The mother of a university student murdered by a serial sex pest who evaded arrest as his offending escalated, has demanded tougher sentences to stop would be rapists and killers in their tracks.
Libby Squire, 21, was abducted, raped and murdered while walking home from a nightclub in Hull in 2019 by depraved beast Pawel Relowicz, who had become “emboldened” after his lower level sex crimes went unchecked.
The married father-of-two ventured out at night to lurk around student digs, frequently exposing himself towards female undergraduates and performing sex acts outside their windows.
Despite Humberside Police being informed of a flasher-on-the loose, numerous other incidents went unreported, leaving Relowicz free as his offending escalated to breaking into young women’s flats and stealing possessions including sex toys and underwear.
The Polish-born butcher was finally arrested following a massive manhunt after he dumped Libby’s body in the River Hull, hoping it would never be found.
He was jailed for life with a minimum term of 27 years after being found guilty of her rape and murder with the sentencing judge at Sheffield Crown Court describing him as having been “emboldened” because he had not previously been stopped.
Yesterday Mrs Squire, from High Wycombe, told MPs sitting on the Commons Home Affairs Committee that sentences for offences such as indecent exposure must be “harsher” than the current “slap on the wrist” and more needed to be done to raise awareness to encourage victims to report incidents.
And she also warned that if Relowicz was ever freed he would kill again.
She said: “Two hours after raping and murdering our daughter he was out on the streets looking for a second victim. He was 24 when he killed Libby. He’ll come out and do it again.”
Mrs Squire said lower-level sex crimes were often downplayed and dismissed by victims, who although traumatised by the experience are also embarrassed, but insisted they were “incredibly serious”.
She said: “If we can stop it here, then we’re going to save women and girls from the absolute trauma of being raped.”
She said police forces she had spoken to “all want to stop it” but revealed their difficulties because many victims do not report incidents and so the escalation in offending is not recorded.
She added: “Women and girls do not report non-contact sexual offences very frequently.”
Mrs Squire told the MPS that it is estimated that out of a group of 30 girls aged 20, around 75% would have experienced this sort of incident.
She said: “I have a huge circle of friends and each and every one of us has been a victim of non-contact sexual offences.”
Mrs Squire believes Relowicz exposed himself to her daughter weeks before the murder, although his identity was not known at the time.
She told the committee the incident had left Libby feeling “absolutely furious”, but she “talked her down”, adding: “I didn’t think to tell her to report it. I didn’t know better then, I know better now.”
She said she believes some victims have not reported incidents because they did not think it would be taken seriously by police but also that society has been “conditioned” over the years to think “it’s just something that happens, but that’s not OK”.
Mrs Squire said it was “embarrassing” for young women and victims did not want to waste police time or had little faith the offender would be caught.
But she insisted: “We’ve got to change the whole narrative around it.”
