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.
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.”
Image: Lisa Squire and her daughter Libby
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.
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.”
Image: Pawel Relowicz (R) appeared to laugh after being told of his arrest for Libby’s rape and murder. Pic: Libby, Are You Home Yet? Sky and Candour Productions
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.
Image: Police uncovered drone footage Relowicz recorded of himself. Pic: Libby, Are You Home Yet? Sky and Candour Productions
“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.”
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0:28
Libby Squire’s mother: ‘Verdict changes nothing’
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.
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2:46
Libby Squire’s final moments
“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
A 15-year-old boy has been sentenced to life with a minimum term of 16 years for murdering Sheffield schoolboy Harvey Willgoose in a lunch break knife attack.
Harvey, also 15, was stabbed twice in the chest by Mohammed Umar Khan outside their school cafeteria in February this year.
At Sheffield Crown Court, Judge Mrs Justice Ellenbogen told Mohammed Umar Khan his “senseless acts” followed a “long-standing interest in weapons”.
She added the murder had a “devastating effect on Harvey’s family” and their lives have been “blighted by your actions”.
Khan, who can now be named after the judge lifted reporting restrictions, took a 13cm hunting knife with him to All Saints Catholic High School.
Image: Mohammed Umar Khan, Harvey Willgoose’s killer, has been sentenced at Sheffield Crown Court. Pic: South Yorkshire Police
Image: Khan stabbed Harvey Willgoose with a 13cm hunting knife. Pic: South Yorkshire Police
CCTV showed Harvey arriving at the school, with earlier footage showing the attacker trying to provoke Harvey, who remained calm.
The attacker was also seen in footage holding a knife in the canteen before the stabbing.
Image: CCTV footage captured Khan arriving at school on the day of the fatal stabbing. Pic: South Yorkshire Police
Khan had previously admitted to manslaughter but denied murder. But in August, he was found guilty at Sheffield Crown Courtby a majority verdict of 11 to one.
Defence lawyers claimed the boy had “lost control” after years of bullying and “an intense period of fear at school”.
He told teachers after the stabbing “you know I can’t control it” and “I’m not right in the head”.
Image: Harvey Willgoose (L) was murdered by Mohammed Umar Khan (R). Pics: PA/Ben Lack Photography
Doesn’t look like he’s sorry
Speaking outside court, Harvey Willgoose’s mother, Caroline, said she was relieved the case was over.
“I feel like a big weight’s been lifted off my shoulders, to be honest. He [Khan] doesn’t look like he’s sorry but I just hope that’s his mask.”
Image: Harvey was stabbed outside of the school cafeteria. Pic: Ben Lack Photography Limited
Caroline Willgoose, whose father died last week, also spoke to Sky News about the anti-knife campaigns she was developing following the death of Harvey.
“He were funny, he were caring, and that’s how I want him to be remembered. I hate him being remembered as the school kid that got stabbed to death in school. He’d hate that.”
Asked about her thoughts of Khan, she said: “I don’t really have any feelings for him. I don’t know whether they’ll come… but I do feel like he’s been let down. They’ve both been let down.”
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2:22
My son has been ‘let down’
‘Popular, energetic, full-loving’
Steve Davies, chief executive of St Clare Catholic Multi Academy Trust, which operates All Saints Catholic High School, described Harvey as “a popular, energetic and fun-loving pupil who is dearly missed every day by the whole school community”.
He added: “Our thoughts are first and foremost with Harvey’s family, loved ones and friends. We cannot begin to imagine the depth of their loss and our deepest sympathies go out to them today and every day.
“Since the conclusion of the trial, the school and trust have been able to engage fully with a number of ongoing investigations aimed at answering key questions about Harvey’s tragic death. We will continue to work closely with these partners and cooperate fully with these investigations.”
Image: Khan pictured holding the weapon used to kill Harvey Willgoose. Pic: South Yorkshire Police
‘Senseless acts’ had ‘devastating effect’
During sentencing on Wednesday, Judge Mrs Justice Ellenbogen told Khan his “senseless acts have had a devastating effect”.
“Harvey’s family is haunted by the CCTV footage of the events of that day, and, exhausted by the trauma in their lives in which his absence is felt every day.”
“It is clear that Harvey was also a popular pupil whom students and teachers held in affection. Their lives, too have been blighted by your actions, which have affected them deeply and will continue to do so.”
Mrs Ellenbogen added that Khan had a “long-standing interest in weapons” and images on his mobile phone showed him posing with hunting-style knives, a machete and a hammer.
She told Khan he had a “long-standing inability to manage your anger”, including three separate school incidents between November 2024 and January 2025 in which he had become angry and aggressive.
The judge told him he would serve a minimum term of 16 years minus time spent in custody, which works out at around 15 years, three months. Khan did not show any obvious emotion as the sentence was passed.
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2:41
Do knife arches make schools safer?
‘Our mental health has been destroyed’
Ahead of sentencing, Harvey’s sister, Sophie Willgoose, described in her victim impact statement the family’s “world was shattered forever” after they were told about his murder.
