The mother of a murder victim whose body has never been found is hoping new information will come to light – now her daughter’s killer has died.
Marie McCourt is wondering whether friends or family of Ian Simms, who may have been too scared to speak out while he was alive, will do so now.
It is a “great relief knowing that this man is at last wiped off this earth,” Mrs McCourt told the Mirror.
Her daughter Helen, 22, was abducted and murdered in 1988, disappearing on her way home from work.
Despite been found guilty on DNA evidence the following year and sentenced to life in prison, Simms, who was in his mid-60s, always maintained his innocence.
The former pub landlord was released from jail with a tag in 2020, shortly before the implementation of a new law which may have kept him inside.
Marie McCourt, who lives on Merseyside, campaigned for the Prisoners (Disclosure of Information About Victims) Act.
Dubbed Helen’s Law, it makes it harder for killers and paedophiles who withhold information on their victims to receive parole.
Mrs McCourt, 78, said: “I’m hoping now maybe (Simms) spoke to somebody in prison or maybe one of his friends or family who were perhaps too scared to come forward when he was alive, (and) will do so now.
“I just pray now that somebody may have some details of where he said he had done it.”
She added: “It breaks my heart – not just mine, but all families who’ve had loved ones taken.
“It’s hard to lose a child through illness. It’s worse when someone deliberately takes her life.”
Mrs McCourt said it was “just so very, very, sad” that Simms did not reveal where he buried her daughter.
“Even killers have a right to have a grave or something in an area where you can go and put flowers,” she said. “We can’t do that.”
Mrs McCourt, who still searches for her daughter’s body, said she feared for her safety after Simms was released.
“I was worried he would sneak up here,” she said.
“He was not allowed to come within a 50 mile radius of where we live. That exclusion zone included the areas we have been searching.
“But it would give me sleepless nights. I would have palpitations when I was out… seeing someone who looked like him.”
Mrs McCourt failed in a legal bid to overturn a decision to release Simms in 2020.
