Helen McCourt's mum writes book about notorious murder and quest for justice

Just days before the 33rd anniversary of Billinge insurance clerk Helen McCourt’s disappearance, her campaigning mum Marie is publishing Justice for Helen.

It tells the story of her beloved daughter who was killed by local pub landlord Ian Simms at the age of 22; how DNA science ensured he became one of the first murderers in UK history to be jailed in the absence of the victim’s body; his refusal to this day to reveal its whereabouts; and how Mrs McCourt successfully battled for the introduction of a “no body, no parole” clause nicknamed Helen’s Law, even if it arrived too late to prevent Simms’s release.

The 77-year-old said that she hoped the 374-page volume would help to keep Helen’s legacy alive and give other families who have suffered similar tragedies hope of justice from convicted killers who have hitherto remained tight-lipped about the location of their victims’ hidden remains.

Indeed word of Helen’s Law is spreading, with both Scotland and Northern Ireland now looking to introduce something similar, the Republic of Ireland is also exploring the possibility and an MP in Canada won a seat in that country’s parliament with a campaign which included a version of “Helen’s Law” in his manifesto after consulting with Mrs McCourt.

It gives her much satisfaction to know this addition to the statute book and Helen’s story continues to capture the public imagination.

Indeed Mrs McCourt had in the early days after the murder turned down the possibility of collaborating on a book, saying this would only happen once Helen had been found.

But as the years went by without that longed-for discovery, she changed her mind, fearing that if she left it any longer she might begin to forget things.

There was also a recognition that Helen might not be found in her mother’s lifetime and that the entering of Helen’s Law on the statute books was a landmark justification itself for her to go into print.

And so she teamed up with North West journalist and family friend Fiona Duffy, whom she has known for 22 years and who has helped her to write the book.

Mrs McCourt said: “I am glad we have done it. Helen was taken from us at a very young age and she deserves this to be remembered by.

“It will also help to keep her in people’s minds long after I have gone and maybe one day she will be found.

“At the moment Ian Simms can dance on the spot where he put her and I can’t even lay flowers there.

“The primary objective of the book is to prevent this from happening. To give other families in a similar situation to mine fresh hope that a killer won’t get out of prison if he’s refusing to say what he did with the victim.

“I can’t do anything more than I have done. We would still be going out looking for Helen - there are still sites we need to explore - but that has been severely hampered by the lockdown in the last year.

“But my message to other families is never, ever give up.”

Mrs McCourt said that the book covers Helen’s life, her disappearance, the court case, Simms’s jailing after a Liverpool Crown Court jury delivered a unanimous guilty murder verdict, the killer’s continued refusal to admit the crime and say where Helen’s body lies, the years fruitlessly trying to persuade him to break his silence, and the campaign for Helen’s Law when she realised that an unrepentant Simms might get out after all.

She credits the St Helens North MP Conor McGinn, supportive local and national newspapers and the 750,000 people who signed a campaigning petition for helping the clause over the line but also voices frustration that it took so long to get through Parliament - two general elections knocking its progress back - that it became enshrined in law only after Simms had been granted parole.

Mrs McCourt said: “This book is about what no parent should ever have to go through. It’s horrific to lose a loved one through any circumstances, but not to be able to give them a funeral, which is a last goodbye for family and friends, is especially hard and cruel to bear.

“But I am pleased that the law is now on the statute books.

“When I started the petition I was hoping for 500 names to get the Government to take notice. Now we have more than three quarters of a million. We had more than the 500 he wanted on the first day of asking!

“I would not have been able to do this book without Fiona. She has been a great friend who has helped me all the way. She is like family.”

Justice for Helen is published by John Blake (part of Bonnier Books UK) on February 4, priced £8.99. It can be found instore and online at Amazon, Waterstones and Bookbridgr.

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