Widow of man beaten to death by thugs kicking head ‘like a football’ furious as killer is free in her town
THE WIDOW of a man kicked to death by yobs wants to know why no one told her his killer was free to roam her home town.
Twelve years after Baroness Helen Newlove's husband Garry was murdered by a gang of teenage thugs, one of his killers has been free to roam the town where her family lives.
Garry Newlove died three days after confronting a gang of drunken teenagers who were vandalising his wife's car in Warrington, Chesire, in 2007.
The teenagers, who were also high on skunk cannabis, knocked Mr Newlove to the ground and kicked his head "like a football".
Teenagers Stephen Sorton, 17, Adam Swellings, 19, and Jordan Cunliffe, 16, were jailed for life over his murder following a trial at Chester Crown Court in January 2008.
At the sentencing Swellings was given a minimum tariff of 17 years, Sorton 15 years (reduced to 13 and then 12 on appeal) and Cunliffe 12 years.
Lady Newlove, who was made a Conservative life peer in 2010 for her campaigning work, has since worked to stop alcohol-related violence and launched her own charity encouraging local people to help make their community safer.
This week the Baroness learned one of the youth's responsible for Gary's death - Jordan Cunliffe - has been held at an open prison in preparation for his imminent release on parole.
Cunliffe has been free to wander the streets of Warrington, where the family still live.
The mental scars from seeing their father kicked to death on our doorstep have never fully healed, and now those scars have been ripped open.
Lady Newlove told the : "It feels like an insult and a mockery to the Parole Board to allow Cunliffe to return to Warrington and not even consider the impact on us, his victims.
"My daughters are terrified of bumping into one of the men who took their father away from them.
"The mental scars from seeing their father kicked to death on our doorstep have never fully healed, and now those scars have been ripped open."
The former legal PA said she cannot forgive her husband's killers for what they did, especially after seeing them "laughing and joking in the dock" during the trial.
Her daughters Zoe, Danielle and Amy bravely gave evidence during the trial and endured cross-examination from the defendants' separate barristers.
"My girls are in pieces," said Lady Newlove.
"Yet again, we are made to feel Garry's life wasn't worth anything.
"As a mother, even though my daughters are now young women, I want to wrap them in cotton wool and protect them - and I am absolutely livid that I can't."
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Lady Newlove is calling for a Victims' Law to overhaul the parole system for what she believes is an imbalance between the legal rights of offenders and those of their victims.
She added: "People may say they deserve a second chance. When they have murdered someone?
"Knife crime is at its highest level. Britain is still broken."
