Libby Squire’s killer agrees to meet her mother – as new footage shows him laughing during his arrest

Published

3 years ago

October 23, 2022

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The mother of murdered student Libby Squire has revealed that the “sexual predator” who raped and killed the 21-year-old has agreed to meet her.

Lisa Squire told Sky News she is determined to find out what exactly happened to her daughter after she was abducted by Pawel Relowicz – and hopes to get answers by speaking to him.

The Polish butcher was jailed for 27 years for raping and murdering Libby, who disappeared during a night out in Hull in January 2019. Her body was found seven weeks later in the Humber Estuary.

Relowicz, now 28, denied killing Libby and pathologists were unable to determine a cause of death because of the amount of time her body had been in the water.

Mrs Squire said she was in the process of arranging a meeting with Relowicz through a restorative justice charity, adding that it was “quite a brave thing” for him to do.

“A lot of people don’t understand this – I don’t hate him,” she told Sky News.

“I’m not angry with him. I just want information from him.

“I don’t wish to forgive him. I don’t wish to understand why he did what he did.

“For me, it’s very much about finding out how she was in those last 20 minutes of her life.”

Libby’s killer sets conditions for meeting

Mrs Squire said a date has not yet been set for the meeting and Relowicz has outlined certain conditions that are still to be resolved.

She said: “We’ve got to the stage where he’s agreed to see me but has changed some of the parameters.

“For me, it’s really important to find out how she died. I need to know that.

“Will I believe him if he tells me? I don’t know.

“There are lots of questions I want to ask.”

Mrs Squire said Relowicz, who was found guilty of Libby’s rape and murder following a trial last year, still denies the crimes.

On the conditions he has set for their meeting, she added: “As far as I’m aware, he doesn’t want to talk about what happened that night, which is the only reason I want to see him.

“We have to come up with some sort of arrangement, between him and I, as to what we’re going to talk about.

“It’s actually quite a brave thing for him to do. Prisoners don’t get any reward for seeing the victim’s family.

“To agree to see me in the first place is a big thing. And I am grateful.

“I certainly don’t want him as my best friend, but I don’t hate him.

“He holds the key to questions I have.”

Fears Relowicz could kill again

Libby’s murder is explored in a new Sky Crime documentary – called Libby, Are You Home Yet? – which features previously unreleased footage of Relowicz laughing as he is told he is being arrested for Libby’s rape and murder.

The three-part programme considers whether Relowicz, a father of two who lived with his wife and children in Hull, could have been stopped earlier by police after he committed a string of offences – including voyeurism, outraging public decency and burglary – in the months before Libby was killed.

Relowicz had been carrying out a campaign of chilling, sexually motivated crimes in the student area of Hull – peering through windows to watch young women, breaking into their homes to steal intimate items, and masturbating in the street.

In the hours after raping and killing Libby, he returned home and watched pornography before going out again in an apparent search for another victim.

Mrs Squire – who describes Relowicz in the documentary as a “sexual predator” whose crimes were “stomach churning” – told Sky News she fears he will kill again if he is released at the end of his 27-year sentence.

“There is not a question of doubt in my mind that if he only gets to serve 27 years, he will come out and do it again, because he will only be in his early 50s,” she said.

“He shows no remorse now and I don’t believe in 20 years’ time he’ll show any remorse.

“He will come out and do it again. I’m absolutely convinced of it.

“For such a young man to do such horrendous things, even putting Libby’s rape and murder to one side, the things he was doing were just so abnormal for all men.

“He is an incredibly dangerous individual.

“Whilst I’ve got breath in my body, I will ensure that man never comes out of prison – ever.”

Libby’s killer ‘should have same sentence as Wayne Couzens’

Mrs Squire believes her daughter’s killer should have received a whole life prison sentence – like the one given to police officer Wayne Couzens, who abducted, raped and murdered Sarah Everard.

She has argued that whole life tariffs should be the automatic sentence for anyone convicted of murder, but says when she put this to Boris Johnson during a meeting earlier this year, the then prime minister told her: “There aren’t the prison spaces.”

