MORE than 200 people turned out to support a petition in memory of Helen McCourt on Saturday aimed at denying any chance of parole to killers who do not reveal the whereabouts of their victims bodies .

Helen, from Billinge was murdered on February 9, 1988 aged 22 – and despite George and Dragon pub landlord Ian Simms being jailed for the crime – he has never admitted what he did or where Helen’s body is.

Her mum Marie McCourt, 74, has been campaigning for a new law to be adopted, which would mean convicted murderers who refuse to reveal the whereabouts of their victims’ bodies would remain behind bars.

It is to be called Helen’s Law in her daughter’s memory.

However she needs people to sign a petition to bring it to the attention of Parliament - so on Saturday, July 28 she was joined by Mayor of St Helens Cllr Pat Ireland and St Helens South and Whiston MP Marie Rimmer to hand out yellow ribbons to spread awareness of the campaign.

It was a success as more than 200 people came over to Marie pledging to sign the petition.

Gran-of-two Marie said: “The event in St Helens on Saturday went really really well and that is down to the people in St Helens coming up to us and learning about Helen's story.

"Many, like I thought, had not heard of Helens or what happened to her, so I feel great that we went out to do it and now more people can sign the petition.

"Many of the people I met had even known Simms as a child - which was quite shocking - but that just goes to show you that this could have happened to anyone and could happen to anyone.

"Please sign this petition, without it killers can take lives at random and hide the body knowing they can be free after serving a minimum tariff."

That night the Steve Prescott bridge also went yellow for Helen to mark what would have been her 53rd birthday.

To sign the petition go to bit.ly/2DXRwWb