Libby Squire’s killer agrees to meet her mother – as new footage shows him laughing during his arrest
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.”
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.
“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.”
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.
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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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.”
‘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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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 man has been convicted of drugging and raping 10 women in London and China between 2019 and 2023.
Chinese PhD student Zhenhao Zou, 28, filmed nine of the attacks as “souvenirs”, and kept a trophy box of women’s belongings, jurors in his trial were told.
Warning: This article contains details of sexual offences
He was accused in court of drugging and raping three women in London and seven in China between 2019 and 2023.
Jurors at Inner London Crown Court found him guilty of 11 charges of rape against 10 women, including two who have been identified and another eight who have yet to be traced.
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Moment police arrest student guilty of rape
The mechanical engineering student was also convicted of three counts of voyeurism, 10 of possession of an extreme pornographic image, one of false imprisonment and three of possession of a controlled drug with intent to commit a sexual offence, namely butanediol.
He was cleared of two further counts of possession of an extreme pornographic image and one of possession of MDMA with intent to commit a sexual offence.
The trial heard Zou kept a ‘lost property box’ full of women’s belongings. Pic: Met Police
The jury has not reached verdicts on four counts of possession of drugs with intent to commit a sexual offence.
Zou – who first moved to Belfast in 2017 to study mechanical engineering at Queen’s University before moving to London in 2019 – showed no visible reaction as the verdicts were read out in court.
Catherine Farrelly KC, prosecuting, told jurors during the trial that Zou “presents as a smart and charming young man” but is “also a persistent sexual predator; a voyeur and a rapist”.
A discreet camera belonging to Zou. Pic: Met Police
Zou, who also used the name Pakho online, befriended fellow Chinese students on WeChat and dating apps, before inviting them for drinks and drugging them at his flats in London or an unknown location in China, the court heard.
The jury heard how he would secretly film his attacks using a mobile device and hidden cameras, and was shown evidence found on SD cards at his accommodation of him raping unconscious women in London and in China.
Senior Crown Prosecution Service prosecutor Saira Pike thanked the “incredibly strong and brave” women who came forward to report his “heinous” crimes.
“Zou is a serial rapist and a danger to women,” she said.
“In some instances, we have not been able to identify Zou’s victims. Without knowing who these women are, we have not been able to support them through a deeply distressing period of time.
“We have always been determined to seek justice for both the unidentified and identified victims in this case.”
A woman has pleaded guilty to gross negligence manslaughter over the deaths of four paddleboarders on a river in Pembrokeshire.
Paddleboarding instructor Nerys Lloyd, 39, conducted a stand up paddle tour during extremely hazardous conditions on the River Cleddau in the West Wales town of Haverfordwest in October 2021.
Andrea Powell, 41, Morgan Rogers, 24 and Nicola Wheatley, 40 – and Lloyd’s fellow instructor Paul O’Dwyer, 42 – died after getting into difficulty.
At the time of the tragedy there had been heavy flooding and severe weather warnings were in place.
Lloyd, 39, who was the owner and sole director of Salty Dog Co Ltd, spoke to confirm her name before pleading guilty on Wednesday to all five counts, including an offence under the Health and Safety at Work Act.
Police were called to the weir in Haverfordwest after reports of paddleboarders in distress.
As the group approached the weir, the three participants were pulled over the top and became trapped.
Mr O’Dwyer initially exited the water, but re-entered the river in an attempt to rescue the others.
Nerys Lloyd (centre, on crutches) leaving Swansea Crown Court. Pic: PA
Death has ‘left a void’
Emergency services attended and Mr O’Dwyer, from Port Talbot, Ms Rogers, from Merthyr Tydfil, and Ms Wheatley, from Swansea, were declared dead at the scene.
Ms Powell, from Bridgend, was taken to hospital but died six days later.
The four victims died of drowning/immersion, according to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).
After the incident, Ms Wheatley’s family paid tribute to her and said her death had “left a void in [their] lives that will never be filled”.
Ms Rogers’s family said she was the “best that she could be” and would be “sadly missed”.
The family of Mr O’Dwyer described him as “a devoted husband, father, son and brother”, whose “passion for the water” began at an early age.
Ms Powell was someone who “loved life”, her family said, as they thanked those who had shown them support.
Pic: OpenStreetMap
‘Avoidable tragedy’
Lisa Rose, specialist prosecutor with the CPS’s special crime division, said it was an “avoidable tragedy”.
“Despite going to check the state of the river before departing on the tour, Nerys Lloyd failed to inspect the weir,” she said.
Ms Rose said there was “no safety briefing or formal risk assessments” and that Lloyd “was not qualified to take paddleboarders out in such hazardous conditions”.
“Final decisions to continue with the event were Lloyd’s decision, and as a result she held complete and entire responsibility,” Ms Rose added.
Sentencing to take place in April
“I hope these convictions provide some sense of justice for those affected and our thoughts remain with the families and friends of the victims at this time.”
Read more from Sky News:
PhD student convicted of raping 10 women
Liam Payne’s girlfriend ‘still working on accepting’ his death
Why is Noel Clarke suing The Guardian?
Lloyd, of Aberavon, was charged with the offences on 4 October last year.
She was granted unconditional bail by Judge Mrs Justice Stacey until her sentencing hearing on 15 April.
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