Lisa Squire, the mother of murdered Libby Squire, has called for a "complete overhaul" of the criminal justice system during an appearance on Good Morning Britain.
Speaking to hosts Kate Garraway and Tom Swarbrick, she discussed the case of Simon Levy, who was sentenced to a whole life order this week after being found guilty of murdering two women and raping another. Levy was on bail while committing some of his crimes.
Daughter's murder
Lisa recounted how her 21-year-old daughter Libby was killed by Pawel Relowicz in 2019. Tom told viewers that "in the run-up to what happened to Libby that night, this man had been going around performing acts of voyeurism".
Lisa explained: "Libby went out for a night out with friends on January the 31st of 2019. Was refused entry to a club, sent back home. She went for a walk and ended up sitting in a bus stop. And unbeknown to anybody at the time, there was a serious sexual predator in the area."
"He was cruising the street looking for someone to commit voyeurism against and ended up targeting my daughter. Picked her up and drove her to a remote playing field where he raped and murdered her and then disposed of her body in a river. She was missing for 48 days."
Call for reform
"We need to completely overhaul our criminal justice system," Lisa told the presenters. She said in many cases "there were warning signs beforehand, you know, these perpetrators are waving red flags out to someone ignoring them".
Lisa said "we need to be joining the dots and it needs to be a whole system". She has called for a meeting with Prime Minister Andy Burnham, and explaining what she'd like to say to him, she shared: "You know, maybe we need to have a task force that really robustly oversees it. We need to sort this out."
Victims 'at the bottom of the list'
"I mean, Libby is the victim," Lisa went on. "She's no longer here. So we then, we're victims. You know, the victims are the bottom of the list. You know, we're so perpetrator focused and there are, there's certain things that have happened in the last few months for us as a family. And I don't get a say in what happens to him now, you know, and I have a really strong opinion on things."
"So I really want to sit down with him and say, look, you've got to overhaul the whole thing. We are at a pivotal point where we're all talking about the early release and what have you. So let's clean, let's start with a clean slate and start again now."
Libby was murdered by Pawel Relowicz in January 2019. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2021. Good Morning Britain airs on ITV from 6am.
