HELEN’S LAW
Murderer Ian Simms has been free for over a year, after serving 32 years for killing Helen McCourt, 22.
Last seen on 9 February 1988 after getting off a bus 500 metres from her home in Billenge, St Helens, her body was never found.
Pub landlord Simms was convicted after her blood was found in his home and car. Helen had previously rejected the married Simms’ advances, and also knew he was having an affair. Screams were heard coming from the pub minutes after Helen left the bus at 5.30pm.
Simms’ conviction made legal history by being the third murder without a body – but the evidence was incontrovertible.
Simms is 63 now, but may have decades of life left, something he denied Helen. So when he requested parole in 2015, Helen’s mum Marie launched a campaign for Helen’s Law, to deny release to killers who refuse to disclose the location of their victims’ remains.
In 2016, Marie’s local MP Conor McGinn presented Helen’s Law, officially called the Unlawful Killing (Recovery of Remains) Act, to the House of Commons. That first reading was passed unanimously by MPs – but, by then, Simms was already in an open prison.
Critics warned Helen’s Law would negatively impact victims of miscarriages of justice but, despite delays due to elections, it received royal assent in November 2020. When it officially became law on 4 January 2021, Simms was already free.
Marie says, ‘Helen’s Law is not just for Helen but for every other missing murder victim – and their tortured families. I’m so proud to have created a legacy in my daughter’s name.’
The law also applies to those jailed for manslaughter or taking or making an indecent photograph of a child.