Newlove widow's 'get tough' call

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Mrs Newlove says having 'nothing to do' is not an excuse

The widow of Garry Newlove has told MPs that it is wrong to make excuses for youths who commit violent crime.

Mr Newlove, 47, was kicked to death by three drunk teenagers outside his home in Warrington, Cheshire, last year.

Helen Newlove said having "nothing to do" was not an excuse for young people to be involved in criminal culture.

Speaking during a Commons Home Affairs committee, she also branded the courts system "utterly disgraceful" for the way victims' families are treated.

The murder of Mr Newlove led to renewed national debate about Britain's so-called yob culture.

He had walked out of his home on 10 August 2007 to confront a gang which had vandalised his wife's car, but was set upon and "kicked like a football" in front of his terrified family.

The children see the police, they run off, come back and it has got steadily worse for three or four years Helen Newlove

On Tuesday, Mrs Newlove revealed that she and her daughters - Zoe, 18, Danielle, 15, and Amy, 14 - had moved away from their family home because they struggled to cope with flashbacks of the murder.

She told MPs that when she went back to the area there was a noticeable police presence.

But Mrs Newlove added: "There is visibility, but it is a case of the horse has already bolted.

"The children see the police, they run off, come back and it has got steadily worse for three or four years."

Courts attacked

MPs listened as she argued that smaller scale crime could often spiral into more serious, and potentially life-threatening, situations if police were not given resources to deal with them.

Mrs Newlove said: "I believe that children did know that the police would not come out for minor crimes and I think they [the police] should, because criminal damage started that night and it ended up with the murder of Garry."

Mrs Newlove compared her husband's killers with her own three daughters.

She said: "They don't go out and do this to people. They don't go out and drink... It's [violence] got to do with the fact of going out, glamorising getting drunk, and then doing these acts."

Mrs Newlove has now joined forces with other mothers who have felt the impact of violence in Britain to call for change.

She highlighted her experience of the courts system as evidence of the need for more "help and respect" for victims.

"You go in the court with all the emotions and then you are fighting for a seat," Mrs Newlove said.

"The press have a box, the legal people have a box but there is no respect for the families. You do not know who you are sitting next to.

"I think it's utterly disgraceful because you think that the courts are for you, that they are your safety net."

Money and power

The brother-in-law of Garry Weddell - a police officer who killed after being given bail while accused of murder - was also speaking to the select committee.

Paul Carne told MPs he believed Mr Weddell, 47, was freed due to money and power.

He said the police inspector had been released because of his job and because his brother, who put up a £200,000 surety, was a barrister.

Weddell had been arrested, and subsequently charged, on suspicion of murder following the death of his wife, 44-year-old Sandra Weddell at their Dunstable home in January 2007.

After being given bail, he shot Mrs Weddell's mother Traute Maxfield and then committed suicide.