Helen's Law moves one step closer to becoming law

Peers have expressed their support for a move aimed to deny parole to killers who refuse to reveal the location of their victims' bodies.

The Prisoners (Disclosure of Information About Victims) Bill, dubbed Helen's Law, has already been approved by MPs.

The legislation is named after Wigan woman Helen McCourt, whose murderer Ian Simms was released from prison earlier this year despite never revealing where her remains are.

The Bill will also apply to offenders who do not reveal the identity of child victims in indecent images.

This is in response to the case of Vanessa George, a nursery worker who was convicted of multiple counts of sexual abuse and taking and distributing indecent images of children and refused to name the victims.

The legislation places a statutory obligation on the Parole Board to take into account specific offenders' non-disclosure of certain information when making a decision about their release from prison.

It applies to prisoners serving a sentence for murder or manslaughter or for taking or making an indecent photograph of a child.

Opening the second reading debate on the Bill in the House of Lords, justice spokesman Lord Keen of Elie said:

"I cannot stress enough the importance of this Bill and the support it has from victims and families.

"The crimes of the likes of Ian Simms and Vanessa George are harrowing and families affected by these crimes deserve the peace of some element of closure, whether that is the opportunity to lay a loved one to rest or the certainty of whether or not they were abused.

"This Bill offers families and victims a chance to achieve that.''

Independent crossbencher Baroness Bull said the Bill demonstrated "a strong commitment to victims of crimes and their families''.

She added:

"It's a reminder that while Covid-19 and the suffering it is causing is front of mind in many of our deliberations, other sorrows and other tragedies continue to play out in communities, in families and in the lives of individuals.

"This Bill will never take away their loss but in putting the support of victims and their needs at the centre of the justice system it make help grieving families achieve some kind of closure and finally to lay loved ones to rest.''

Tory former solicitor general Lord Garnier said:

"The Bill is designed to mark in public policy the revulsion that right-thinking members of society feel about these serious offenders, who not content with killing or abusing their victims add to the pain and suffering of their victims' family and friends by keeping secret information which they have.

"Which if they had a scintilla of remorse or empathy they would give up to the police.

"No doubt there will be some killers or sex offenders who take a perverse pleasure in prolonging the agony caused by their crimes, by refusing to say where they have abandoned the body of their victim or withholding the identifies of those whom they have abused.''

However, Lord Garnier was not sure that the Bill went far enough.

He pointed out the procedures of the Parole Board were "essentially held in private'' and stressed the need for greater public transparency.

"By and large, it is my view, the default position should be for open justice,'' said Lord Garnier.

The Conservative peer also argued that it should be made a criminal offence for a convicted defendant to not reveal certain details about their offences.

The Bill received its second reading and now goes forward for detailed scrutiny in committee.