Sometimes crimes can shake a community to its core.
The ECHO has looked back to some of the crimes that have rocked St Helens over the years.
On September 2, 2016, former doorman and carer Danny Fox was stabbed to death while on Westfield Street in the town centre. Leighton Holt, from Stockbridge Village, admitted stabbing the 29-year-old after an altercation, but jurors in the trial couldn't reach a verdict and he was declared not guilty.
READ MORE: Pub's touching tribute to 'bubbly' nan stabbed to death in car park
Dawn Jones, Daniel's auntie, previously told the ECHO: "It [Daniel's killing] devastated us two years ago when we lost Daniel to knife crime, and it does bring it back when you hear everything in the news.
"I saw all Daniel's friends outside and they were all covered in blood because a lot of them had cradled him, just before his last minutes, and heard his last words which were haunting. We've been fighting our campaign, the Daniel Fox Foundation, for two years now to make our town safer, and we will continue doing that - you've just got to keep fighting against it all."
On March 24, 2017, four-year-old Violet Grace Youens was knocked down by a hit and run driver while she walked with her nan in St Helens. She died as a result of her injuries the next day.
Violet-Grace Youens’ killer ran past the four-year-old as she lay critically injured after being hit by a speeding car. Cowardly Aidan McAteer fled the crash scene immediately - passing the youngster after the stolen car he was driving struck her at around 80mph in a 30mph zone.
McAteer denied seeing injured Violet-Grace but one of the detectives charged with probing her tragic death believes “it would have been difficult not to”.
McAteer, who was 23 at the time, was jailed following Violet-Grace's death, after he had initially fled the scene and then the country before returning to the UK. The ECHO understands he was released from prison at the halfway point and is now under supervision in the community.
22-year-old Helen McCourt disappeared just yards from her home in Billinge in 1988. Pub landlord Ian Simms was jailed for life, with a minimum term of 16 years in prison, for the murder of Helen in February 1988.
The 64-year-old was released in February 2020 after the Parole Board ruled him fit for freedom before his death in June 2022. Helen was last seen getting off a bus near her house. A scream was later heard from the George and Dragon pub which father-of-two Simms ran.
Days before the murder he had barred Helen after she had a row with another customer. He was heard using obscene language towards her and telling her how much he hated her.
Simms had previously made sexual advances towards Helen and it was thought Helen had discovered he was having an affair with a 21-year-old woman. Helen's determined mum Marie, 77, fought for Helen's Law and in March it was passed by ministers unopposed.
It places a legal duty on parole judges to consider non-disclosure of information on murderers and paedophiles, with the Ministry of Justice saying these types of criminals "should expect to face longer behind bars".
But Simms was released on licence a month before it came in to force. Marie went back to court in a bid to send Simms back to his cell but High Court judges ruled in favour of the parole board and ordered her to pay his legal bill.
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