Perdita
05-07-2008, 08:19
I don't know where to put this but because of the thread on Ben Kinsella's death I hope that this related article is ok here.
BRAVE Helen Newlove is waging war on the yob culture blighting Britain.
The 46-year-old mother launched her campaign after her husband Garry was kicked to death by thugs outside his own front door in Warrington, Cheshire, last August.
Helen has been filming a TV documentary, to be screened tonight, to discover how and why such tragedies can happen and has spent the past two months meeting police, MPs and young offenders.
Here, she reveals what she learned.
GARRY’S murder has changed my life and the lives of my daughters irrevocably.
Before Garry died, I worked as a legal secretary, but after I didn’t feel I could go back to a nine-to-five office job.
I had to do something to try to make a difference.
Garry died trying to protect me and our daughters Amy, 13, Zoe, 19, and Danielle, 16, and this is my way of doing something to ensure he didn’t die in vain.
Every day I open the newspapers and read of more innocent people who have died at the hands of gangs. The stories make me despair of the world we live in.
It may sound terrible, but I have decided I don’t want grandchildren. I couldn’t bear for my daughters to bring children into this broken world.
Recently I met Justice Secretary Jack Straw and asked when the Government would start introducing legislation to get tough on these youngsters.
He kept insisting the Government have reduced the levels of disorder and crime over the past 11 years — but it just doesn’t wash.
He would not listen when I told him many teens treated ASBOs like trophies.
I asked why the Government didn’t introduce more legislation to force parents to take responsibility for their wayward children.
He boasted that Labour had introduced parenting orders, but in my view they aren’t worth the paper they are written on.
Every suggestion I made, Mr Straw “promised to look into it” but every week brings a new story of a violent death.
There isn’t time for words — we need action.
It was so heartbreaking to listen to Mr Straw telling me we “learn from these tragedies”. It’s hard to take when it is your tragedy.
They say time is a healer but life without Garry doesn’t get easier. I feel lost and lonely and live each day at a time for the girls.
A couple of weeks ago was our wedding anniversary. I spent the day in bed crying.
I adore my girls but I miss Garry so much.
I hate going to bed each night without Garry and still sleep with a pair of his jeans and carry his glasses with me in my handbag everywhere I go.
I can’t bring myself to watch the CCTV footage from that night.
But Amy has watched it over and over because she says it gives her the chance to see her dad alive.
I went to the Capital City Academy in Willesden, North London, and told a class of 15-year-old pupils my story.
I hoped it would make them understand what can come from hanging around in gangs and I felt they took what I was saying on board.
We asked all the youngsters who had been in the company of someone carrying a weapon to move to one side of the room — and I was horrified that the number who had massively outweighed the number who hadn’t.
Schools should have powers to search their pupils’ schoolbags and kids found with knives should be prosecuted.
Strict discipline is what is missing from schools.
There is far too much emphasis on being pupils’ “friends” rather than asking for old-fashioned respect.
But the yob violence that has swept the country is not just about youngsters carrying knives.
After all, the gang who murdered Garry used their hands and feet. It is an issue of “respect”.
Yet the thugs who behave in this way show a total lack of respect for everyone and everything.
Young people who don’t go on to university or college should do some kind of modern version of National Service which would help them learn practical skills, discipline and respect for others.
While making the film for Channel 4’s Dispatches, I went out with police in Colwyn Bay, North Wales, and was impressed by the way they tackled the problem of teenagers hanging around drinking and being a nuisance.
There are lots of decent police officers in this country, but they are often working with their hands tied behind their backs.
Instead of issuing youths with pointless forms, police should escort them home to their parents.
Parenting is the key to solving so much of this problem.
Parents need to be hauled into courts with their children and made accountable.
If they refuse to work with the authorities, they should be prosecuted or their benefits removed.
It is about time people began to realise they are responsible for the children they bring into the world.
At a project for former young offenders I visited in Weston-Super-Mare, Somerset, one lad told me the young offenders’ institute he had been in was like “a holiday camp” with PlayStations and TVs.
Some offenders were even allowed the keys to their own rooms.
For many of these youngsters, the justice system holds no fear.
I met with a judge called Keith Cutler and asked him why a life sentence didn’t actually mean life.
For killing my husband, Adam Swellings, Stephen Sorton and Jordan Cunliffe got life, with a minimum tariff of 17 years, 15 years and 12 years respectively.
That adds up to 44 years — less than the time Garry spent on this planet.
Judge Cutler explained that because of the way the tariff system works, defendants must be told when they can apply for parole at the time of sentencing.
I find that disgusting. My family and I are serving a life sentence so why aren’t they?
I feel like the court system is set up to make life easy for the defendants, not the families.
Without the assistance of our police family liaison officers, we wouldn’t even have had seats reserved in the court’s public gallery.
This is something I will fight to have changed immediately.
The latest hurdle for my family is the news Swellings is appealing his conviction and sentence and Sorton is appealing his 15 years minimum in jail.
What redress do we have? We can’t appeal against Garry’s death.
I have learned there is no easy fix to rid Britain of yobs.
Instead, we must improve education, make policing more visible and effective, crack down on teen boozing and get tough on youngsters who carry knives.
Our courts must also be armed with tough powers.
I want to live in a world where my daughters are safe to walk the streets, where ordinary people can get on with their lives without being afraid of being attacked.
I am determined that achieving this will be Garry’s legacy.
