no money and he said 'My daughter's in danger of going to the electric chair in Florida. She's only 19. Can you help us?'

“Andrew said yes despite there being no money, but we relied on getting some from good people.”

With the case, Andrew discovered that a fire expert was needed to prove Ms Terry’s innocence.

Margaret added: “The building that had been caught alight was a rundown hotel with dreadful electrics.

“Tara and her boyfriend had been in this grotty hotel and there had been a fire. Apparently, the boyfriend and she had a row and someone heard them. They thought she'd set fire to the hotel as revenge.

“But, to prove that wasn't the case, you need an expert who would cost thousands of dollars.

“So Andrew came back and used journalists to advertise her situation and appeal for help.

“And that week, this motorbiker, Clive Unerman, came up to the front of the firm and said 'I need to see Andrew about the Tara Terry case'. He threw on Andrew's desk, the deeds of three properties and said 'I want to give all these properties, sell them, for Tara's defence'.

“It was a miracle. And one of the papers even represented this with a cartoon of an angel turning up on a motorbike. It was just incredible. Suddenly we had the money to give her a proper defence.”

Margaret explained many people go to death row in America simply because they cannot afford representation.

She continued: “Once we were able to afford Tara's defence and we got in court and the experts examined the hotel, it was revealed the building was just a deathtrap. She was found not guilty and they brought her home rejoicing. That was how Freedom Now began.”

Freedom Now was founded in pursuit of justice for Britons abroad.

“It helped us save some people from death row, especially younger British people who went on holiday and didn't realise you could have a bar brawl and suddenly find yourself in a very dark world.

“We had distraught parents ring us and often Andrew used to go to help them.” Margaret said.

It has been confirmed he saved eight people from death row who were down to be executed. They were completely exonerated when their cases got brought back to court.

A bit closer to home Andrew was involved with a case which saw Sittingbourne man Stephen Owen found not guilty after he shot a man who ran over and killed his 12-year-old son, Darren.

The lorry driver who drove off after the accident and showed no remorse, didn’t even have a driving licence and was only given an 18-month sentence for dangerous driving – serving just a year in prison.

Margaret said: “Mr Owen would have gone to prison for a very long time, but thanks to Andrew, he got out free. He was totally found not guilty of everything. That was a miracle.

“At the beginning, when we'd started our firm, we were buying all our furniture from Mr Owen's furniture shop in East Street.

“But one day we got a sudden and distraught phone call from him saying 'my son has been run over by a lorry driver and he's dead'.

“We didn't hear anything more from him until he'd actually gone out with a shotgun and shot the lorry driver at almost point-blank range. He was wounded, not killed, and Mr Owen ran away.

“The police were looking for him and so Mr Owen rang Andrew from a remote place.

“Andrew persuaded him to come back and give himself up. So he came to our house. They went to the police station the next morning, and then he was remanded in custody.”

Margaret recalled that it was suggested Mr Owen plead guilty to a lesser charge, however, this still would have resulted in him going to prison.

She said: “At the 1992 trial Andrew instructed Mr Owen to plead not guilty even though he went on to admit everything.

“His defence barrister said we shouldn't really put Mr Owen on the stand to speak because he’d just incriminate himself but I remember saying to Andrew, 'you've got to let him speak.

“You've got to let this man say how he feels, he may get a life sentence or someone will see that he suffered so much, and they might be merciful’.

“That decision allowed Mr Owen to pour his heart out and the jury was overwhelmed with pity and compassion, and came back with a not guilty verdict.

“It was this amazing verdict and he came out on the steps of Maidstone Crown Court saying ‘justice from God, justice from God’.”

Five years later Andrew became a higher court advocate, which meant he could represent more clients at crown courts without a barrister – in 1999 he became a judge.

Andrew and Margaret closed their firm in 2010. It was in 2012 that Andrew retired due to his struggles with Parkinson’s.

Margaret added: “He wasn't himself and then in 2012 he realised he couldn't think clearly enough to do any judgments.

“At first he just thought it was some neurological disorder and even had backup operations.

“It was quite a mysterious illness because symptoms-wise he's never had Parkinsonian shakes.

“So we were all a bit stumped. I retrained to be a counsellor when he retired.

“So I was doing counselling here at the house, once firm, until 2017 when Andrew’s Parkinson's got worse. The purpose of the house wasn't there anymore so we put it up on the market.”

Over his career, more than 6,000 people came through Andrew’s office looking for help.