Murder of Helen McCourt


Helen McCourt was a 22-year-old British insurance clerk from Lancashire, England, who disappeared on 9 February 1988 in the village of Billinge, Metropolitan Borough of St Helens, Merseyside, shortly after getting off a bus less than five hundred yards from her home. Her body has never been found. Ian Simms, a local pub landlord, was charged with and convicted of her murder.
The case is a rare example where a murder conviction has been obtained without the presence of a body, and was one of the first in the UK to use DNA fingerprinting. In 2015, Helen McCourt's mother, Marie, began a campaign to change the law regarding the conviction of killers such as Simms, requiring them to reveal the whereabouts of their victim's remains before being considered for parole. The campaign led to the announcement of plans to introduce a "Helen's Law" in May 2019. On 5 July 2019, David Gauke, the Secretary of State for Justice confirmed the law would be adopted in England and Wales. A Parole Board hearing on 8 November recommended Simms for release, the decision coming before the legislation could be introduced. The McCourt family launched a bid to keep Simms in jail but it was rejected by the High Court in February 2020, and Simms was subsequently released on licence.

Background

Helen McCourt spoke with her mother Marie by telephone before 4:00 pm on 9 February 1988, shortly before she was due to leave work. She was planning to go out for the evening with her new boyfriend and wanted her tea ready earlier so she had time to wash her hair.
Two days before her disappearance, Helen had been involved in a heated argument with a woman in a pub called the George and Dragon. The landlord was Ian Simms, who was aged 31 at the time and married with two small children. After the argument, Simms had banned Helen from the pub and, according to several customers, had used obscene language about her and said how much he "hated" her. He had made sexual advances to Helen which she had rejected, and also believed Helen knew about his affair with his 21-year-old mistress and was gossiping about it.
Helen alighted from her bus around 5:30 pm and set off on the short journey home, a route that took her past the pub. Within minutes, a man getting off another bus heard a loud scream coming from the pub that was cut short. Helen has never been seen or heard from since that night.

Evidence

While being questioned by police, Simms came under suspicion when he became extremely nervous. His car was impounded, and forensic scientists found traces of Helen's blood: spots of blood on the rubber sill of the boot and a bloodstain on the boot carpet. In the boot they also found an opal and pearl earring, later identified by Marie as one of a pair Helen had been given for her 21st birthday; she had been wearing the earrings on the day she vanished. Traces of her blood were also found in Simms' flat: on the carpet at the foot of the stairs leading to his apartment, on a bedroom carpet in his flat, on wallpaper in the bedroom, and splashed on wallpaper next to the outside door to Simms' accommodation, where police believe she was first attacked.
In March, Helen's handbag, taupe coat, maroon scarf, navy trousers, and green mittens were found on a riverbank in Irlam, about twenty miles away, in a black binliner proved to have been taken from a roll of them in Simms' pub. Fibres from trousers Helen wore for the first time on the morning of her disappearance were found on the stair carpet, landing carpet, and bedroom carpet of Simms' flat, indicating she was dragged upstairs after being attacked by him. A witness working in the pub's restaurant testified she heard dragging noises from above her during the time of the presumed murder. Also found with her clothing was a length of electrical flex. This was similar to other lengths of flex found in Simms' flat, which he used in playing with his two dogs. The flex found at Irlam had dog toothmarks on it that were matched to Simms' dogs; it also had strands of human hair adhering to it that were matched to hairs from Helen's hair rollers. Police believe the flex was used to strangle her.
A man also came forward to say that, on the morning after Helen's disappearance, he had discovered a blood-stained towel while walking his dog along the Manchester Ship Canal in Hollins Green, Warrington. He later discovered a second towel along with several items of men's clothing, which also had blood on them; the blood was later identified as coming from Helen. The jumper had the logo for Labatt, a brand of beer popular at the George and Dragon pub. After first denying it, Simms later admitted these were his clothes.

Trial

At his trial in 1989, Simms denied murdering Helen, claiming that someone must have got into his flat, stolen his clothes and dressed in them, and attacked and murdered her without his knowledge. This person had then used his car to dispose of her body and then left his clothes where they would be found to incriminate him. The jury did not believe him and convicted him of the murder. Simms was one of the first persons to be convicted on DNA evidence without the victim's body having been discovered. In the absence of Helen's body, forensic scientists used a new technique, using blood samples from her parents to compare with the blood found in Simms' apartment, on his clothes and in the boot of his car. The odds were many thousands to one that the blood was not from a child of Helen's parents. In 1999 Simms challenged the findings of the DNA evidence that linked him to the crime, despite improved DNA technology that now suggested the odds against the blood not being Helen's were nine million to one.
Simms was given a life sentence with a minimum tariff of sixteen years. He has never revealed where he put Helen's body, which is also one of the reasons that all of his appeals for release have been denied. Despite the evidence Simms has always maintained his innocence.

Aftermath

Since her daughter's disappearance, Marie McCourt has devoted herself to work for Support after Murder and Manslaughter, and still puts pressure on Simms to reveal the location of Helen's body. Marie has been lobbying the department of the Lord Chancellor to have him charged with preventing a burial. Simms had reportedly refused to meet Marie and answer her questions at a parole hearing in 2009, to which she commented, "He wasn't there because he is a coward." Marie also commented, "I will never give up my search for Helen and every day I pray that she is found."
In July 2008, a marble bench was placed in the grounds of St Mary's church in Billinge to mark Helen's 43rd birthday and to honour her memory. In February 2013, a memorial Mass for Helen was held on the 25th anniversary of her disappearance.
On 16 October 2013, police exhumed a grave behind St Aidan's Church in Billinge after receiving a tip-off that Helen's body had been placed inside an open grave ahead of a burial at the church in February 1988. The exhumation showed that Helen's body had not been placed there.
Simms has never disclosed the whereabouts of Helen's body. In December 2015, Marie launched a campaign calling for a change in the law that would prevent convicted murderers who refuse to reveal the location of bodies of victims from being released on parole. Simms was allowed out of prison on temporary release in March 2019. At the time Marie McCourt spoke of how she was "angry" that her daughter's killer had been allowed out of prison. In May 2019, the UK's Ministry of Justice announced plans to change the law regarding parole to place "greater consideration on failure to disclose the location of a victim's remains". In such cases as that of the murder of Helen McCourt, where a conviction is secured without the presence of a body, Helen's Law would require a person convicted of murder to reveal the location of their victim's remains before being considered for parole. On 5 July 2019, Secretary of State for Justice David Gauke confirmed the law would be adopted in England and Wales.
On 21 November 2019, before the law could be adopted, it was reported that a Parole Board review on 8 November had recommended Simms for release, finding that he had "met the terms for release". The bill to introduce Helen's Law had been in the process of being debated by parliament when parliament was dissolved ahead of the 2019 general election. On discovering that her daughter's killer would be released, Marie McCourt urged the next government to introduce Helen's Law. In February 2020, the McCourt family's bid to keep Simms in jail was refused by the High Court, and Simms was released on licence.