Introduce Helen’s Law where hiding a body becomes a criminal offence

Closed 63 signatures

What the petition asks

To lose a loved one to murder is horrific. To be denied their funeral causes unimaginable suffering. Ian Simms is serving a life sentence for the murder of Helen McCourt, aged 22, on 9 February 1988, in Billinge, Lancs. Simms has always refused to reveal the whereabouts of Helen’s body.

The case made legal history as only the third ever UK murder trial without a body and was one of the first in the UK to use DNA fingerprinting.

As it currently stands, the English legal system does not require a convicted murderer to admit guilt or reveal the location of a victim’s remains before being released.

We hereby ask the government to acknowledge the pain and distress caused to the families of missing murder victims by:
1. Denying parole to murderers for as long as they refuse to disclose the whereabouts of their victim’s remains
2. Passing a full life tariff (denying parole or release) until the murderer discloses the location (and enables the recovery) of their victim’s remains

Denying a funeral is, surely, an infringement of basic human rights.

Timeline

1 Apr 2016	Petition opened for signatures
1 Oct 2016	Closed to new signatures

Key facts

Signatures 63

Status Closed

Opened 1 Apr 2016

Closed 1 Oct 2016

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