The mum of a young woman raped and murdered in Qatar has written to Wales' World Cup squad asking them to honour her daughter.
Lauren Patterson, who taught English at a Doha primary school, was on a night out with friends in October 2013 when she was stabbed by a man called Badr Hashim Khamis Abdallah Al-Jabr. The 24-year-old's body was found burned in the desert outside the city. Al-Jabr was initially handed a death penalty but the sentence was then changed to just ten years in jail. He is expected to be released in the next year.
Lauren's mum Alison, of Haverfordwest, has written letters to every member of the Wales and England squads for the football World Cup in Qatar, which is due to start on Sunday. Alison, who has campaigned tirelessly for a stronger sentence, is inviting players to make an L-shape with their fingers in Lauren's memory.
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"I want all the players to think about Lauren when they run onto the pitch," said the 57-year-old retired teaching assistant. “If just one of them made an L-shape after scoring a goal or winning a match it would honour Lauren and mean so much.”
Lauren grew up in Kent but had Welsh heritage from her late father Stuart, who was from Cardiff. Her mum has sent letters to Wales manager Rob Page and England manager Gareth Southgate as well as to each player in the squads, writing that the Qatari legal system has "continually failed" the family.
Al-Jabr's accomplice Mohammed Hasan Abdulaziz has already been released after a three-year jail term for aiding the murderer in "burning the body of Lauren Patterson and erasing evidence". In her letters to the squads, Alison wrote that her daughter was "raped, stabbed multiple times, then taken out into the desert where she was burnt beyond recognition, so badly dental records were needed to identify as only 7kgs of Lauren remained".
She added: "I have never given up on getting justice for my daughter Lauren. I have travelled to Qatar over 30 times for court hearings all held in Arabic with no translator on most occasions, being forced to stand at the side of the murderer of my daughter. This highlights their total insensitivity. Qatar has a beautiful façade but underneath it is far from beautiful... The human rights of workers, especially in the construction of the infrastructure for the World Cup, has been appalling."
The letters congratulated the players on their selection and told them that "any gesture you think would be appropriate to question this nation's history on human rights or to highlight my daughter's case and the many others would be greatly appreciated".
Alison and Lauren's stepfather Kevin Crotty, 61, used their life savings to fly out for each court hearing in Qatar. After years of legal wrangling and appeals, Al-Jabr’s sentence was reduced to 10 years in 2018. Taking into account time already served, he is due to be freed in less than a year, said Alison.
“We didn’t want him to be put to death but we did expect him to receive a similar sentence to what he would get in the UK — perhaps 25 or 30 years," she said. “But we are told he could be released soon after serving just 10 years in what is more of a villa than a jail. He’s allowed to have a mobile phone, he’s got flat-screen TVs and can play video games. It's no punishment for what he did to Lauren.
“He can get a job, get married and have a normal life, all things that he took away from my daughter... Qatar has never fully acknowledged the seriousness of what happened to my daughter. There has been no apology, no recognition of the terrible thing that happened to her and the ordeal we are still going through years later."
Alison added that a Qatari court made an order around eight months ago that Al-Jabr pay her £200,000 in compensation, but she has been told by her lawyer that payment may take years because of the appeal process. The figure would barely cover her legal bills and flights to Doha.
On three occasions Alison has written to the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, pleading for help but her letters have been ignored. She has previously criticised former England captain David Beckham for accepting a reported £150million to promote the World Cup in Qatar.
WalesOnline has approached the Football Associations of Wales and England for a response. You can read more of the latest World Cup stories here.
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