CALLS FOR NO BODY, NO PAROLE LAW say goodbye Mum of Danielle Jones still searching for her daughter’s body 16yrs after her murder
Helen’s family keep fighting
in the River Thames two years after Danielle disappeared. I look for Danielle everywhere. Every time we get a plane from any airport I look down at the ground and think ‘ Am I looking at where she’s buried?’”
Broken
Linda was so broken that she had to take six weeks off her job at Matalan because she feared her reaction when people expressed sympathy.
Overwhelmed by a sense of hopelessness, Linda also felt for Danielle’s brothers Mitchell, 27, and Ryan, 29, who were just 12 and 14 when their sister was murdered.
She said: “They’ve suffered just as much as me and Tony over the years. They have their own children now and had to relive their sister’s death, but this time as parents themselves.
“It’s the everyday things that really hurt. It took me years to get used to not hanging out Danielle’s washing or laying the table for four.
“I hurt so much that in the end I got rid of our big dining table for a fourseater instead.
“When I look at Mitchell and Ryan’s wedding pictures on the wall I know Danielle’s are missing.
“When I see photographs of the grandchildren I know Danielle would have had her own children because she loved kids and wanted to be a nursery nurse.” The murder caused a huge split in the family as Tony’s parents and sister initially struggled to believe Campbell was capable of killing and they are still estranged to this day.
“Campbell’s taken everything away,” says Linda.
“He murdered Danielle, devastated the family and took away the boys’ chance to have a relationship with their grandparents.”
Linda is now backing another grieving mum’s efforts to have the law changed to ensure killers who refuse to reveal the location of their victim’s bodies are denied early release.
She went to Parliament earlier this year to help Marie McCourt lobby for Helen’s Law.
Marie’s daughter Helen, 22, was murdered in 1988 in St Helens, MARIE McCourt created Helen’s Law in a bid to stop her daughter’s killer from being handed his freedom until he revealed Helen’s final resting place.
Its aim is to deny parole to murderers who refuse to disclose the location of their victims’ bodies.
The remains of 22-year-old Helen McCourt, who was killed by pub landlord Ian Simms near St Helens, Merseyside, in 1988, have never been found.
Simms was ordered to serve a minimum of 16 years after his conviction in 1989, but he remained behind bars since then – mainly because he still denies any part in Helen’s murder.
He is currently in an open jail awaiting his next parole hearing in March.
Marie said: “All I want is an amendment to a Bill saying that killers who don’t cooperate over the location of their victims’ remains, denying them a proper burial, should stay locked up.”
Helen’s Law was introduced to Parliament by campaigning Labour MP Conor McGinn last October.
The bill was set for a second reading in Parliament this year but has so far stalled following a series of administrative holdups. An e-petition in favour of the law has reached nearly 400,000 signatures.
Last month MP Mr McGinn tweeted his disappointment after it was omitted from the Queen’s Speech, saying: “I will now bring forward #HelensLaw again in this Parliament and ask Ministers and all MPs to support our Bill.”
The Ministry of Justice has pointed out judges can already take non-disclosure of bodies into account when sentencing killers. Critics also warn the law could affect prisoners who have been the victims of a miscarriage of justice. Merseyside, by pub landlord Ian Simms, who has refused to reveal what he did with her body.
Both women say the killers should never be released unless they give up their secrets.
Linda, who still lives in East Tilbury added: “It seems the rights of victims stop after the trial. Campbell claimed to have cared for Danielle.
“If that’s true then why is he denying her the right of a decent burial?
“I have nowhere to visit my daughter, nowhere to lay flowers and talk to her.
“There’s a memorial garden at her school which we go to, but I know she’s not there.
“Campbell tried to control Danielle and exercised that same control over other teenage girls. Now he’s trying to control us from his prison cell. here’s just no justice.
“Our family are carrying a life sentence not knowing where Danielle is, yet he’s due for parole in five or six years. How can that be right?
“But we will never give up looking for Danielle. The police have told us the case is open until she is found.
“I’ve come to terms with her death but it’s the fact that she went to school one day and never, ever returned in any form.
“He’s denied us the chance to not only say goodbye, but even give a cuddle to our daughter before burying her. That’s just evil.”