The families of aspiring lawyer Zara Aleena and student Libby Squire have welcomed measures under the Government’s violence against women and girls strategy
A fresh crackdown on abusers has been welcomed by families who lost loved ones to violence against women.
The backing came from families of two of the highest profile victims, aspiring lawyer Zara Aleena and university student Libby Squire. The aunt of murdered Zara described the intention behind the strategy, due to be launched next week, as “bold”. Specialist rape and sex offences investigators will be introduced to every police force as part of reforms to be introduced under the Government’s violence against women and girls strategy. Teams to deal with such crimes will be set up by 2029 to replace an outdated system to better support victims and crack down on rapists and sex offenders.
Under the strategy, domestic abuse protection orders, trialled over the last year, will be rolled out across England and Wales. Clare’s Law, under which the police can share information to a domestic abuse victim about their partner’s previous violent offending, is also being strengthened. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said: “This government has declared violence against women and girls a national emergency. For too long, these crimes have been considered a fact of life. That’s not good enough. We will halve it in a decade.”
Farah Naz, whose niece was killed by career criminal Jordan McSweeney as she walked home from a London bar in 2022, highlighted the need for “cross-party action”. She told the Mirror: “Declaring violence against women and girls a national emergency, strengthening protection orders, investing in specialist investigators, and extending Clare’s Law all signal a seriousness that many women and families have been waiting to see. If the ambition is to halve violence against women and girls over the next decade, that ambition itself implies long-term commitment beyond any single government. This must be a sustained, cross-party national project, carried through consistently over time. Enforcement is necessary, but it is not sufficient on its own. Reducing violence at scale also requires cultural change — how we talk about women, consent, power and harm — alongside early intervention and education. From what has been outlined so far, it’s not yet clear how prevention, particularly with young people and in online spaces, will sit alongside policing and criminal justice responses.”
The 58-year-old, based in Portugal, added: “Many of the changes now being discussed exist because of women who should still be here — and because families and communities who refused to let their stories be forgotten. Women like Zara Aleena, and countless others, did not choose to become the drivers of reform, but it is because of their lives, and the failures that followed their deaths, that systems are now being forced to change. If we are truly committed to halving violence in ten years, this strategy must honour that truth — by delivering lasting, coordinated, cross-party action that turns loss into meaningful, sustained change.”
Meanwhile, the campaigning mum of murdered Libby broadly welcomed the measures but raised questions about implementation. Lisa Squire’s 21-year-old daughter was raped and murdered by Pawel Relowicz in 2019 while she was studying philosophy at Hull University. Mrs Squire, 55, from High Wycombe, said: “Overall, I am encouraged about the fact that they are talking about it, they are recognising that it is a national emergency, they want to halve violence against women and girls within ten years, which is amazing. You know what, even if they took it down by 25%, it’s better. Overall, I’m really encouraged by it.”
Speaking about her campaigning, she added: “It’s my life’s mission now. That’s how I parent her now. I can’t, obviously…buy her things and do things for her so this is the way I parent her. Just because you lose a child doesn’t mean to say you’re not their parent anymore. If Libby’s death can make a difference to one woman then I will carry on.”