In response to that, Mrs Squire said: “Well then build more prisons, it’s a simple as that.

“Anyone who goes out and takes a life should be given a whole life tariff, end of.

“In 27 years, Libby doesn’t come back. I don’t get my daughter back. My children don’t get to have their sister back.

“We have a whole life sentence to live.

“This was a choice. [Relowicz] chose to do this. I didn’t have any choice in this and yet it seems to me that we are punished more than they are.

“The Wayne Couzens and Relowicz sentences should be the same.”

What happened to Libby Squire?

Student Libby Squire disappeared after going on a night out with friends in Hull on the evening of 31 January 2019.

The 21-year-old was refused entry to a club for being too drunk so her friends paid a taxi driver to take her home.

After arriving at her shared student house, Libby did not enter the property and wandered off, falling over in the snow and refusing offers of help from passers-by.

She was last on CCTV shortly after midnight getting into Pawel Relowicz’s car when she was probably hypothermic.

The married father-of-two picked up Libby around the Beverley Road area of Hull and drove her to isolated playing fields nearby.

A couple living next to the fields reported hearing “high-pitched female screams” that night.

The second-year philosophy student was reported missing on 1 February, sparking a large-scale investigation from Humberside Police.

Relowicz was arrested on 6 February and he initially denied having sex with Libby, but changed his story after being challenged with DNA evidence when her body was found in the River Humber almost seven weeks later.

He then claimed they had consensual sex and that he had left her at the playing fields, insisting he did not kill her.

His story was rejected by a jury at Sheffield Crown Court and he was found guilty last year of Libby’s rape and murder.

In sentencing, the judge – who also dealt with his previous offending of voyeurism, outraging public decency and burglary – said Relowicz conducted a “perverted campaign of sexually deviant behaviour”.

‘If one of you had gone home with her, she would still be alive today’

In the documentary, friends of Libby, who were with her on the night she disappeared, reveal they were blamed by some people for not travelling home with her after she was refused entry to the club.

One friend, Amelia, says she was in a taxi when the driver turned around and said it was her fault that Libby had gone missing.

Mrs Squire told Sky News that only Relowicz was to blame for her daughter’s death but admitted she went through a phase where she thought: “Without question, if one of you had gone home with her, she would still be alive today.”

“That is the truth. There is no getting away from that fact,” Mrs Squire said.

“But they didn’t do any of this deliberately. They didn’t know what was going to happen.

“Those poor people who were with her that night have got to live with this for the rest of their lives.

“They have a whole different life because of what that man did to our daughter.

“I never blamed them… there’s only one person to blame for Libby’s death.”

Mrs Squire says she now tells Libby’s three siblings when they go out: “Be aware of your surroundings, be aware of who you are, and never leave your mates – if you go out as a two, you come home as a two.”

Libby was strangled or asphyxiated, mother believes

On the night Libby was killed, Mrs Squire believes her daughter had gone for a walk to calm down because she was angry about being refused entry to the club.

She also believes Relowicz either persuaded her daughter to get into his car “under false pretences” or that he “put her” in the vehicle.

“I believe there’s only two possibilities of how she died – asphyxiation or strangulation,” she said.

“I would like to know because it’s a massive thing. It’s very hard to not know how your child has died.

“I would like for him to tell me but I don’t think he ever will.”

‘I miss her beyond belief’

Mrs Squire said her husband Russ declined to feature in the documentary as Libby’s death remains “incredibly raw for him” and he does not want to meet Relowicz.

“Not being able to see her and speak to her every day, it is torture,” Mrs Squire said of her daughter.

“It goes without saying I miss her beyond belief. I still get really tearful when I think about it.

“I’m incredibly proud of her. She’s making such a difference to people even now.

“I miss her. I miss her so much and it’s really hard. Some days I struggle to get out of bed to carry on a day without her.

“I know if I gave in and laid in bed, she would be saying: ‘For goodness’ sake, get up. You can’t be laying in bed all day’.