She added: “The defendant didn’t just end Harvey’s life, he ended ours too. Our mental health has been destroyed.”
Richard Thyne KC, prosecuting, said that while Khan had no previous convictions, he had previously taken an axe and a knife separately on to the school premises.
Khan and Harvey had “fronted up” to one another in confrontations at school, he added.
Attack was ‘split-second decision’
The detective who led the murder investigation said there was evidence that Khan was friends with Harvey until days before the fatal incident.
Following the trial, Detective Chief Inspector Andy Knowles said a relatively trivial incident had led to a “split-second decision to do something which just had dire and terrible consequences”.
“It was the knife that escalated this so quickly and led to consequences which you can’t undo or take back afterwards,” he added.
Focus on knife crime prevention
Kilvinder Vigurs, South Yorkshire’s deputy mayor for policing and crime, said the trial “marks a difficult moment for our region” and more must be done “to protect our children from the threat of knife crime”.
In a statement, he said: “Knife crime is not just a policing issue, it’s a societal one. Our joint focus must be on prevention, education, and early intervention.”
Baby P’s mother has told the parole board she allowed her partner to abuse her son because she wanted her “Prince Charming”.
It is the first time Tracey Connelly, 44, has spoken publicly about her 17-month-old son Peter’s death at their home in Tottenham, north London, on 3 August 2007 since she was jailed in 2009.
Peter, who suffered more than 50 injuries, including fractured ribs and a broken back, was known as Baby P during his mother’s Old Bailey trial, where she initially denied wrongdoing, alongside her boyfriend, Steven Barker, and his brother.
The case sparked outrage as the child was on the at-risk register and received 60 visits from social workers, police and health professionals over eight months.
Connelly was given an indefinite sentence for public protection (IPP) with a minimum term of five years in 2009 after pleading guilty to causing or allowing Peter’s death.
Image: Connelly’s boyfriend Steven Barker jailed for 12 years. Pic: PA
She is making her seventh bid to be released from prison – after being twice recalled over having secret relationships with men she met online – which is being live-streamed from her prison to the International Dispute and Resolution Centre, in London.
Risk to children in her care
She admitted she continues to present a risk to any children in her care, saying: “Given how bad I was at it, I have to accept that’s always a risk if I’m left looking after children, which I can’t see ever being the case.
“Am I a risk to children running down the street? Not at all.”
Connelly, who asked to be called Tracey, could not be seen on screen as she told how her own childhood was “torture”.
“It was extremely traumatic, things that I went through which’s not for public consumption. It was not a life experience I would wish on anyone,” she said.
Connelly said her marriage was on “the last legs” when Peter was born and that she would have loved to “have been a mother where I broke the cycle” but perpetuated it.
She admitted “I was a bad mother” who “failed to protect” Peter after moving Barker into their home before having to take her son to hospital with what she was told were “non-accidental injuries”.
Connelly said “deep down” she knew Barker was abusing him, but was so busy trying to prove all the professionals wrong that “I ignored my gut”.
Image: Tributes left to Baby P. Pic: PA
“There’s a lot more I probably could have done,” she said.
“If I had told the professionals this man was living with me, if I had explained we were more than he was just visiting, there are 101 different things I could have done.
“I’m ashamed to admit I was in my own head, my own bubble, where I wanted my Prince Charming and unfortunately [Peter] paid for that.”
She said her “selfishness” meant Peter was stuck in a “worse situation” which “allowed my son to die”.
Sent back to jail over secret flings
The hearing was told she was first released on licence in 2013, but recalled to prison in 2015 for a breach of conditions after “secretly developing intimate personal relationships” online and had “incited” another resident at her accommodation to “engage in inappropriate behaviour”.
She told the panel she engaged in sexualised chat and sent intimate photos of herself to a man in another country, who didn’t know who she was.
Her applications for release in 2015, 2017 and 2019 were rejected by the board, and while back in custody, she “developed an intimate relationship with another prisoner” which she hid from staff.
She said they would “kiss and cuddle”, but it was “more about friendship”, and she continued the relationship through “jail mail” when they were separated.
The parole hearing was told she “developed an intimate relationship with a man” she met online and concealed it from parole officers by deleting material from her phone to avoid being detected.
Connelly is allowed to have relationships but must report them.
She told how she met a man on an app, giving him a fake backstory, and again sent intimate photos before they met, went for food, to the cinema and to a hotel for the weekend, where they had sex twice.
Her voice broke with emotion as she said: “If I had to tell him who I was, anyone in their right mind would run a mile”, and “how could I ask anyone to be okay with that?”
Visit to a sex club
Asked if she was “obsessed with sex”, Connelly said it was her way of making “a connection, even if it’s only temporary sometimes”.
She said she was openly bisexual, has an interest in BDSM, and visited a sex club after she was last released from prison.
Connelly now works on the care and supervision unit as an orderly in prison and is subjected to daily bullying, abuse and threats, including being spat at, her prisoner offender manager (POM) said.
The POM is recommending her re-release, but the application is opposed by Justice Minister David Lammy.
