Grieving mother of murdered Libby Squire wants to meet student’s killer to solve ‘unanswered questions’
Lisa Squire says she wants to find out exactly how her daughter was killed on night she was raped and thrown into a Hull river
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.The grieving mother of a young woman raped and murdered by a serial sex offender as she walked home wants to meet her daughter’s killer to find out exactly what happened to her.
Libby Squire, 21, from High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, was snatched by butcher Pawel Relowicz as she made her way home from a night out in Hull, East Yorkshire in 2019.
Relowicz, a married father of two, was later found guilty of raping and murdering Ms Squire and was jailed for 27 years last year.
Speaking to BBC Breakfast on Wednesday morning, mum Lisa Squire said she has been left with several answered questions about her daughter’s death.
“I don’t know how he got her in the car, I don’t know how she died, I don’t know whether she was dead when she went into the water or not,” she said.
“There’s so many questions.”
During Relowicz’s trial at Sheffield Crown Court, jurors heard how he intercepted a drunk and “extremely vulnerable” Ms Squire after she was turned away from a nightclub in Hull in the early hours of 1 February.
He then drove Ms Squire in his car to Oak Road playing fields, where he raped her before putting her body in the River Hull.
The Hull University philosophy student’s body was recovered from the Hull Estuary nearly two months later.
Prosecutors said that Relowicz, then aged 26, repeatedly lied to police, his wife and in court documents about what happened on the night Ms Squire vanished.
They said Relowicz, who had previous convictions for voyeurism, performing sex acts in public and stealing sex toys and underwear from women’s homes, prowled the streets of Hull looking for someone to attack.
A medical expert told jurors that Ms Squire’s cause of death could not be established because she had been in the water for nearly two months.
She was identified by her fingerprints.
Asked why she wanted to speak with her daughter’s killer, Ms Squire added: “I think it’s my makeup. I need to know what’s going on with my children.
“My children are a massive part of my life so not knowing what happened to her, for me, is not acceptable.”
Ms Squire said she was due to meet with the prime minister Boris Johnson to discuss tougher measures for non-contact sexual offences.
“People still think that non-contact sexual offences are harmless but they’re not harmless,” she said.
“We can’t say that all people who commit a non-contact sexual offence are going to go on to become rapists and murderers, but I think we can probably say that most rapists and murderers started off with non-contact sexual offences.
“I also think these people need help. There should be some sort of help facility for them. They should be forced to go into treatment or have therapy for what they have done.”
Ms Squire said she wanted her daughter’s legacy to be “change for women”.
She added: “Because of what happened to her, I want other women to be safer. I will honour her until I take my last breath.”