{"id":824,"date":"2016-10-11T05:35:27","date_gmt":"2016-10-11T09:35:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/?p=824"},"modified":"2016-10-11T05:40:49","modified_gmt":"2016-10-11T09:40:49","slug":"helens-law-to-be-debated-by-mps-amid-calls-from-mams-to-deny-killers-parole","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2016\/10\/11\/helens-law-to-be-debated-by-mps-amid-calls-from-mams-to-deny-killers-parole\/","title":{"rendered":"Helen’s Law to be debated by MPs amid calls from MAMS to deny killers parole"},"content":{"rendered":"

Murderers who refuse to say where they buried their victims should be denied freedom, says a mum whose daughter was killed.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Reveal body location or lose parole<\/span>Killers should be ineligible for parole if they refuse to tell police where they have hidden their victims’ bodies, MPs will be told today.<\/figcaption>
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At a Commons debate, politicians will be urged to vote for ‘Helen’s Law’, which would deny prisoners the chance of freedom until they co-operate with investigators.<\/p>\n

It is named after Helen McCourt, who was abducted and killed by Ian Simms in 1988 near Wigan.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Simms was convicted by overwhelming DNA evidence of her murder but has never admitted his crime or disclosed the whereabouts of the 22-year-old’s remains – denying her family closure.<\/p>\n

Although his application to be released from jail has been rejected, the Parole Board has recommended Simms be transferred to an open prison.<\/p>\n

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Simms could end up in an open prison despite failing to co-operate<\/span><\/figcaption>
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The Commons debate was scheduled after a petition calling for the law to be changed attracted more than 343,000 signatures.<\/p>\n

Helen’s mother, Marie McCourt, said: “It’s been 28 years since I lost my daughter but the pain will never ease until I can give her the dignity of a funeral.<\/p>\n

“Many of those who have signed my petition have told me they are shocked this law doesn’t already exist.<\/p>\n

“To take a life is bad enough. But to then hide the body and refuse to disclose where it can be found is an act of pure evil. They are literally picking up the family of the victim and dropping them into hell.”<\/p>\n

Ms McCourt says she is not asking for killers to be imprisoned forever, but believes such a law would make criminals more likely to co-operate.<\/p>\n

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Conor McGinn says Helen’s Law has ‘huge public support’<\/span><\/figcaption>
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Conor McGinn, the Labour MP who will argue the case for the Unlawful Killing (Recovery of Remains) Bill, said a similar law has been introduced in parts of Australia.<\/p>\n

“No one should be forced to endure the anguish that Marie McCourt and her family and the relatives of other victims have suffered,” he added.<\/p>\n

“Helen’s Law will hopefully go some way towards helping put right the terrible wrong that has been inflicted on them.”<\/p>\n

MAMS stands for MOTHER’S AGAINST MURDER<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Sky news<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Murderers who refuse to say where they buried their victims should be denied freedom, says a mum whose daughter was killed. Reveal body location or lose paroleKillers should be ineligible for parole if they refuse […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":773,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[109,2,4],"tags":[407,403,378,404,377,406,405],"class_list":{"0":"post-824","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headline","8":"category-news","9":"category-uk","10":"tag-407","11":"tag-deny-parole","12":"tag-helen-mccourt","13":"tag-houses-of-parliament","14":"tag-marie-mccourt","15":"tag-murdered","16":"tag-wigan-mother","17":"pmpro-has-access"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=824"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/824\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":828,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/824\/revisions\/828"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}