How Baroness Helen Newlove used her grief to do good | Manchester News

Almost 20 years ago, Helen Newlove and her husband Garry lived with their three daughters on a quiet suburban street.

But gangs of youths started to hang around the area, leaving residents in Padgate in Warrington living in fear.

They left a trail of beer cans, urinated in gardens and damaged houses.

One summer’s evening in 2007, Garry Newlove heard them outside their home and asked them what they were doing.

Just two days later, he was dead.

After watching in horror as teenagers murdered her husband, his widow took her grief and channelled it for good – devoting her life to campaigning for victims’ rights and speaking out against anti-social behaviour.

As tributes are paid to Baroness Newlove after her death at the age of 63, we take a look at her life.

In 2007, the Newlove family lived on Station Road North.

Baroness Newlove said Garry, who worked in sales, was “very proud of where he lived” and was not usually a person who would go out into the street to complain.

“When you work hard you want to enjoy the home that you live in – and it does wear at your nerves eventually,” she said in an interview with the several years later.

“Gradually it got to the point where you wanted to do something about it.

“I didn’t expect him to lose his life like he did.”

On the evening of the attack, he had gone outside to check damage done to her car, when a drunken gang attacked him in front of two of their daughters, kicking his head “like a football”.

Baroness Newlove said: “Two days later I had to turn his life support machine off, which is the worst thing anybody has to do.”

The following year, three teenagers were found guilty of his murder after a trial.

Jordan Cunliffe, 16, Adam Swellings, 19, and Stephen Sorton, 17, were jointly convicted under joint enterprise legislation which allows a group to be prosecuted for murder when it cannot be proved which one inflicted the fatal blow.

After Garry’s death, Baroness Newlove began campaigning against anti-social behaviour, setting up several foundations to support young people, as well as tackle the UK’s binge drinking culture.

This led to her being appointed a government champion for active, safer communities in 2010.

That year, she was nominated for a peerage by the then prime minister David Cameron in the Dissolution Honours list, and sat as a Conservative peer in the House of Lords as Baroness Newlove of Warrington in the County of Cheshire.

She was appointed Victims’ Commissioner for England and Wales in 2012, until she stepped down in 2019 – only to be reappointed in 2023.

She was due to serve until the end of this year, but died following a short illness.

The Victims’ Commissioner’s office said during her time in office, Baroness Newlove laid the groundwork to enshrine victims’ rights in law and led important reviews on anti-social behaviour, the victim’s code, and reforms to the parole system.

She also campaigned to improve victims’ experiences in court and give them a voice throughout the criminal justice process.

She wrote a memoir about her experiences called It Could Happen to You – about how good unexpectedly came out of evil.

After the news of her death was shared on Wednesday, David Cameron said: “My thoughts and heartfelt condolences are with Helen’s husband, Paul and her daughters Zoe, Danielle and Amy.

“Helen leaves a legacy that they – and we all – can be proud of”.

He said she was “wonderfully warm, brave and plain speaking”, and after watching Garry’s murder, she had “turned that experience into a second life of service”.

Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy praised her “unparalleled experience and dedication” to her role.

“She championed the rights of victims and witnesses and held agencies to account,” he said.

Labour MP for Warrington North Charlotte Nichols said Baroness Newlove was “a fearless and courageous advocate for victims and survivors” in the fight for justice.