Helen McCourt: Mother of murder victim becomes MBE

Marie McCourt hoped her daughter's killer would never get parole

A mother who led a campaign to change the law after her daughter was murdered has been appointed MBE.

Marie McCourt was given the honour for services to the families of murder victims by the King at Buckingham Palace on Wednesday.

Her daughter Helen McCourt, 22, was killed after vanishing near their home in St Helens, Merseyside in 1988.

Mrs McCourt has since campaigned to deny killers parole for failing to tell the location of their victims' remains.

The Prisoners (Disclosure of Information About Victims) Act, dubbed Helen's Law, came into force in 2021.

The law toughened existing guidelines and made it a legal requirement for the parole board to take into account a murderer's failure to disclose the location of their victim's remains when considering them for release.

Mrs McCourt, from Wigan, said she now regularly helps other families of murder victims find the bodies of their loved ones.

"We're still helping families of victims. It's hard for me: so many people come to me for help and it breaks me," she said.

Helen McCourt was murdered by Ian Simms in Billinge, Merseyside, in 1988

She explained that Helen's life was taken in February 1988 and that it has taken her a long time to heal.

"It helps families to know that [the police] have got the person who took their family members, that they can now rest and - most of all - the family can rest," she said.

"It's the most horrible thing that people take joy in taking a life. I think they should never be allowed out of prison because they are very cruel."

A local pub landlord, Ian Simms, was handed a life sentence in 1989 for Helen McCourt's murder despite her body never having been found. He was released in 2020 and died in 2022.

He always maintained his innocence and never disclosed where he hid Helen's body.