Grieving families – including the parents of Sarah Everard – met with MPs to tell of the torment they feel knowing their loved one’s bodies had been violated by their killers
Murderers who hide, dismember or burn the corpses of their victims could soon face a new criminal offence of desecrating the body, which has been backed by grieving families.
Grieving families – including the parents of Sarah Everard – met with MPs to tell of the torment they feel knowing their loved one’s bodies had been violated by their killers. The meeting followed a campaign by Marie McCourt whose 22-year-old daughter, Helen, was murdered in 1988 by pub landlord Peter Simms. Her remains have never been found. Families met with Victims Minister Alex Davies-Jones earlier this week and she vowed to review current legislation. Among them were Sarah Everard’s mother, Susan, who spoke about how her daughter’s body was set alight and hidden inside bin bags before being submerged in water by twisted Wayne Couzens.
She said: “It was an act of disrespect and cruelty which caused us enormous heartache and rage. Because of what he did, we weren’t able to see Sarah to say goodbye. It was all we had left – a chance to honour her and see her one last time and we were denied this.”
Marie launched the “Stop the Desecration” campaign in the Mirror in November 2021. She was previously the driving force behind Helen’s Law, named after her murdered daughter. The Law requires the Parole Board to consider a killer’s failure to disclose the location of their victim’s remains when deciding on parole
Since the law was passed in January 2021, five applications from prisoners who refuse to say what they have done with victims’ bodies have been turned down. At the meeting on Tuesday Susan Everard, who attended with husband Jeremy, quietly spoke about how her daughter was abducted, raped and murdered by serving police officer Couzens, in 2021, before he violently tried to cover his crime.
“He did it to hide the evidence, to cover his tracks, to maintain the illusion of being a decent family man,” she said. Susan told MPs: “During the investigation into Sarah’s disappearance, I asked to be told all the facts, however terrible. But I have never asked what she looked like when she was found. It is too awful to contemplate.
“I have seen pictures of burnt bodies. I know her beauty would have been decimated. But I block these images – it is too distressing. Our daughter’s murderer received a full life sentence for the crimes of kidnap, rape and murder. The attempt to destroy her body was noted as an aggravating factor but there was no specific law to allow the act of desecration to be treated as a separate crime and to be punishable as such.
“In our case it would have made no difference to the length of sentence, but it would have been an acknowledgement of the seriousness and horror of the act of desecration and the terrible impact it has on the victim’s family. It goes against all that is regarded as right and proper by society.”
Marie, 82, of Billinge, Merseyside, was unable to attend the meeting due to ill health, but sent an emotional statement read out by campaigning journalist Fiona Duffy. She said: “Simms had been charged and convicted of murder. Surely that was enough? But it’s not Helen’s murder that continues to torture me every minute of every day and night. It’s the fact that she is still out there. Lost.
“Killers resort to desperate lengths….hiding, dismembering, burning or trying to destroy a body – in their attempt to commit the perfect murder. Bereavement experts say that such acts trigger a grief so complex, disturbing and all-consuming that it never eases.
“Respecting the dead, even in wartime, is a basic human dignity. That is all we are asking for today. I will continue, until my last breath, to fight on to prevent any other family experiencing this torture.”
Minister Alex Davies-Jones told the families: “What’s important is that we acknowledge there is work to be done in this area. It’s clear there is a legislative gap that needs to be looked at. And we shouldn’t be dragging our feet with this.”
She announced she had already asked the Law Commission, the independent body which recommends legal reform in England and Wales, to review current legislation. The Minister said she would work with the campaign group and its supporters,including Associate Professor of Law, Dr Imogen Jones, who has written two papers arguing for a reform of current legislation, and look at other countries that have these laws in place.
Other families at the meeting also laid bare their pain. Lesley Rees fought back tears as she revealed how the grave of her murdered brother, Mike O’Leary, contains just six centimetres of his remains which were recovered by forensic experts. She said: “The perpetrator planned the murder meticulously and would have gotten away with it was it not for the excellent work of Dyfed Powys Police officers.”
After shooting Mike, in a secluded area, his former friend Andrew Jones used a fork lift truck to move the body into the boot of his car. Lesley, who attended with her widowed sister-in-law, Sian, said: “The following night, he placed his body on top of a pile of wooden pallets and kept an intense fire burning all night, continually adding more fuel. What was done to Mike’s body is forever embellished in our brains.
“But despite Jones admitting in a pre-trial hearing that he had lured Mike to the scene, was responsible for his death and had disposed of his body, he was only ever charged with murder. If he had been found not guilty then he would have been a free man. We continue to live each day with the agony of knowing how that monster treated our loved one’s body.
“We are all suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Mum, who is 87, lights candles every day. She calls it ‘waking Mike up’ and has a shrine in the house for him. It is so hard to see the pain in her eyes and hear her cry like a wounded animal. I am begging you, please ensure this law is passed – and quickly.”
MP Steve Witherden, read out a statement from Coral Jones, mother of five-year-old April, who was abducted from outside her home and murdered by Mark Bridger in 2012. She described how the family were able to have a funeral for April. “But the coffin was empty apart from a few little bits of bones and personal items I was able to place inside.
“I don’t go to the grave as much as I used to because I know she’s not all there. I know he killed my daughter. But I also know that, afterwards, he didn’t hide or bury her. He did something far, far worse and that causes such pain.
“We think he has burned her to a certain amount, then put her in the river and scattered her. That’s the hardest part for me. The offences Bridger was convicted of don’t reflect the true horror of what he did. The law needs to be changed.”
Afterwards Steve said: “Coral’s statement was incredibly harrowing and moving. I cried when I first read it but I wanted to ensure her voice could be heard. The death of a child is the worst thing that can happen to a person. But to know that they have been brutally murdered and their remains desecrated is horrific.”
He added: “To my shame, I was ignorant of the law in relation to the desecration of bodies. This is a really important campaign and I will continue to support it.”
Ann Davies MP, whose call for action in the House of Commons last month led to this week’s meeting said: “My first reaction, on hearing of this campaign, was disbelief that such laws don’t already exist. Everybody needs respect in life – and in death. And that needs to be reflected in our criminal justice system.”
Tuesday’s meeting coincided with the release of the final report from an inquiry into the crimes of necrophiliac killer David Fuller – who sexually abused the bodies of more than 100 women and girls in hospital mortuaries. The MOJ, under a Conservative Government, told Marie in 2022 that it wanted to wait until the Fuller inquiry had been concluded before considering her proposal for new laws.
Marie said: “There’s nothing to stop them now. The report clearly illustrates that dignity after death is an area in need of massive reform.”
Chairman Sir Jonathan Michael said the inquiry is the first time the “security and dignity” of people after death has been reviewed so comprehensively. He urged the Government to appoint a Commissioner for the Dignity of the Deceased.
In her statement, Marie had said new laws could not come soon enough. “We are one of the few nations globally not to have this legislation. In every American state, Australia, Germany, France, Portugal, Denmark, Iceland, Japan, China and Russia, killers who hide, burn, dismember or destroy bodies all face these extra charges.
“Lord Justice Charles Hadden-Cave KC, who represented bereaved families of victims of the Marchioness disaster of 1989 allowed us to use his powerful quote ‘the care with which our dead are treated is a mark of how civilised a society we are’, in our campaign. Desecration laws would give a clear message; that the victim matters and that vile acts committed after death will not be tolerated by a civilised society.”
Marie’s campaign is also supported by the families of murder victims Sasha Marsden, Jayden Parkinson, Lorraine Cox and Jan Mustafa.