Libby Squire's mother set to give evidence to MPs looking at stopping sex offences escalating

Campaigner Lisa Squire is set to speak about the issue on Wednesday (February 21) as MPs look into how violence against women and girls is being tackled. The Home Affairs Select Committee stated the hearing followed a number of high profile cases where exposure and other offences had escalated to more serious crimes.

Mrs Squire has campaigned for more action on non-contact offences, which also includes voyeurism, and has urged women to report them so perpetrators can be stopped. She has also campaigned for tougher sentences for such offences and for earlier intervention and treatment.

It comes after Hull North MP and committee chair Diana Johnson previously warned sex crimes were becoming normalised, using the behaviour of Libby’s killer Pawel Relowicz as an example. Dame Diana and Mrs Squire jointly called on then Home Secretary Priti Patel to introduce mandatory referrals for low level sex offences.

Relowicz was jailed for at least 27 years in 2021 for raping and murdering 21-year-old Libby in 2019.

Speaking on International Women’s Day last year, the Labour MP said Relowicz spent months spying on women, masturbating in public and stealing underwear in the run up to Libby’s death. Dame Diana added in her remarks to MPs that similar non-contact offences touched women across society.

The Hull North MP said: “Three years ago my constituent Libby Squire was on the list of those women killed in the UK. She was a young woman studying at the University of Hull and her life was taken by a predatory man who prowled the streets of Hull in search of a victim. In the 16 months before that the perpetrator committed a string of sexually motivated offences.

“These included indecent exposure, masturbating in public, spying on women and stealing sex toys and underwear. The behaviour of men who expose themselves is sadly every day, common and normalised. When I asked women MPs about this everyone had a story, from someone outside a sixth-form college or on public transport.

“Today I received a letter from an 80-year-old woman who recalls being a victim of indecent exposure when she was 18. She’s still living with the impact of that 62 years later.”

The Home Affairs Select Committee is set to hear evidence from Prof Clare McGlynn KC, professor of law at Durham University as part of its inquiry. Prof Sarah Kingston and Prof Katrin Hohl of the University of Central Lancashire and City University of London respectively, are also set to speak to MPs.