Justice for Helen: As featured in The Mirror: A mother’s quest to find her missing daughter

Burying a child is every parent’s nightmare. But Marie McCourt has spent 31 years yearning to do just that.

On February 9th, 1988, her 22-year-old daughter, Helen, left her office in Liverpool city centre, and began her usual commute home. But she was never seen again… Within days, local pub landlord, Ian Simms was identified as her murderer; and despite Helen’s body not being found, a mass of incontrovertible DNA and witness evidence at his trial twelve months later resulted in a life sentence.

But Simms has refused to disclose the whereabouts of Helen’s body, meaning Marie and her family have never been able to get closure. They’ve never had a grave at which they can pay their respects.

Marie has fought for the last 30 years to find her daughter’s body and to stop other families facing the same horrifying fate, recently winning the Ministry of Justice’s approval for Helen’s Law , characterised by the slogan: No Body No Parole , to be enacted.

This is the incredible story of the crushing devastation of a mother from the loss of her daughter, a callous murderer and the indomitable strength of a woman, who would not be bowed by an outdated law.