'My daughter was murdered, never leave your friends'

The mother of a student who was murdered on her way home from a night out has encouraged pupils to stay together at university.

Libby Squire, 21, was raped and murdered by Pawel Relowicz in January 2019. Her killer was found to have previous convictions for voyeurism and public sex acts.

Libby's mother Lisa Squire has spent the past five years trying to increase the reporting of non-contact sexual offences, launching the It Does Matter campaign in 2024.

Lisa gave a talk to pupils at Newent Community School, in Gloucestershire, on Monday and said her aim was to tell pupils considering university to have "the time of your life but do it safely". She said: "Never leave your friends on their own."

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Libby - originally from High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire - was attacked in Hull, where she was studying at university. She had been put in a taxi by friends after she was refused entry to a club.

Lisa said she wanted to give young people some tools to stay safe - but stressed that Relowicz was solely responsible for her daughter's death.

"The only person that takes any blame for it is the man that killed her but I think we have the attitude of somebody else will sort that out... I think it's just about being a bit more community-minded," she said.

Relowicz, who was 24 at the time of Libby's death, was jailed for life with a minimum term of 27 years at Sheffield Crown Court in 2021.

As he had a history of non-contact sexual offending prior to Libby's murder, Lisa launched It Does Matter to highlight the risks posed by these behaviours.

Non-contact sexual offences include acts such as stalking and harassment, indecent exposure, voyeurism, upskirting, cyberflashing and spiking.

Speaking to the students in Newent, Lisa said something as simple as sitting next to someone who is alone or distressed on a bench and asking if they are OK could help those in dangerous situations.

"We know that when [Relowicz] had a witness to what he was doing, he stopped and waited for that person to go," she said.

Pupil Naomi attended the talk at Newent Community School and said it was good to know how to help others.

"If something is happening that we think is wrong, we don't need to just stand there, we can do something and hopefully prevent a situation like that," she added.

James, head student at the school, said the talk had shown him "how a normal night out can turn into something a lot more serious".

"I think, for me, the biggest takeaway is remembering if I see any of these things happening when I'm out and about to report them and try and potentially mitigate the situation with the active bystander training," he said.

Following the talk at the school, Det Ch Supt Kerry Patterson from Gloucestershire Police said reporting all offences could help police establish a pattern of behaviour as "you don't know that you're not the sixth person that that's happened to that day".

She added that reporting all offences was "really, really important".

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