Dispatches: A Widow’s War On Yobs is on Channel Four at 7pm tonight.
BRAVE Helen Newlove is waging war on the yob culture blighting Britain.
The 46-year-old mother launched her campaign after her husband Garry was kicked to death by thugs outside his own front door in Warrington, Cheshire, last August.
Helen has been filming a TV documentary, to be screened tonight, to discover how and why such tragedies can happen and has spent the past two months meeting police, MPs and young offenders.
Here, she reveals what she learned.
GARRY’S murder has changed my life and the lives of my daughters irrevocably.
Before Garry died, I worked as a legal secretary, but after I didn’t feel I could go back to a nine-to-five office job.
I had to do something to try to make a difference.
Garry died trying to protect me and our daughters Amy, 13, Zoe, 19, and Danielle, 16, and this is my way of doing something to ensure he didn’t die in vain.
Every day I open the newspapers and read of more innocent people who have died at the hands of gangs. The stories make me despair of the world we live in.
It may sound terrible, but I have decided I don’t want grandchildren. I couldn’t bear for my daughters to bring children into this broken world.
Recently I met Justice Secretary Jack Straw and asked when the Government would start introducing legislation to get tough on these youngsters.
He kept insisting the Government have reduced the levels of disorder and crime over the past 11 years — but it just doesn’t wash.
He would not listen when I told him many teens treated ASBOs like trophies.
I asked why the Government didn’t introduce more legislation to force parents to take responsibility for their wayward children.
He boasted that Labour had introduced parenting orders, but in my view they aren’t worth the paper they are written on.
Every suggestion I made, Mr Straw “promised to look into it” but every week brings a new story of a violent death.
There isn’t time for words — we need action.
It was so heartbreaking to listen to Mr Straw telling me we “learn from these tragedies”. It’s hard to take when it is your tragedy.
They say time is a healer but life without Garry doesn’t get easier. I feel lost and lonely and live each day at a time for the girls.
A couple of weeks ago was our wedding anniversary. I spent the day in bed crying.
I adore my girls but I miss Garry so much.
I hate going to bed each night without Garry and still sleep with a pair of his jeans and carry his glasses with me in my handbag everywhere I go.
I can’t bring myself to watch the CCTV footage from that night.
But Amy has watched it over and over because she says it gives her the chance to see her dad alive.
I went to the Capital City Academy in Willesden, North London, and told a class of 15-year-old pupils my story.
I hoped it would make them understand what can come from hanging around in gangs and I felt they took what I was saying on board.
We asked all the youngsters who had been in the company of someone carrying a weapon to move to one side of the room — and I was horrified that the number who had massively outweighed the number who hadn’t.
Schools should have powers to search their pupils’ schoolbags and kids found with knives should be prosecuted.
Strict discipline is what is missing from schools.
There is far too much emphasis on being pupils’ “friends” rather than asking for old-fashioned respect.
But the yob violence that has swept the country is not just about youngsters carrying knives.
After all, the gang who murdered Garry used their hands and feet. It is an issue of “respect”.
Yet the thugs who behave in this way show a total lack of respect for everyone and everything.
Young people who don’t go on to university or college should do some kind of modern version of National Service which would help them learn practical skills, discipline and respect for others.
While making the film for Channel 4’s Dispatches, I went out with police in Colwyn Bay, North Wales, and was impressed by the way they tackled the problem of teenagers hanging around drinking and being a nuisance.
There are lots of decent police officers in this country, but they are often working with their hands tied behind their backs.
Instead of issuing youths with pointless forms, police should escort them home to their parents.
Parenting is the key to solving so much of this problem.
Parents need to be hauled into courts with their children and made accountable.
If they refuse to work with the authorities, they should be prosecuted or their benefits removed.
It is about time people began to realise they are responsible for the children they bring into the world.
At a project for former young offenders I visited in Weston-Super-Mare, Somerset, one lad told me the young offenders’ institute he had been in was like “a holiday camp” with PlayStations and TVs.
Some offenders were even allowed the keys to their own rooms.
For many of these youngsters, the justice system holds no fear.
I met with a judge called Keith Cutler and asked him why a life sentence didn’t actually mean life.
For killing my husband, Adam Swellings, Stephen Sorton and Jordan Cunliffe got life, with a minimum tariff of 17 years, 15 years and 12 years respectively.
That adds up to 44 years — less than the time Garry spent on this planet.
Judge Cutler explained that because of the way the tariff system works, defendants must be told when they can apply for parole at the time of sentencing.
I find that disgusting. My family and I are serving a life sentence so why aren’t they?
I feel like the court system is set up to make life easy for the defendants, not the families.
Without the assistance of our police family liaison officers, we wouldn’t even have had seats reserved in the court’s public gallery.
This is something I will fight to have changed immediately.
The latest hurdle for my family is the news Swellings is appealing his conviction and sentence and Sorton is appealing his 15 years minimum in jail.
What redress do we have? We can’t appeal against Garry’s death.
I have learned there is no easy fix to rid Britain of yobs.
Instead, we must improve education, make policing more visible and effective, crack down on teen boozing and get tough on youngsters who carry knives.
Our courts must also be armed with tough powers.
I want to live in a world where my daughters are safe to walk the streets, where ordinary people can get on with their lives without being afraid of being attacked.
I am determined that achieving this will be Garry’s legacy.
Dispatches: A Widow’s War On Yobs is on Channel Four at 7pm tonight.