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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.

Libby Squire. Pic: Libby, Are You Home Yet? Sky and Candour Productions

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 and Libby Squire. Pic: Libby, Are You Home Yet? Sky and Candour Productions
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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.”

Lisa Squire

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 ProductionsMust credit: Libby, Are You Home Yet? Sky and Candour Productions
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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.

Pawel Relowicz recorded footage of himself using a drone. Pic: Sky and Candour Productions
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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.”

Libby Squire in Paris in May 2017 during a gap year when she visited the French city with friends

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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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.”

Lisa Squire, the mother of student Libby Squire

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.”

Pawel Relowicz still

‘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

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Ukraine presses Russia for 30-day ceasefire as Starmer among leaders in Kyiv for talks

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Ukraine presses Russia for 30-day ceasefire as Starmer among leaders in Kyiv for talks

Sir Keir Starmer has joined other European leaders in Kyiv to press Russia to agree an unconditional 30-day ceasefire.

The prime minister is attending the summit alongside French President Emmanuel Macron, recently-elected German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

It is the first time the leaders of the four countries have travelled to Ukraine at the same time – arriving in the capital by train – with their meeting hosted by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer meets with French President Emanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on board a train to the Ukrainian capital Kyiv where all three will hold meetings with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, May 9, 2025. Stefan Rousseau/Pool via REUTERS
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Sir Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron and Friedrich Merz travelling in the saloon car of a special train to Kyiv. Pic: Reuters

Leaders arrive in Kyiv by train. Pic: PA
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Leaders arrive in Kyiv by train. Pic: PA

It comes after Donald Trump called for “ideally” a 30-day ceasefire between Kyiv and Moscow, and warned that if any pause in the fighting is not respected “the US and its partners will impose further sanctions”.

Security and defence analyst Michael Clarke told Sky News presenter Samantha Washington the European leaders are “rowing in behind” the US president, who referred to his “European allies” for the first time in this context in a post on his Truth Social platform.

“So this meeting is all about heaping pressure on the Russians to go along with the American proposal,” he said.

“It’s the closest the Europeans and the US have been for about three months on this issue.”

Sir Keir Starmer, Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Emmanuel Macron among world leaders in Kyiv. Pic: AP
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Sir Keir Starmer, Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Emmanuel Macron among world leaders in Kyiv. Pic: AP

Trump calls for ceasefire. Pic: Truth Social
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Trump calls for ceasefire. Pic: Truth Social

Ukraine’s foreign minister Andrii Sybiha said Ukraine and its allies are ready for a “full, unconditional ceasefire” for at least 30 days starting on Monday.

Ahead of the meeting on Saturday, Sir Keir, Mr Macron, Mr Tusk and Mr Merz released a joint statement.

European leaders show solidarity – but await Trump’s backing


Dominic Waghorn - Diplomatic editor

Dominic Waghorn

International affairs editor

@DominicWaghorn

The hope is Russia’s unilateral ceasefire, such as it’s worth, can be extended for a month to give peace a chance.

But ahead of the meeting, Ukrainian sources told Sky News they are still waiting for President Donald Trump to put his full weight behind the idea.

The US leader has said a 30-day ceasefire would be ideal, but has shown no willingness yet for putting pressure on Russian president Vladimir Putin to agree.

The Russians say a ceasefire can only come after a peace deal can be reached.

European allies are still putting their hopes in a negotiated end to the war despite Moscow’s intransigence and President Trump’s apparent one-sided approach favouring Russia.

Ukrainians would prefer to be given enough economic and military support to secure victory.

But in over three years, despite its massive economic superiority to Russia and its access to more advanced military technology, Europe has not found the political will to give Kyiv the means to win.

Until they do, Vladimir Putin may decide it is still worth pursuing this war despite its massive cost in men and materiel on both sides.

“We reiterate our backing for President Trump’s calls for a peace deal and call on Russia to stop obstructing efforts to secure an enduring peace,” they said.

“Alongside the US, we call on Russia to agree a full and unconditional 30-day ceasefire to create the space for talks on a just and lasting peace.”

Sir Keir Starmer and Volodymyr Zelenskyy during a meeting in March. Pic: AP
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Sir Keir and Volodymyr Zelenskyy during a meeting in March. Pic: AP

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Putin’s Victory Day parade explained

The leaders said they were “ready to support peace talks as soon as possible”.

But they warned that they would continue to “ratchet up pressure on Russia’s war machine” until Moscow agrees to a lasting ceasefire.

