Simms stole my daughter, now I could lose my home

Helen’s Law mum faces ruin from legal fight bill

THE campaigning mother of murdered Helen Mccourt fears she may lose her home due to legal costs in her High Court bid for justice.

Mum Marie has applied for a judicial review of the decision to release killer Ian Simms, 63, from his life sentence.

But she has been told that a defeat could make her liable for costs in excess of £75,000.

Despite the threat, brave Marie refuses to give up.

“Simms stole my daughter but now I could lose my home and be left destitute,” she said. “How is this fair?”

She has partly won her fight to ban murderers from being released on parole if they do not reveal the location of a victim’s body. But the Helen’s Law Bill, passed by the Commons, is still going through the Lords – and Simms was freed in February.

Insurance clerk Helen, 22, was murdered by pub landlord Simms following her disappearance after getting off a bus near home at Billinge, Merseyside, in 1988. The judicial review starts on July 29, which would have been Helen’s 55th birthday.

Marie, 76, said: “This convicted killer was granted legal aid and I, the law-abiding mum of a missing murder victim, am not entitled to a penny.”

An appeal on Gofundme has already raised £27,000 towards

Marie’s court case but she still faces a shortfall amounting to tens of thousands of pounds.

“Any help that members of the public feel able to offer me, even a single pound, would mean the world,” she said.

Though Simms showed no remorse for the crime of which he was convicted, the Parole Board deemed him safe to be released after 31 years in jail.

It then stuck to the decision even after Justice Secretary Robert Buckland pleaded with it to reconsider.

The judicial review is understood to be the first ever legal challenge involving a convicted murderer who has refused to disclose the whereabouts of a victim’s remains.

Her murderer gets legal aid and her lawabiding mum is not entitled to one penny

MARIE MCCOURT MOTHER OF MURDER VICTIM HELEN

He won't say where body is but Helen's killer goes free INJUSTICE Mirror report on Simms leaving prison BATTLING ON Marie with letter to Justice Secretary Buckland

KILLER Ian Simms out on release

BELOVED Marie with Helen in 1987