Northumberland murderer could now die behind bars
KILLER JAILED FOR LIFE FOR MURDER OF PARTNER, BUT HAS NEVER REVEALED THE WHEREABOUTS OF VICTIM’S REMAINS
MURDERER Donald Graham could now die in jail if he fails to reveal his secrets after a new law came into force.
The killer was jailed for life after being convicted of killing his partner Janet Brown.
Yet his victim’s body has never been found.
Graham is thought to be the region’s only murderer to be convicted despite no remains ever being recovered.
But the killer, who must serve a minimum of 32 years before he is eligible for parole, may now never taste freedom after socalled ‘Helen’s Law’ came into force this week.
Otherwise known as the Prisoners (Disclosure of Information About Victims) Bill, the law has been introduced after decades of campaigning by Marie McCourt, whose daughter Helen was murdered in 1988.
It will place a statutory obligation on the Parole Board to take into account an offender’s nondisclosure of certain information when making a decision about their release from prison.
And Graham, from Northumberland, is one of a small number of UK criminals who could be kept inside because of it.
Marie, who lives in Merseyside, said she hoped the killer would now search his conscience so that Janet could be given the dignity she deserves.
The 77-year-old said: “No matter what Janet deserves a funeral where friends can go to remember her, especially after the way she died.
“I just hope there are people like Graham sitting in prison cells now thinking about what
they have done.
“I hope Helen’s Law will make these killers think. They have to be released at some stage, but not until they say what they have done with their victims’ remains.”
Janet, from Lowgate, near Hexham, was an independent woman who enjoyed travelling and loved animals.
She came from a well-off family and had made her own money developing properties.
Janet had been in a relationship with married Graham for a number of years before she vanished without a trace in June 2005.
But her disappearance went unnoticed until 2010.
A fraud investigation was launched by Northumbria Police after a bank employee spotted that some signatures on documents relating to Janet’s bank accounts did not quite match up.
And when all efforts to trace Janet failed, detectives handed the case on to the force’s murder squad.
Graham, who was 60 at the time, was arrested in 2010 and eventually charged with Janet’s murder.
During his trial at Newcastle Crown Court, in 2014, jurors heard how the manipulative killer managed to maintain a pretence that his victim was still alive for five years after the crime, meaning Janet’s murder went uninvestigated.
He even wrote letters to her elderly parents pretending to be Janet and saying she had found a
new job abroad.
The case is thought to be Northumbria Police’s only murder conviction without a body.
And, despite a number of large-scale searches, with areas of Northumberland land being dug up, Janet’s remains have never been found.
Helen’s Law has come too late for the family on the tragic 22-year-old insurance clerk that inspired it.
Helen was reported missing when she failed to return home from work, in February 1988, but was never seen again.
Ian Simms, who owned a pub close to her home, was convicted of her murder after blood and an earring – identical to one belonging to Helen were found in his car boot.
But the killer has always maintained his innocence, and therefore refused to reveal what he did with Helen’s body.
Marie has spent the last three decades fighting to keep Simms in prison and to prevent other such killers from being released if they do not disclose their secrets.
In March last year, Helen’s Law was passed unopposed by MPs in the Commons.
But tragically, the legislation came too late for Marie, as Simms was released from prison just weeks earlier, despite a legal challenge by the family to keep him inside.
The new law will also apply to paedophiles who refuse to identify those they abused.