My girls were scared in court, to killers it was just a day out
Widow of Garry Newlove slams thugs who laugh at law and backs out campaign
THE WIDOW of Garry Newlove-whose three daughters saw their dad kicked to death by a mob-has blasted the trial where they gave evidence as "a mockery".
Emotional Helen Newlove fumed: "My girls were more frightened of walking into court than those thugs in the dock.
"My husband's killers just looked on it as another day out in court."
Her teenage daughters Zoe, 19, Danielle, 16, and Amy, 13, were forced to appear as witnesses in the crown court trial into dad Garry's brutal slaying.
Speaking at the News of the World's latest Save Our Streets roadshow Helen, 46, compared their agony to the swaggering arrogance of the defendants and their families who laughed throughout the trial.
She revealed they were petrified of having their evidence torn to pieces by defence lawyers or "letting their dad down" by getting their accounts wrong.
Slap
And they were devastated at having to watch CCTV footage of Garry being murdered by the drunken killers, led by 19-year-old lout Adam Swellings.
She told the hushed SOS audience: "The court let these defendants laugh and sleep in the dock.
"Their mums were able to slap them on the back and give them support. I wasn't able to put an arm round or console my daughters because they were witnesses."
In an emotion-charged meeting, Helen also called on parents to take responsibility for the thugs blighting the nation's streets.
"I think it is utterly disgraceful that people are allowed to go out and commit crimes against our loved ones," she said. "Having a bad upbringing is NOT a justification. Parents are accountable from the day you bring children into society. Why not get the parents up in the dock and make them responsible?"
At a packed community centre in Manchester's tough Moss Side, Helen - sitting on our panel alongside Justice Secretary Jack Straw and local chief constable Peter Fahy - told how Garry was murdered outside his home in Warrington, Cheshire, last August.
His killers were led by Swellings, who had been released from custody over another assault just hours before the attack. He and Stephen Sorton, 17, and Jordan Cunliffe, 16, are serving life.
Another devastated parent HALTON McCOLLIN, whose 20-year-old son Halton Jnr was shot and killed in Stretford, just three miles from the roadshow venue, described the pain of such a senseless killing.
Promising footballer Halton was shot in the head in a Chinese takeaway last January, a victim of mistaken identity.
His father asked: "How do you explain to his eight-year-old brother and his five-year-old sister that somebody walked up and shot him - and that the people who did it are still out there?"
Arguing that many teenage thugs view the soft sentences handed down as a "badge of honour", he called for yobs caught carrying guns or knives to be jailed for at least seven years.
And grieving mum MIRANDA MAYNARD called for a police crackdown to clear guns out of Moss Side. She explained: "In our days, we'd have had fist fights, but with guns life is cheap."
Single parent Miranda, 46, is still mourning her son Justin, 19, shot in a motiveless and unsolved murder five years ago. She told the audience: "The police can't do it on their own. They need help from the community.
"Whoever is shielding these people needs to come forward so we don't have blood on our streets."
JACK STRAW insisted the government was NOT soft on crime, telling the audience: "Sentences have not been getting shorter, they're getting longer. There's a 60 per cent increase in serious and violent prisoners. The tariff for murder is getting longer."
He backed Mrs Newlove's call for parents to stand up and be counted. And he added: "I understand if people have faced unemployment they're less likely to have the equipment to lead decent lives - but many people in that position do bring up their children properly.
"I was brought up on a council estate by a single mum. If you have kids, you've got responsibility. You can't go on excusing your kids' behaviour."
The Rev Major DAVID GRAY said communities WERE beginning to work together and alongside police were cutting the deaths of young people.
Voice breaking with emotion the Anglican vicarsaid: "I was despairing of doing funerals for under-25s but now we're not doing as many. That's down to the police and teachers, parents and everybody."
And GABRIELLE COX, 62, who runs a youth scheme in Moss Side, urged: "Don't give up on our young people. "They are not terrible. There's some wonderful ones out there and we should encourage and support them."
Hard
STEPHEN FRENCH (below), a former gangster turned peace campaigner, called for jobs for the young - and for funds to be given to the community.
"We know how to fix the problems - it's our children who are dying," said Stephen, 48, from Warrington. "We have to stop playing the blame game and try to forgive."
Manchester's Chief Constable PETER FAHY echoed the calls for the public to take more responsibility for their kids but said there were no easy solutions.
He added: "We have to take hard measures to say it's not acceptable for youngsters to be on the streets at night and get them into education."
But he insisted: "The vast majority of young people are tremendous. There is a great future for this country."
Street pastor TONY WINTER (above), who also sat on our panel, said: "I have met a lot of young people who don't have a direction in life but rehabilitation is possible.
"I believe it has taken place in my life and changed me totally. Ex-gang members need the opportunity to put their influence into good use."
Another panellist ERINMA BELL, from the anti-gun group Carisma, added: "We need to stop creating a culture where we're scared of our young people. Prevention is better than cure."
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This article has 10 comments
i cannot believe the complete and utter ignorance of some people ......we have the word of drunken idiots that gary newlove acted aggressively towards them and a few words said in anger does NOT justify anybody being kicked to death....no wonder britain is becoming a human toilet wehen we have to put up with stupid, insensitive people who think murder is ok....lets hope something like this never happens to your family and with attitudes like yours ash i guess we will be reading about you having kicked some poor pensioner to death for looking at you the wrong way.. gang culture and violence is not acceptable in anyway shape or form grow up
By abbie.. Posted March 16 2010 at 4:48 PM.
at the end of the day this man walked out of his house and took the law into his own hands. i dont care what those teenagers did gary had no right to take the law into his own hands and attack those teenagers. because he attacked them they defended and that is right. if they looked for gary newlove and attacked him then its different but he attacked them first. the teenagers were in the right like it or not. id do the same thing if someone attacked me in street and so would you!
if i could send a message to helen newlove i would say if your husband had come out and attacked me i wouldve done the exact same thing. so i actually support these teenagers they are good boys for defending themselves!!!
