Libby Squire: Murdered student's sister spiked on night out

Lisa Squire, pictured with Libby, said her younger daughter Beth was more aware of dangers because of her sister's rape and murder

The mother of murdered student Libby Squire said she feared for her "almost incoherent" younger daughter after she was spiked by a needle.

Lisa Squire, whose eldest child, Libby, 21, was raped and murdered on a night out in 2019, said she was phoned in the early hours by 19-year-old Beth.

"She was different, she didn't know where she was," said Mrs Squire, of High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire.

The next day, Beth's arm had a large bruise and puncture mark, she added.

Libby was studying at the University of Hull when, separated from her friends and refused entry to a nightclub, she was raped and murdered by Pawel Relowicz.

Her body was found in Humber Estuary, weeks after she disappeared.

Her sister Beth, who is at university elsewhere in the UK, was on a night out in recent weeks with friends when the spiking incident happened.

Libby Squire's body was found in the Humber Estuary weeks after she disappeared.

She phoned home at about 03:00 on the day in question, which Mrs Squire said was a common thing for her children to do when "out partying".

"She had lost the person she was with, she was almost incoherent, and I was really worried about her," Mrs Squire said.

"It took me three or four times to get through to her to get an Uber so she could be taken home."

Hours later, Beth phoned her mother again and said she had little recollection of what had happened.

Lisa said she and husband Russ Squire, pictured outside court after Relowicz was sentenced to 27 years in prison, deal with their grief in different ways

"She said 'mum I feel so different', I said 'you were out of it last night, Beth, what on earth did you drink?' and she said 'I didn't drink that much mum'," added Mrs Squire, who is a nurse.

"She sent me a photo later that day and she had a large bruise on her arm with what looks like a puncture mark in the centre.

"I took that photo to work and showed some of my medical friends and they agreed, so I think there's every chance she was spiked that night."

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She added that her daughter was fully aware of what could happen on a night out because of what happened to Libby.

When Relowicz was sentenced to 27 years in prison in February, a statement read in court from Beth said she "idolised" her older sibling and hoped to "follow in her footsteps".

"Beth is probably more armed to deal with the outside world than most kids of her age, because she's had to live through her sister being raped and murdered," she added.

"I feel I have to give her the mummy lecture before she goes out partying, and that's not right, they should be free to do whatever they want."

Polish-born Pawel Relowicz, a married father of two young children, patrolled the streets of Hull looking for a vulnerable victim, his trial heard

Regarding spiking incidents by needle and of drinks, she said she believed nightclubs should take on more responsibility with their searches before entry.

Mrs Squire has campaigned since her daughter's death for tougher measures on low-level sex offenders to prevent them committing more serious offences.

Relowicz had a history of spying on female students in Hull and committing indecent acts in the street.

"If one person can be saved by the laws changing or by people being more aware, it means Libby didn't die in vain," she added.

"If it had been me that had been murdered, I know Libby would be doing the same for me."

'Bomb has gone off in our lives'

As well as Beth, Mrs Squire and her husband have two other teenage children, and said all five of them were dealing with their loss in different ways.

"I'm very open with my grief, I talk about Libby all the time, my husband finds it difficult to talk about her," she said.

"It's really hard, I miss her with every second of the day, and I think one misconception of child loss is that it gets easier - it doesn't.

"You learn to live with it, because you haven't got a choice.

"I just try to do the best I can do, and I know my husband does the same.

"But it's like this big bomb has gone off in our lives and we navigate around the edges of the crater that has been left, and sometimes you fall in."

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