The Baroness Newlove | |
---|---|
Victims' Commissioner | |
Interim | |
Assumed office 16 October 2023 | |
Prime Minister | |
Preceded by | Dame Vera Baird |
In office 4 March 2013 –31 May 2019 | |
Prime Minister | |
Preceded by | Louise Casey |
Succeeded by | Dame Vera Baird |
Deputy Speaker of the House of Lords | |
Assumed office 5 March 2018 | |
Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal | |
Assumed office 15 July 2010 Life peerage | |
Personal details | |
Born | 28 December 1961 |
Political party | Conservative |
Spouses | |
Children | 3 |
Helen Margaret Newlove, Baroness Newlove (born 28 December 1961) is a British community reform campaigner who was appointed as Victims' Commissioner [1] and served from 2013 to 2019. She was reappointed as the interim victims' commissioner on 16 October 2023 [2] and has served as a deputy speaker in the House of Lords since 5 March 2018. Helen Newlove came to prominence after her husband, Garry Newlove, was murdered by three youths in 2007. [3] After his death she set up a number of foundations that aimed to tackle the UK drinking culture as well as providing support to young people. Newlove was given a peerage in the 2010 Dissolution Honours list and sits in the House of Lords as a Conservative. [4]
Newlove's 47-year-old husband Garry Newlove was murdered in August 2007 in Warrington, Cheshire, after confronting a gang of drunken youths who were vandalising her car – the culmination of a long-running campaign of youth gang crime in the Padgate area of the town. Five months later, three local teenagers were found guilty of murdering Garry Newlove, who died in hospital 36 hours after being repeatedly kicked and punched outside his house. They were sentenced to life imprisonment with recommended minimum terms of between 12 and 17 years. Two other suspects, also teenagers, were tried for the murder and found not guilty.
Witnesses estimated that around ten people were involved in the attack on Garry Newlove, and most or all of them had been involved in earlier incidents of vandalism. One of the three teenagers found guilty of the murder had been released on bail hours earlier after appearing in court charged with assaulting another man in the local area.
Since her husband's death, Helen Newlove has campaigned against the UK's binge drinking culture and calling for better training for landlords and bar staff, as well as shop workers involved in the sale of alcohol. She has more prominently campaigned to clamp down on the sort of criminal activities which contributed to the death of her husband, campaigned for stiffer sentences for serious offences, and campaigned for improved support for victims of crime – highlighting the lack of support that she and her family received after the murder, and highlighting the lack of support given to many other victims of crime (ranging from the families of murder victims to families who have been bereaved by road accidents).
Helen Newlove set up Newlove Warrington on 8 November 2008, which aims to make the town a safer and better place for people to live and to improve facilities and opportunities for the children through education and life skills for the better of communities. The three goals for the campaign were to inspire people to lead a more purposeful life; motivating people to enrich their lives; providing opportunities for positive interaction with communities. [5]
Newlove has extended her campaign nationally by joining forces with the local and national media.
In May 2010, Newlove was given a peerage in the 2010 Dissolution Honours list. [4] After the announcement was made Newlove commented that "I am just an ordinary woman, propelled into high profile by a set of horrifying circumstances which I wish with all my heart had never occurred." [4] Newlove took up her seat in the House of Lords as a Conservative on 15 July 2010 when she was introduced as Baroness Newlove, of Warrington in the County of Cheshire. [6]
On 5 March 2021, Newlove took up the office of Deputy Speaker of the House of Lords.
On 21 December 2012 it was announced that Newlove had been appointed as the second victims' commissioner, a role requiring her to liaise with ministers to offer advice on aspects of the criminal justice system in England and Wales that affect victims and witnesses. The role had previously been held by Louise Casey, but had been vacant since she stepped down in October 2011. [7] [8] Newlove took up the post on 4 March 2013, was reappointed for a second term in March 2016, and stepped down on 31 May 2019. She was succeeded by Dame Vera Baird. [9] It was announced that Newlove had been reappointed as Victims' Commissioner from 16 October 2023. [10]
Valerie Ann Amos, Baroness Amos, is a British Labour Party politician and diplomat who served as the eighth UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator. Before her appointment to the UN, she served as British High Commissioner to Australia. She was created a life peer in 1997, serving as Leader of the House of Lords and Lord President of the Council from 2003 to 2007.
