"FOR Marie to have won her campaign for Helen’s Law, only to see her own daughter’s killer released before it is introduced, is heartbreaking and perverse."
Those are the words of St Helens North MP Conor McGinn following the news that Ian Simms is set to be released.
The decision to release the 63-year-old on licence follows a Parole Board hearing that took place a fortnight ago.
Pub landlord Simms abducted and murdered insurance clerk Helen McCourt, 22, from Billinge on her way home from work in February 1988.
He denied being responsible but a jury at Liverpool Crown Court convicted him amid overwhelming DNA evidence, despite Helen’s body never being found.
Ian Simms
He was jailed for life and told he would have to serve at least 16 years before he could be considered for parole.
Simms has gone on to serve more than three decades in jail. This was his seventh review by the Parole Board and since 2016 he had been in an open prison.
After four years fighting for law change which would see killers who do not reveal the whereabouts of their victims bodies remain behind bars, government signalled support for Helen's Law and it is expected to come into force in 2020.
But Simms is set to be released before that law can come to fruition.
Commenting on this news, Conor McGinn MP said: "I have spoken to Marie McCourt and her family who are shocked and devastated at the news that the Parole Board has decided to release Helen’s killer.
Marie with a picture of Helen
"For Marie to have won her campaign for Helen’s Law, only to see her own daughter’s killer released before it is introduced, is heartbreaking and perverse.
"The community in Billinge and St Helens, and indeed the British public as a whole, will share a sense of outrage and disgust.
"To free Helen McCourt’s killer now is an affront to justice and decency, and a betrayal of the commitments made to the McCourt family.
"I have contacted the Justice Secretary to ask for his urgent intervention.
"This man, like other murderers, must stay behind bars until he gives information about the location of his victims’ remains."
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