The mother of the murder victim, who campaigned to enact Helen’s Law, has described the death of her daughter’s killer as a “great relief”.
Marie McCourt, Helen McCourt’s mother, has said she now hopes someone with ties to murderer Ian Simms will come forward and reveal where he hid her body after his death.
According to reports, Simms passed away last week.
The PA news agency understands that a cause of death has not yet been given.
Ms McCourt, from St Helens in Merseyside, told the Mirror: “It is a great relief to know that this man has finally been wiped off this earth.
“He got what I deserved.
“I hope he may have talked to someone in prison now or that one of his friends or family who may have been too scared to come forward when he was alive will now.
“I pray now that someone may have details of where he said he had done it.
“It breaks my heart, but not just mine, but all the families whose loved ones have been kidnapped.
“It’s hard to lose a child to illness. It’s worse when someone deliberately takes her life.”
She added that she lived in fear when he was released from prison in 2020 wearing a tag.
Insurance clerk Mrs. McCourt was 22 when she disappeared on her way home from work in 1988.
Ms McCourt’s campaign after her daughter’s death led to the Prisoners (Disclosure of Information About Victims) Act, called Helen’s Law, coming into effect in 2021.
The law makes it more difficult for murderers and pedophiles who withhold information about their victims to receive parole.
Under the law, killers can still be released if they are no longer considered a risk to the public, even if they refuse to release information.
But the probation commission will be required by law to consider whether they cooperated with investigations as part of their assessment.
Pub owner Simms was sentenced to life in prison in 1989 after being convicted by a jury on overwhelming DNA evidence of Mrs McCourt’s kidnapping and murder.
He always maintained his innocence, even though he never said where he hid her body.