Dame Vera Baird is a British barrister and politician who has held roles as a government minister, police and crime commissioner, and Victims' Commissioner for England and Wales.
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Cheshire Constabulary is the territorial police force responsible for policing the ceremonial county of Cheshire in North West England, comprising the unitary authorities of Cheshire East, Cheshire West and Chester, Borough of Halton and Borough of Warrington. The force is responsible for policing an area of 946 square miles (2,450 km2) with a population of approximately 1 million people.
Ann Elizabeth Oldfield Butler-Sloss, Baroness Butler-Sloss, GBE, PC is a retired English judge. She was the first female Lord Justice of Appeal and was the highest-ranking female judge in the United Kingdom until 2004, when Baroness Hale was appointed to the House of Lords. Until June 2007, she chaired the inquests into the deaths of Diana, Princess of Wales, and Dodi Fayed. She stood down from that task with effect from that date, and the inquest was conducted by Lord Justice Scott Baker.
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Tessa Jane Helen Douglas Jowell, Baroness Jowell, was a British Labour Party politician and life peer who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Dulwich and West Norwood, previously Dulwich, from 1992 to 2015.
Garry Newlove was an English man beaten to death in August 2007 in the UK. His murder caused anger in the UK over the two offenders who had been underage drinking. Chief Constable of the Cheshire Constabulary Peter Fahy called for the legal age of buying alcohol to increase to the age of 21 as a result of the Garry Newlove murder. His widow Helen Newlove condemned the Government for failing to get to grips with youth disorder afterwards.
Meral Hussein Ece, Baroness Hussein-Ece, is a British Liberal Democrat member of the House of Lords. She is the first woman of Turkish Cypriot origin to be a member of either house of Parliament after she was appointed a Liberal Democrat working peer on 28 May 2010. She was the Liberal Democrat Spokeswoman for Equalities from 2015 until 2016, under leader Tim Farron.
The history of violence against LGBT people in the United Kingdom is made up of assaults on gay men, lesbians, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex individuals (LGBTQI), legal responses to such violence, and hate crime statistics in the United Kingdom. Those targeted by such violence are perceived to violate heteronormative rules and religious beliefs and contravene perceived protocols of gender and sexual roles. People who are perceived to be LGBTQI may also be targeted.
Louise Casey, Baroness Casey of Blackstock,, is a Crossbench peer and former British government official.
On 9 February 1988, Helen McCourt, a 22-year-old British insurance clerk from Bootle, Merseyside, disappeared in the village of Billinge, Metropolitan Borough of St Helens, Merseyside, shortly after disembarking from a bus less than 500 yards from her home. Her body has never been found. Ian Simms, a local pub landlord, was convicted of her murder.
Doreen Delceita Lawrence, Baroness Lawrence of Clarendon, is a British Jamaican campaigner and the mother of Stephen Lawrence, a black British teenager who was murdered in a racist attack in South East London in 1993. She promoted reforms of the police service and founded the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust. She was appointed to the Order of the British Empire for services to community relations in 2003, and was created a life peer in 2013.
Crimes That Shook Britain is a television series first aired in 2008 on Crime & Investigation UK, focusing on uncovering the truth behind crimes that shocked the nation. Some episodes were also rebroadcast in random episode order from 2014 to 2019, on Channel 5 originally under the title Britain's Worst Crimes.
The office of the Victims' Commissioner for England and Wales is an organization of the government of the United Kingdom. The role of the Victims' Commissioner is to promote the interests of victims and witnesses of crime, encourage good practice in their treatment, and regularly review the Code of Practice for Victims which sets out the services victims can expect to receive.