Murdered student’s mother calls for change in law on sex offenders

DAME DIANA Johnson and the mother of Libby Squire have called for earlier intervention in lower level sex crime cases before “something dreadful happens” like the 21-year-old student’s murder.

Dame Diana, Labour MP for Hull North, and Lisa Squire have asked for referrals to programmes for offenders subject to Sexual Harm Prevention Orders and Sexual Risk Orders.

Dame Diana said the call came after police told her Miss Squire’s murderer would not have been referred under the current system for earlier offences including voyeurism.

She added if offenders like Pawel Relowicz were referred for lower level ‘non-contact’ crimes, it could stop their behaviour escalating and becoming violent and deadly.

The MP and mother of Miss Squire wrote in a letter to Home Secretary Priti Patel that more needed to be done to stop such “heinous crimes” happening in the first place.

It comes as Dame Diana tabled amendments to the Policing Bill requiring mandatory referrals in non-contact cases, but they were rejected by Safeguarding Minister Victoria Atkins.

The MP is now to call for the Home Office to mount a campaign encouraging the public to report low level offences and to re-table the previous amendments with some changes.

She is set to be joined by Conservative MP Steve Baker, of Wycombe where the Squire family live, with amendments to the Bill to be tabled on Monday. Dame Diana said the referral amendments would now call for a presumption that referrals should be made unless there was good reason not to.

She added it and a campaign were needed so women and girls could feel safe and more confident that reports of lower level offences would be taken seriously. The MP said: “When I spoke to the police about what happened with Libby, pictured, it became very clear that the man who raped and murdered her had been prowling the streets for many months.

“But it was only after Libby went missing that his other offences came to light. And the police said the non-contact offences were seen as lower level ones so he wouldn’t have been referred and the public perhaps at times don’t report things like that.”

Dame Diana and Mrs Squire told the Home Secretary that under the current system for handling non-contact offences, “very little” could have been done to address Relowicz’s behaviour.

Relowicz, a married father of two, is now serving 27 years in prison after murdering Miss Squire.

He had committed a string of sex offences against women before killing the 21-year-old.