Peers back legislation to ensure victims’ families told if killer seeks prison release

PEERS HAVE inflicted a Government defeat in seeking to ensure the families of some victims are kept informed when their killer or abuser is seeking release from prison.

The House of Lords supported a move aimed at preventing the distress suffered by relatives when they find out about an offender being freed via the press or social media.

The change was backed during the report stage of the Prisoners (Disclosure of Information About Victims) Bill, which has been dubbed Helen’s Law.

The legislation is named after Helen McCourt, from Merseyside, whose murderer Ian Simms was released from prison earlier this year despite never revealing where her remains are.

Miss McCourt, 22, disappeared in February 1988, after getting off a bus close to her home.

It places a statutory obligation on the Parole Board to take into account specific offenders’ nondisclosure of certain information when making a decision about their release from prison.

It applies to prisoners serving a sentence for murder or manslaughter or for taking or making an indecent photograph of a child.

This is in response to the case of Vanessa George, a nursery worker who was convicted of multiple counts of sexual abuse and taking and distributing indecent images of children and refused to name the victims.

Labour peer Baroness Kennedy of Cradley said the amendment would not stop the prisoners from being released – but sets a duty for the Parole Board to ensure families are fully informed at each stage.