The three panel members, who have seen a 763-page dossier, will decide if she meets the test for release based on an assessment of her “risk to the public” and are expected to make a decision next month.
Statements from members of Peter’s family were not read in public, but the panel chair, Sally Allbeury, said they expressed “concerns about her potential release” and wanted “conditions to be put in place to protect them” if she is freed.
“We found these statements extremely moving. There can be no doubt Peter’s death has caused life-long harm to those who loved him and as such they are also victims of Ms Connelly’s offending,” she said.
Connelly’s boyfriend, Barker, who Peter called “dad”, was jailed for 12 years, and his brother, Jason Owen, was sentenced to six years on appeal after being convicted in relation to Peter’s death.
Their trial heard how Peter was subjected to a series of assaults of increasing violence for up to eight months before his death, and Connelly was described by the sentencing judge as “manipulative and self-centred with a controlling side and a temper” who had prioritised her relationship with her partner.
One of the frontrunners to become chair of the grooming gang inquiry has withdrawn, blaming “vested interests” and “political opportunism and point-scoring”.
Jim Gamble told the home secretary in a letter there was a “highly charged and toxic environment” around the appointment process and victims “deserve better”.
The ex-police chief and child protection specialist said he needed the confidence of victims and survivors, but it was clear “a lack of confidence due to my previous occupation exists among some”.
Speaking to Sky News, he said he originally viewed the job as an “opportunity of a lifetime” but changed his mind due to a “growing level of toxicity” and misinformation.
He said he had more than 20 years’ experience working with abuse survivors and understood the issues involved.
“To imply for one second I would align myself with any political party to hide their blushes is just nonsense,” said Mr Gamble, who added he was stepping back “with a heavy heart”.
In his letter to the home secretary, Mr Gamble said his decision was “reinforced by the highly charged and toxic environment that has surrounded and influenced the appointment process and the impact this has had on those closest to me”.
He added: “Regrettably, the reaction to the appointment process has been defined more by the vested interests of some, as well as political opportunism and point-scoring, rather than by the cross-party consensus required to address such a serious national issue.
“Victims and survivors, who have been let down so often in the past, deserve better than to be used as leverage for short-term gain by anyone.”
Mr Gamble began his career in Northern Ireland, rising to become head of RUC special branch in Belfast.
However, he is best known for his work combating child abuse, and in 2006 headed up the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, which revolutionised the approach to policing online child abuse networks.
He was one of two known leading candidates for the role.
Image: Annie Hudson has also withdrawn
The other, Annie Hudson, a former social worker, said earlier this week she no longer wanted to be considered after intense media coverage.
It is understood that the government is exploring a range of other candidates and will provide an update in due course.
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2:50
Rochdale grooming gang jailed
A Home Office spokesperson said: “The grooming gang scandal was one of the darkest moments in this country’s history.
“That is why this government is committed to a full, statutory, national inquiry to uncover the truth. It is the very least that the victims of these hideous crimes deserve.
“We are disappointed that candidates to chair that inquiry have withdrawn. This is an extremely sensitive topic, and we have to take the time to appoint the best person suitable for the role.
“The home secretary has been clear – there will be no hiding place for those who abused the most vulnerable in our society.”
Ms Badenoch asked – on behalf of one of the resigned grooming inquiry members – what the point of an inquiry is if they are just ignored.
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17:34
Grooming gangs: Family’s fight for justice
Mr Starmer said the inquiry “is not and will never be watered down” and that he wanted survivors “to be at the heart of this”.
He added: “I want an inquiry that can get to the truth, these are the hard yards, I accept that. But I want to press on and get this right.”
Asked about Labour’s change in position this year from saying a national inquiry is not necessary to the current situation, the prime minister said: “I want to go as fast as we can to get the justice that is deserved.
“I want to ensure survivors are involved in that, and we’re balancing the two to get this right, and I’ll continue to do so.”
Victim’s father calls for minister to resign
Marlon West, whose daughter Scarlett was a grooming victim who was raped by more than 60 men, has called for safeguarding minister Jess Phillips to resign.
He said he doubted she would, but claimed she “has lost any kind of faith from the public, and more importantly with survivors and families”.
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2:14
PM backs Jess Phillips over grooming gangs
Mr West described the minister in parliament this week as “unprofessional” and “defensive rather than listening to what survivors are saying”.
He also wants to see an inquiry with family members included, alongside survivors, on the panel, and even though he doesn’t want to be included, he said, “it’s the families who are dealing with the services, not so much the survivors”.
Mr West added: “It’s the parents who are dealing with the police, every single day, and social services. It’s really important that they get family perspective. I think they should start again.”
‘Gaslit and manipulated’
Ellie-Ann Reynolds, who withdrew earlier this week, said as soon as they [victims] found out what the two candidates used to do [police and social work], it “raised red flags” as they were involved with “the two institutions that have failed us”.
Mr Gamble’s decision to withdraw was “the right thing to do”, she said, as victims were “gaslit” and “manipulated” during the process and had “very little faith in authorities and systems”.