'My girl was murdered on night out - now I'm here for Sarah Everard's parents'
The mum of murdered student Libby Squire today reaches out to tell Sarah Everard’s parents: “I’m here if you would like to meet. I understand your pain.”
Lisa Squire knows only too well the lifetime of anguish and loss Susan and Jeremy Everard face after Sarah’s horrific death at the hands of evil policeman Wayne Couzens. Her own daughter was raped and murdered aged 21 by serial sex offender Pawel Relowicz on a night out with uni pals in 2019.
So reading inquiry chairman Lady Elish Angiolini’s report this week about the chances that were missed to catch ex-Met officer Couzens left Lisa in despair. Polish butcher Relowicz has a string of convictions for spying on women, indecent exposure and performing sex acts in public. And, like the Everard family, Lisa believes her daughter might still be alive today if her killer’s crimes had been detected sooner.
Libby vanished after a night out in 2019 (PA)Lisa, 53, said: “Both perpetrators had exposed themselves and neither were caught. How long will it be until we learn something from this? Libby died five years ago and Sarah two years later – it’s now three years since Sarah died and nothing has changed.”
The chilling parallels between Libby and Sarah’s final hours utterly horrify Lisa.
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She said: “Couzens’ profession aside, he used what he could to lure Sarah into his car, just as Libby’s killer used the fact she was a young girl crying in the street. Both perpetrators scoped out the area before, lured the girls into cars under false pretences, took them to remote places, raped and murdered them, and disposed of their bodies in the most inhumane ways.
“The trauma it has caused us and the Everard family is no different. This is about two sets of parents who have lost children to homicide with a sexual motivation.”
Lisa, of High Wycombe, Bucks, who has met other grieving families since losing Libby, said: “There’s an unspoken understanding. You know exactly how it feels and it’s nice to speak to somebody who really gets it.
"I’m in lots of support groups for parents who have lost children, but I find it incredibly difficult because I am the only one who has lost a child to sexually motivated murder and in a very public way.”
Sarah was murdered in 2021 by police officer Wayne Couzens (PA)She added: “It’s a very isolating position – you don’t know quite where you fit and I imagine the Everards are feeling a very similar way. Equally they might not be ready and I completely get that – I was very quiet for the two years after Libby died. I just want them to know I am here if and when they need me.”
Philosophy student Libby’s body was recovered from the Humber Estuary almost two months after she went missing from Hull, East Yorks. Relowicz, now 29, was jailed for life with a minimum of 27 years for her rape and murder. He admitted a series of sexually motivated crimes in the weeks before he killed Libby.
Marketing worker Sarah, 33, was walking home in Clapham, South London, in March 2021 when Couzens, now 51, falsely arrested, abducted, raped and strangled her before setting her body on fire.
A report by Lady Angiolini this week found a catalogue of errors in which at least three police forces missed chances to stop Couzens, who built up a string of uninvestigated sex offences over 20 years.
It found failings in police recruitment and vetting procedures, saying he should never have been allowed to be an officer. Sarah’s furious family said she’d still be alive today if his crimes had been detected before he snatched her.
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