“We are clear the bloodshed must end, Russia must stop its illegal invasion, and Ukraine must be able to prosper as a safe, secure and sovereign nation within its internationally recognised borders for generations to come,” their statement added.

“We will continue to increase our support for Ukraine.”

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The European leaders are set to visit the Maidan, a central square in Ukraine’s capital where flags represent those who died in the war.

They are also expected to host a virtual meeting for other leaders in the “coalition of the willing” to update them on progress towards a peacekeeping force.

Military officers from around 30 countries have been involved in drawing up plans for a coalition, which would provide a peacekeeping force in the event of a ceasefire being agreed between Russia and Ukraine.

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This force “would help regenerate Ukraine’s armed forces after any peace deal and strengthen confidence in any future peace”, according to Number 10.

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Special constable jailed after taking pictures of dying man from bodycam footage

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Special constable jailed after taking pictures of dying man from bodycam footage

A special constable has been jailed after taking pictures on his phone from bodycam footage showing a dying man.

Former police volunteer William Heggs, 23, was sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment at Leicester Crown Court on Friday after showing the photos of victim William Harty, 28, to a female colleague and storing them on his Snapchat account.

Mr Harty was found seriously injured in a residential street in Leicester on 25 October 2021 and Heggs had attended the scene, helping with CPR before paramedics arrived.

Mr Harty died in hospital a day later and the man responsible for his injuries, his brother-in-law Martin Casey, was subsequently convicted of his manslaughter.

Heggs showed the pictures he had taken of bodycam footage of Mr Harty’s body to a Leicestershire Police constable, who reported Heggs and said she did not like seeing blood.

His phone was seized and officers discovered other photographs and video clips of bodyworn footage of incidents Heggs had attended on duty, including of a knife seizure, use of baton and pepper spray, and a man with an injured hand receiving first aid.

He also took pictures of a police computer screen, showing details of crimes and suspects, without consent.

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Heggs stored the materials in a Snapchat folder and disclosed graphic details – most of which were not in the public domain – about the injuries to a woman who was killed in a road traffic collision he had attended, to a friend on the social media platform.

Heggs was suspended from the force in November 2021 and resigned in October 2024 before pleading guilty to 11 computer misuse and data protection offences this March.

Widow Mandy Casey. Pic: PA
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William Harty’s widow Mandy Casey. Pic: PA

‘He has traumatised me’

Mr Harty’s widow, Mandy Casey, said in a victim impact statement read to the court that Heggs “took (her) husband’s dignity when he was most vulnerable”.

“You don’t take someone’s dignity and pride from them on their deathbed.”

She continued: “When I found out special constable Heggs had done this, I just wanted to ask why. He has traumatised me. I feel I will never know if he showed them to others.”

Ms Casey said she was still scared that photos of her husband’s body might appear on social media.

She added that she had lost trust in the police.

Public trust in police ‘significantly undermined’

Judge Timothy Spencer told Heggs, who has autism and ADHD, that he was “probably too immature to be working as a police officer” as he handed down the sentence.

He said Heggs had received “extensive training”, including on the importance of data protection, and knew he should only share materials for “a genuine policing purpose”.

Heggs’s actions had “significantly undermined” public trust and confidence in police, according to the judge.

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Malcolm McHaffie, from the Crown Prosecution Service, added: “William Heggs abused the public’s trust in the office he held as a special police constable.

“He violated the dignity of the deceased victims for no apparent reason other than what could be considered personal fascination and to gain credibility among his peers.”

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Man charged with murder after 87-year-old dies following alleged robbery

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Man charged with murder after 87-year-old dies following alleged robbery

A man has been charged with the murder of an 87-year-old after an alleged robbery in north London, police say.

Peter Augustine, 58, of Hornsey, is accused of killing pensioner John Mackey in Manor House.

Augustine appeared at Willesden Magistrates’ Court on Saturday charged with murder and robbery.

He was remanded in custody to appear at the Old Bailey next week.

The Metropolitan Police said officers were called to a report of a robbery on Goodchild Road just before 6pm on Tuesday.

The London Ambulance Service attended the scene and an 87-year-old man was taken to hospital, where he died on Thursday.

The victim’s family have been informed and are being supported by specialist officers.

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Speaking at the scene on Friday, neighbour Sandra Murphy, 65, described Mr Mackey as a “beautiful, kind man”, who “would do anything for anyone”.

“He was so loved around here. No-one would have a bad word to say about John,” she said.

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