“Everything I do, I do to honour her and make my other children proud.”

Libby, Are You Home Yet? is available from 27 October on Sky Crime at 9pm and streaming service Now

UK

Man found guilty of murdering wife in rare retrial

Published

1 hour ago

December 12, 2025

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Man found guilty of murdering wife in rare retrial

A 52-year-old carpenter from Surrey has been found guilty of murdering his wife in a rare retrial, eight years after being acquitted.

Robert Rhodes killed his estranged wife, Dawn Rhodes, by slitting her throat with a knife at their family home in Redhill, Surrey, in June 2016.

He was previously found not guilty after a trial at the Old Bailey in 2017, where he convinced jurors that he had acted in self-defence during an argument.

It has since emerged that this was a “cover-up”, after the couple’s child came forward with new evidence that Rhodes killed Ms Rhodes, and they were involved in the murder too.

In 2021, the child, who was under the age of 10 at the time of the murder, told police they had been manipulated into lying about the true version of events by their father.

Both Rhodes and the child were found with knife wounds at the scene, which were initially claimed to have been inflicted in an attack by Ms Rhodes.

The child’s new account stated that after Rhodes killed his wife, he inflicted two wounds to his scalp before instructing the child to inflict two more on their father’s back. He then cut his own child’s arm so deeply that it required stitches under general anaesthetic.

Under the double jeopardy rule a person cannot be tried twice for the same crime, unless new and compelling evidence comes out after an acquittal or conviction for serious offences.

On Friday, jurors at Inner London Crown Court convicted Rhodes of murder and child cruelty.

He was also found guilty of perverting the course of justice and two counts of perjury.

Rhodes will be sentenced on 16 January.

What is the law on double jeopardy?

The double jeopardy rule is a legal principle that prevents a person from being tried twice for the same crime after they have been acquitted or convicted.

It’s a protection for that person from harassment. However, the law permits a retrial where someone was acquitted of a serious offence, but new and compelling evidence has since come to light which indicates the person might actually be guilty.

In this case, the new evidence from the child was compelling enough for the Court of Appeal to quash the acquittal and a retrial to take place.

Crucially, the child’s evidence was so compelling that the Court of Appeal agreed Rhodes needed to be tried again.

Surrey Police told Sky News that the child, who was of primary school age at the time and is below the age of criminal responsibility, was “groomed” by Rhodes into lying.

The Crown Prosecution Service said “the child’s part in the plan was that they would distract the mother by saying to the mother ‘hold out your hands, I’ve got a surprise for you’, and the child would then put a drawing into the hands of the mother”.

Rhodes then cut his wife’s throat. She was found lying face down in a pool of blood in the dining room.

Libby Clark, specialist prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service’s South East Area Complex Casework Unit, said the child showed “great bravery and strength” in coming forward with the truth.

She said: “The child has grown up with the dawning realisation, I would say, that they were part of a plan. They were complicit in the murder of the mother, Dawn Rhodes.”

Legal commentator Joshua Rozenberg said there are “very few cases” where a retrial like this happens.

He said: “It’s very unusual. I don’t think there’s been a case that I can think of where a witness who was present at the scene of the crime has come forward and given evidence, which has led to a conviction.”

UK

‘They’re invisible within society’: Whistleblower says asylum seekers disappear ‘daily’ from hotels

Published

10 hours ago

December 12, 2025

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'They're invisible within society': Whistleblower says asylum seekers disappear 'daily' from hotels

An insider has told Sky News people are still disappearing “daily” from asylum seeker hotels.

In an exclusive interview, the contractor described the chaos he sees within the system as “terrifying” because undocumented people are persistently absconding from hotels.

He spoke to us because he is deeply concerned about the ongoing lack of monitoring at a time when the government has promised to tighten the asylum system.

The man, who we are not naming, works across multiple asylum hotels in one region of England.

“When someone gets to about a week away from the hotel, they’re processed as an absconder,” he said.

“Nothing really happens there. They get marked as ‘left the hotel’ and a notification is sent to the Home Office.

