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.”
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
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.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
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
The suspended surgeon at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge has been named as paediatric consultant Kuldeep Stohr.
Eight hundred patients operated on by Ms Stohr are having their cases urgently re-examined, after an external review found nine children whose care fell below expected standards.
The initial review was ordered after concerns were raised by her colleagues.
Sky News has seen a copy of the interim report which details several issues relating to complex hip surgeries performed by the surgeon.
One of the parents whose child was identified in the review showed us a recent letter from the hospital which reported“problems with both judgement and technique” in her child’s surgery.
Ms Stohr, who has been suspended since the end of January, said in a statement: “I always strive to provide the highest standards of care to all my patients.
“I am co-operating fully with the trust investigation and it would not be appropriate to comment further at this time.”
Image: Tammy Harrison: ‘It was hell’
Left in agonising pain
Tammy Harrison, 12, has cerebral palsy and had surgeries carried out by Ms Stohr. Her operations didn’t work, leaving her in agonising pain.
She said: “My first one was just like trauma. I couldn’t get out of bed for eight weeks. I was either stuck in bed or stuck on the sofa. It was hell.”
Her mum, Lynn, told Sky News: “There is nothing that can put Tammy back to where she was now and that’s the sad thing.
“If I could just click my fingers and have the child back that I had I would do it with a blink of an eye.”
Image: Ms Stohr operated on Lynn Harrison’s daughter
So far, there’s been no confirmation of any wrongdoing in Tammy’s care.
But her family have a meeting at the hospital this week to find out more.
The trust has asked a panel of specialist clinicians to review all the planned operations carried out by Ms Stohr at Addenbrooke’s. One hundred emergency trauma cases will also be looked at.
Addenbrooke’s is a major regional trauma centre and treats serious emergency patients from all over the region.
One clinician at the hospital told Sky News that the review of so many patients was “creating a lot of extra work”, which was “slowing things down” for other patients awaiting treatment.
Image: Addenbrooke’s Hospital. File pic: PA
At least one extra locum consultant has been helping the team, as they work through the caseload.
Trust apologises
Sky News has been told Cambridge University Hospitals Trust had wanted to identify Ms Stohr before but had been threatened with a legal injunction.
The trust has apologised unreservedly to families and patients. But what’s troubling many is the fact concerns were raised about Ms Stohr a decade ago.
Chief executive of Cambridge University Hospitals Trust, Roland Sinker, has set up another review to examine whether opportunities were missed, and action could have been taken sooner.
The Department of Health described the ongoing situation as “incredibly concerning.”
Sir Keir Starmer promised “bold changes” as he announced he will relax rules around electric vehicles after carmakers were hit by Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Labour made a manifesto pledge to restore a 2030 ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars after it had been rolled back to 2035 by Rishi Sunak’s Conservative government.
Image: Starmer promises to ‘back British business’. Pic: Reuters
Sir Keir will officially confirm the ban in an announcement on Monday but regulations around manufacturing targets on electric cars and vans will be altered, to help firms in the transition.
Luxury supercar firms such as Aston Martin and McLaren will still be allowed to keep producing petrol cars beyond the 2030 date, because they only manufacture a small number of vehicles per year.
More on Tariffs
Related Topics:
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
2:53
‘Nothing off the table’ over tariffs
Petrol and diesel vans will also be allowed to be sold until 2035, along with hybrids and plug-in hybrid cars.
The government is also going to make it easier for manufacturers who do not comply with the government’s Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) mandate, which sets sales targets, to avoid fines, and the levies will be reduced.
Sir Keir said: “I am determined to back British brilliance.
“Now more than ever UK businesses and working people need a government that steps up, not stands aside.
“That means action, not words.”
Officials have said support for the car industry will continue to be kept under review as the full impact of the tariffs announced last week becomes clear.
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said the industry deserves “clarity” in the economic context.
She said: “Our ambitious package of strengthening reforms will protect and create jobs, making the UK a global automotive leader in the switch to EVs, all the while meeting our core manifesto commitment to phase out petrol and diesel vehicles by 2030.”
Mike Hawes, chief executive of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, said the government had “recognised the intense pressure manufacturers are under”, while Colin Walker, a transport analyst at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, said the ZEV mandate is a “global success story” in driving a surge in sales of electric vehicles.
Tariff impact on UK businesses revealed
Some 62% of UK firms with trade exposure to the US are being negatively impacted by Donald Trump’s tariffs, according to the British Chambers of Commerce.
Its survey of more than 600 businesses also found 32% of firms with trade exposure to the US said they will increase prices in response.
The survey also found 41% of firms with no exposure to the USA said they would be negatively impacted by the tariffs.
Some 44% of firms with exposure to the US said the UK should seek to negotiate a closer trade relationship with the US, while 43% said they wanted closer trade with other markets.
Just under a quarter (21%) said they thought the UK should impose retaliatory tariffs.
The survey also found that 40% of firms considered the 10% tariffs to be better than they had expected.
It comes as KPMG warned US tariffs on UK exports could see GDP growth fall to 0.8% in 2025 and 2026.
The accountancy firm said higher tariffs on specific categories, such as cars, aluminium and steel, would more than offset the exemption on pharmaceutical exports, leaving the effective tariffs imposed on UK exports at around 12%.
Yael Selfin, chief economist at KPMG UK, said: “Given the economic impact that tariffs would cause, there is a strong incentive to seek a negotiated settlement that diminishes the need for tariffs. The UK automotive manufacturing sector is particularly exposed given the complex supply chains of some producers.”
Two people who died following a fire at a caravan site near Skegness have been named by police.
Lincolnshire Police said 48-year-old Lee Baker and his 10-year-old daughter Esme Baker, both from the Nottingham area, were killed in the blaze.
However, formal identification is still yet to take place and “could take some time”, the force said.
Emergency services were alerted to a fire at Golden Beach Holiday Park, in the village of Ingoldmells, at 3.53am on Saturday.
In a statement issued through police, a member of the Baker family said: “Lee and Esme were excited to be spending the first weekend of the holidays together.
“We are all utterly devastated at what’s happened.
“This loss is incomprehensible at the moment, and we ask for people to give us space to process this utterly heartbreaking loss.”
A GoFundMe page set up for the victims’ family described the father and daughter as “two peas in a pod” who were “both happy-go-lucky people who loved life”. It has so far raised more than £3,000.
The police force, together with Lincolnshire Fire & Rescue, are continuing to investigate the cause of the blaze.
Detective Inspector Lee Nixon said: “We believe we might be close to arriving at a working hypothesis.
“We are working hard to validate the facts available to us to be able to provide answers for the family and loved ones of those who were very tragically taken by this fire.
“Yet the evident intensity of the fire has made this task incredibly challenging.”
Dan Moss, from Lincolnshire Fire & Rescue, said: “Our thoughts and deepest condolences are with the family at this time.
“Our Fire Investigation Team is working with colleagues from Lincolnshire Police, and a full investigation into the cause of the fire is ongoing.
“Once investigations are complete, local fire crews and our community fire safety team will be on hand to talk to people in the area and address any fire safety concerns they may have, at what will be an upsetting time.”