High Wycombe mum of murdered student leads non-contact sexual offences police training
Libby Squire was raped and killed in 2019, and police later linked her perpetrator to a series of prior offences
Last updated 18th Feb 2025
The mother of a university student from High Wycombe, who was raped and murdered in Hull, is leading on non-contact sexual offences training for police officers.
Lisa Squire has spent the last few years campaigning for sexual offences to be taken more seriously, from reporting to sentencing.
She has been working particularly hard on making non-contact sexual offences better recognised and punished, with a policing training module now dedicated to identifying and responding to these offences, featuring Libby's story.
Speaking to Greatest Hits Radio, she said: "It's about bridging the gap between public confidence in the police.
"So if we can teach our police officers about non contact offences and get them to realise the importance of them then that's a massive step forwards."
Non-contact sexual offences relate to offences of sexual nature which don't include physical contact, such as voyeurism, indecent exposure, upskirting or stalking.
After arresting Pawel Relowicz, prime suspect in Libby's rape and murder case, Humberside Police uncovered a history of non-contact sexual offences committed on several victims.
A number of other cases of non-contact sexual offences have led to more serious types of offences.
Notably, the kidnap, rape and murder of Sarah Everard in 2021, committed by Wayne Couzens, a serving police officer who had a history of non-contact sexual offences.
Lisa Squire believes if these offences are better reported to police, and better investigated by officers with a clear understanding of how to deal with such cases, then women and girls will be better protected from potentially dangerous individuals.
She said: "Police do take it more seriously now because we're able to show the red flags of escalation, and not all non contact offend offenders will go on to escalate and become rapists or murderers, but some do.
"So I think the whole violence against women and girls arena is much more spoken about these days and I am really confident that the police will take this seriously because that one report could be the report of that one person who may go on to rape and murder."
The College of Policing now includes an online module dedicated to teaching officers how best to respond to incidents of this nature.
It has already been completed by over 2,000 officers.
Lisa Squire said: "I talk from the heart, I talk first hand, this is what's happened to us.
"And there were many points in Libby's story where the outcome could have been changed, not that I blame anybody for what happened, but there were so many learning points.
"And I think you can present something with a whole load of slides whereas a lived experience, somebody talking to you about what's happened, I think that human interaction makes the learner more invested."