By ash.. Posted July 10 2009 at 7:37 AM.
I don't know what prison is like in the UK, but in the US, they have it easy, work out facilities, TV, social time. It is about punishment isn't it? Make them miserable so they won't look at it as a vacation.
By Mike.. Posted April 20 2009 at 8:04 PM.
What is this blood lustred virus attacking our young? I was a teenager in the 80`s brought up in a house of drunken violence, and I can remember the day when I swore to myself that I would not pass the buck onto my own children.(I was 14yrs old, and had just witnessed another drunken fight at home) The problem starts at home!!! Children need good role models, and we as a nation need to teach our children that the credentials of a real man is self respect, decentcy, compassion, and that taking a life is a taboo.
I was stabbed in the leg at the age of 15, and the culprit got off scot free. This seems to be the norm of today.
I don`t understand why? Is there not enough blood shed around the globe, that we have to bring it into our own neighbourhoods?
These people know exactly who they are and should be hanging their heads in shame, and so too the parents.
We need someone to make a stand for those families who are suffering the injustice of these life takers! Who is man enough?
By Dean.. Posted October 26 2008 at 7:45 PM.
I notice a lot of comments about how soft prions are, they get access to internet, playstations, SKY TV and all other sorts.
The most alarming thing about what I have read so far is how Gary Newloves daughters were treated like common criminals when they attended court with the defence soliciter trying every little trick and tactic known to him to make them slip up. Whilst all this happened the good old criminals that commited the murders were mocking the courts, I can imagine they turned up in tracksuit and hoodies as the usual court appearance wear for these young thugs, and were getting patted on the back by their families as if to say "well done son".
People should fear going to court not treat it as though its a laugh and mock it. As for defence soliciters (which were paid for by the tax payer by the way) they should only represent people that can actually afford them. The tax payer should not pay for defending criminals.
One final thing is that because of how much of a joke the courts are now, if a criminal does not turn up for their court appearence then the case is adjourned so they are given another chance, if a witness does not turn (maybe through major illness) then the case is dropped and the criminal let go without a problem. This is also true if both the witnesses or the criminal do not turn up, it is dismissed, obviously in the favour of the criminal.
By Devil.. Posted October 15 2008 at 12:12 PM.
I totally agree prisons should be more tougher not like 5 star hotels who cares about they rights .Stuff them in the cells who cares about overcrowding they priviliges WERE WAS THE VICTIMS RIGHTS .
By kath.. Posted October 12 2008 at 9:20 AM.
Most of the comments regarding prison life are fairly accurate. As a former officer who served in many prisons I would like to state that most staff would like to work in an enviroment that would discourage offenders from returning to prison. The main problem is that the officers must be given the backing by those in positions of authority to allow them to do so without fear of prosecution or dismissal on some trumpt up allegation made by a prisoner. I am not advocating beatings in prisons but there are some very violent men(and women) who cannot be treated with kid gloves. Lets make jails the type of place that having visited once most people would wish never to return.
By Jock.. Posted October 1 2008 at 7:35 PM.
Jack Straw wants, and has, got ever tougher on crime. Britain now locks up more people, with harder sentances, for longer than any other country in the world bar America. This at a time of a 30% worldwide decrease in crime. Do the maths.
Labour and the insiduous little Jack Straw have made 1,600 new laws a year to trivialise and criminalise so-called 'crime' for almost any misdameanor. Your baby can now drop a bio-degradeable sausage roll, of no danger to the enviroment and you be fined and criminalised for it. And Jack loves it.
Yet fabricate a dossier, cut-and-paste from the internet, a wilful act of fraud, and present it as a case for war and Jack Straw is softer than wet bog roll.
In fact Westminster itself is softer on fabricating lies than whistleblowers exposing lies. Amazing how 'tough' Jack Straw is on real crimes against humanity??
By Johnny Boy.. Posted September 29 2008 at 12:15 AM.
this is discusting the people in authority dont care for human lives, the people at the top have lost reality with the ordinary people on the street thugs are not scared of anyone or anything, you can now get a bigger fine for leaving your dustbin in the street than you can for assault etc i feel so sorry for the newlove family and all families affected in this way i have two sons 14 and 18 and i pick my oldest up after work as i dont want him walking through the town centre at night
By shelly.. Posted September 28 2008 at 12:20 PM.
Unfortunately Jack Straw and all other politicians can pay lip service to this problem but also can always walk away from it. The biggest problem is that jails are too cushy for these young killers who get televisions and Play Stations in their cells. Until the Government stop playing up to thedo gooders and Liberal sections in this country deaths of the young and innocent will continue unabated. Jails should be hard, no privileges, rationed food, no gyms etc etc we all know the conditions because it is reported on how easy jail is week in week out. re-habilitation has been show to be faiiling, it simplyt does not work, its time for change, its time for life to mean life and for jails to be a place that you don't want to go to, let alone return to. Politicians need to know that families of those killed wake up with the thoughts of their loved ones and go to sleep with them having thought about them all day. its a cliche but they are the ones doing the life the sentence not the perpetrators
By Juan.. Posted September 28 2008 at 10:36 AM.