A Pembrokeshire mother whose daughter was raped and killed in Qatar before her body was burnt in the desert is urging Welsh and English football players to remember her daughter on the pitch today.
Lauren Patterson went missing in October 2013. She had just returned to Doha following her grandmother’s funeral. The 24-year-old had been teaching in a primary school in Qatar, having developed a love of the profession while working as a classroom assistant in Luxembourg.
“She was very bubbly, very chatty, she would talk to anyone,” said her grieving mother, Alison. “She made friends really easily and would listen to everyone.
“When she set her mind to something she would really commit to it. Whatever she did she gave it her all.”
Lauren had been living and working in Qatar for two years when she went missing.
“She would always let me know where she was,” said Alison. When she hadn’t heard from Lauren to say that she had got back, she started to become concerned.
Friends in Qatar began to make enquiries. They learnt that Lauren had returned to her apartment before going for a drink with a friend. They were joined by two Qatari men who knew Lauren’s friend and offered them a lift home at the end of the night.
It later transpired that the men had dropped the friend home before taking Lauren to an apartment where they raped and killed her.
They then drove out to a remote spot in the desert where they disposed of her body.
When one of the men began acting strangely in response to Lauren’s friends’ enquiries, they became worried and alerted the authorities.
It was after this that Alison received the phone call every parent dreads. The Qatari embassy contacted her to say that they had found a body.
Alison flew out to Doha to learn that Lauren’s burnt remains, which had had to be identified through DNA records, been found at a remote place in the desert.
They had only been found because a pair of falconers had followed their birds to see why they kept returning to the same spot.
Unbeknownst to Alison at the time, police had staked out the spot in the desert and arrested two men who had returned to the grisly scene.
On November 5, 2013, Lauren’s remains were repatriated to the UK. However, for her family the nightmare was far from over as they were left to navigate the Qatari justice system.
The family was told that Lauren’s killer had confessed to his crime and that he would get the death sentence, but the family understood that this would be transmuted to life in prison. His accomplice would get three years as he was ‘just helping’.
When the men appeared in court they were seated within touching distance in front of Alison.
There followed years of hearing and adjournments, with Alison and her now husband Kevin, flying to Qatar for each one.
At one hearing they had to watch a video enactment of Lauren’s death where Lauren, who was five foot three and weighed around seven and a half stone, was represented by a large male actor.
“[To watch the video] they made me stand at the front of the courtroom with them [the men] said Alison. "They were inches away from me.”
In February 2015 a reporting ban on the case was imposed by the court.
In early 2016 the family learnt that Lauren’s killer was allowed to appeal his sentence.
In May that year, when only one man appeared in court, they were told that his accomplice had been released from prison in January, a lot earlier than his sentence dictated.
Kevin said that the family did their utmost to respect the Qatari system and not rock the boat. However, they would find themselves flying out for hearings that were deferred because there wasn’t a video player available in court or on one occasion because the defendants were not collected from prison.
In February 2017 Alison’s lawyer finally made his closing statement saying ‘this is the worse crime ever committed in Qatar’.
At a hearing the following month the judge asked Alison if she wanted ‘retribution, compensation or forgiveness’.
“I had to stand up in court,” said Alison. I said ‘I will never forgive’”.
In April 2017, three and a half years after Lauren was killed, the judge upheld the original sentence.
The case then went to a closed court of cassation which ruled that Lauren's killer did have the right to appeal as he had not attended one hearing.
On November 28, 2018, a completely new panel of judges returned a verdict of manslaughter and handed down a sentence of 10-and-a-half years in prison.
Despite an appeal by Qatar’s attorney general the 10 and a half year sentence waa upheld.
“Ten and a half years doesn’t equal the crime,” said Alison. “In 2024 he will be out. He was the same age if not slightly younger than Lauren. He can get married and have a family. There has been no press coverage of the case out there.”
In 2020 a Qatari court awarded Alison’s family £200,000 in compensation. However, they have yet to see this and estimate that it will not even cover the costs that they have incurred during the court process.
“The world cup has bought it all to the surface,” said Alison. “The hotel the England team is staying at is close to where Lauren was found.”
Alison has written to every football player in the Welsh and English teams as well as the Welsh and English FA, asking players to make an L for Lauren if they score a goal.
“I understand that this is their time to play football. But if anyone did it, supporters or players then Lauren’s memory is coming through in Qatar and maybe someone would think to look into this again.
“Fingers crossed that they will.”
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