My daughter was raped & murdered in Qatar…and then we were offered £4M – we don’t know what happened to her killer
THE EXASPERATED mum of a teacher who was raped and murdered in Qatar says she doesn’t know what has happened to her killer.
Lauren Patterson, 24, was raped and stabbed to death before her body was torched following a night out in Doha in 2013.
Badr Hashim Khamis Abdallah al-Jabr was sentenced to death in March 2015, before a re-trial was ordered in February the following year.
His sentence was subsequently cut to ten years’ imprisonment, before being halved to just five years behind bars by a Qatari Appeals Court.
Lauren’s mum Alison, 58, was told her family would receive around £4million in compensation.
But they have only been given £200,000 – failing to cover their legal bills and 30 flights to the country.
On the tenth anniversary of her daughter’s death, Alison and her partner Kevin have been trying to discover if al-Jabr is still in prison.
Her lawyer in Qatar has been trying to the relevant information to put the family at ease, but has found his efforts blocked.
She has also approached the Foreign Office and Qatari Government for answers, but has been met with silence.
Instead, her efforts have extraordinarily led to accusations from Qatari authorities that she is plotting to have al-Jabr executed.
She received a text in broken English from lawyers in Qatar stating they had been accused “to set up a trap to kill him when will be released”.
Alison told MailOnline: “It is absolutely farcical – that would be the last thing on my mind.
“Do they think I am going to travel all that way to kill him with my own hands? You couldn’t make it up.
“I don’t want revenge, I want justice for my daughter. Surely I have the right to know if he is still in prison?”
She also paid a poignant tribute to her daughter in a Facebook post today, adding: “Lauren, 10 years ago today I woke up not knowing how precious memories are and how life can change so drastically in an instant.
“Lauren even as child you lit up the room with your incessant chatter and that was your gift throughout your short life.
“Wherever you went you made friends and had fun you loved life and certainly enjoyed everything you did.
“You always had a story to tell, in-fact often many at the same time which was always a challenge.
“You gave everything 100% , work, studies and your friends. You never ceased to amaze me how you partied and studied so hard. You always made me proud in whatever you did.”
Alison has travelled to the Middle East dozens of times as part of her fight to get justice for her murdered daughter.
Lauren Patterson, from West Malling, Kent, was murdered in October 2013.
She was found dead with a knife still in her ribcage and she was only identified through DNA.
She had lived in the country for several years and worked as an English teacher in a primary school.
Lauren and a friend are understood to have accepted a lift home from Al Jabr and her pal was dropped off safely before she was murdered.
Her family now fear al-Jabr was released from prison shortly before the tenth anniversary of her death.
They believe he could come across Lauren’s friends, who still live in the city.
Alison added: “I respected their justice system in the hope her killer would be rightfully punished, but ten years on I don’t really know what’s happened to al-Jabr.”
She believes the silence is an indication that he has been released from prison.