“It’s at least weekly. Most of the time it can be daily.”

The government moved last month to reset its immigration policy by promising to toughen the process for asylum seekers.

The latest figures up to September this year show 36,272 asylum seekers living in hotels.

Overall 110,000 people claimed asylum in the UK between September 2024 and September 2025 – higher than the previous recorded peak of 103,000 in 2002.

The hotel contractor also described to Sky News what he says happens when a resident’s claim for asylum is rejected.

“They get given a date that they need to move out by,” he said.

“You would expect immigration enforcement to go to the hotel to pick these people up. You would expect them to not even be told that they failed their asylum claim.

“You would expect them to just be collected from the hotel… that doesn’t happen.”

He told us that some residents just walk out of the door with no further checks or assistance.

“It must be terrifying for these people as well… ‘what do I do now? I don’t have an address’.

“So what do they do? How do they survive?

“Do they then get forced… to go into an underground world?

“They’re just completely invisible within society.

“For those people to freely be allowed, undetected and unchecked, on the streets of this country is terrifying.”

His account from within the system contrasts with the government’s promises to restore control over the asylum process.

In response to the interview, a Home Office spokesperson said: “This government will end the use of hotels and have introduced major reforms to the asylum system, to scale up removals of people with no right to be here and address the factors drawing illegal migrants to the UK in the first place.

“Nearly 50,000 people with no right to be in our country have been removed and enforcement arrests to tackle illegal working are at the highest level in recent history.

“A dedicated team in the Home Office works with police, across government and commercial companies to trace absconders. Failure to return to a hotel can also lead to asylum claims and support being withdrawn.”

At a community kitchen in Greater Manchester, organisers told us they regularly see people who are living under the radar – surviving with “cash in hand” jobs.

Volunteer Shabana Yunas helps many hungry and desperate people. She also feels the tension it causes in her community.

“People don’t know who they are and I understand a lot of people are afraid… but if there’s those things in place where we can monitor who is around, then everybody can feel a lot safer.

“If people are coming into the UK and we don’t know who they are and they’re just disappearing, crime rates are going to go up, slavery is going to go higher, child exploitation is going to be more exposed.

“They are too afraid to go to the authorities because they are scared of being deported to a country where their lives could be at risk.

“It’s getting worse, it is dangerous and we do need to do something about this where we can support people.”

Another volunteer at the kitchen is Khalid.

He arrived in the UK in 2015 having travelled from Ethiopia – he hid on a lorry to get into England.

He has applied for asylum and been rejected four times.

He has recently submitted another application and told us political violence at home meant he could not return.

Crucially, he knows plenty of people living off-grid.

“Yeah, they don’t care about what the government thinks, because they already destroyed their life,” he told us.

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Although Khalid now has somewhere to stay, he has previously considered turning to crime to give himself the stability of life in prison.

“I was in depression. I was like, I wanna do some criminal and go jail, to stay in a prison.

“Once upon a time, I’d prefer that way.”

Khalid is now volunteering to give his life more purpose as he waits for another decision from the Home Office.

He says he doesn’t blame people who think he should be deported back to Ethiopia.

When asked if he should have been, he said: “That is up to Home Office, like up to government.”

Stopping small boats, clearing backlogs, closing hotels, enforcing the rules and restoring faith in the system are all priorities for the Home Office – solving it all is one of the defining challenges for the Starmer government.

UK

NHS facing ‘worst case scenario’ December amid ‘super flu’ surge

Published

19 hours ago

December 11, 2025

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NHS facing 'worst case scenario' December amid 'super flu' surge

NHS England has warned the health service is facing a “worst case scenario” December with a surge of “super flu”.

The warning comes as new figures revealed the number of people in hospital with flu have increased by more than half in just one week.

Catch up as it happened: NHS warns of ‘worst-case scenario’ as ‘super flu’ surges

Latest figures show:

• An average of 2,660 patients were in hospital per day with flu last week

• This is the highest ever for this time of year and up 55% on last week

• At this point last year the number stood at 1,861 patients, while in 2023 it was just 402

Health service bosses are warning the number of flu patients in hospital has already increased sharply since the week covered by this data – with no peak in sight.

Virus outbreaks coincide with doctors’ strikes

Weekly flu numbers in England peaked at 5,408 patients last winter and reached 5,441 over the winter of 2022/23, the highest level since the pandemic.

Alongside rocketing flu, the number of norovirus patients in hospital has also risen by 35%.

The NHS is now warning winter viruses are starting to “engulf hospitals”.

Demand for A&Es and ambulance services is also soaring.

New monthly figures show A&E attendances were a record for November at 2.35 million – more than 30,000 higher than November 2024.

In addition, there were 48,814 more ambulance incidents (802,525) compared with last year (753,711).

Some hospitals across the country have asked staff, patients and visitors to wear face masks to cut the spread of flu, while others have gone in and out of critical incident status due to the high number of people attending A&E.

The record-breaking demand on the NHS coincides with a resident doctors’ strike from 17 to 22 December over pay and jobs – sparking fears of major disruption for patients in the run up to Christmas.

People are being advised to attend any planned appointments scheduled during the strikes unless they have been contacted to reschedule.

Flu vaccinations on the up… who can get one?

The NHS is urging anyone eligible to get their flu vaccination to help prevent them getting seriously ill.

Latest figures show more than 17.4 million people have been vaccinated so far this year, more than 381,000 higher than last year.

You can get it if you:

• Are 65 or over in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

• Are pregnant

• Live in a care home

• Are the main carer for an older or disabled person, or receive carer’s allowance

• Live with someone who has a weakened immune system

• Are a frontline health and social care worker

• Are of school age

• Have certain medical conditions (the NHS has a full list)

Wes Streeting, the health secretary, warned of a “tidal wave of flu tearing through our hospitals”.

“We are working with the NHS to make sure it is able to cope with this as best as possible,” he said.

Analysis – Why these flu figures are so troubling

NHSE press releases can be prone to hyperbole: a “tsunami of infections, worst case scenarios” and “tidal wave of flu surging through hospitals” are recent examples.

But the health service’s headline writers can be allowed this excess right now.

The latest flu numbers are bad. Really bad and could get worse. One recent projection was 8,000 patients, before this wave subsides.

But that’s where the problem lies. There is no peak in sight.

We know flu season has come early. It’s going to last longer. But there’s uncertainty over when we expect to see infections falling.

Hospitals are at capacity. Most of those receiving care are elderly or have underlying health conditions.

But younger, fitter people can’t afford to be complacent.

This is a particularly nasty strain that is highly infectious. Nobody is immune. Except those people who have protected themselves with a vaccine.

Warning ‘extremely challenging few weeks ahead’

Professor Meghana Pandit, NHS national medical director, warned the health service faces “an extremely challenging few weeks ahead” with “staff being pushed to the limit”.

She said: “With record demand for A&E and ambulances and an impending resident doctors’ strike, this unprecedented wave of super flu is leaving the NHS facing a worst-case scenario for this time of year – with staff being pushed to the limit to keep providing the best possible care for patients.

“The numbers of patients in hospital with flu is extremely high for this time of year. Even worse, it continues to rise and the peak is not in sight yet, so the NHS faces an extremely challenging few weeks ahead.”

She added: “We have prepared earlier for winter than ever before, and stress-tested services to ensure people have a range of ways to get the help they need and avoid needing to go to A&E.

“For non-life-threatening care, people should call NHS 111 or use 111 online, which can direct you to the most appropriate place, and use A&E and 999 for life threatening conditions and serious injuries.”

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Mr Streeting has offered the British Medical Association (BMA) a last-minute deal in the hope doctors will call off the walkout, which starts next Wednesday.

The doctors’ union has agreed to put the offer to members over the coming day, and is expected to announced a decision on Monday, just two days before the planned strike.

The offer includes a fast expansion of specialist training posts as well as covering out-of-pocket expenses such as exam fees, but does not include extra pay.