IN A letter to the Wales World Cup team, the mother of a young lady who was raped and killed in Qatar begged them to remember her daughter.

In October 2013, while out with friends, Lauren Patterson, an English teacher at a primary school in Doha, was attacked by a guy by the name of Badr Hashim Khamis Abdallah Al-Jabr. Outside of the city, the 24 year old’s body was discovered in the desert. Initially given the death penalty, Al-Jabr’s punishment was later reduced to merely 10 years in prison. In the upcoming year, his release is anticipated.

Every player of the Wales and England teams for the upcoming World Cup in Qatar has received a letter from Lauren’s mother Alison, of Haverfordwest. The World Cup is scheduled to begin on Sunday. Alison, who has fought tenaciously for a harsher punishment, is requesting that participants form a L with their fingers to honour Lauren.

“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.”

Although Lauren was born and raised in Kent, her late father Stuart, a native of Cardiff, gave her some Welsh ancestry. Her mother wrote letters to the coaches of Wales and England, as well as to each member of the teams, 

Al-Jabr’s accomplice Mohammed Hasan Abdulaziz  was previously freed after serving a three-year prison sentence for helping the killer “burn the body of Lauren Patterson and erasing evidence.” Alison claimed that her daughter was “raped, stabbed several times, then carried out into the desert where she was burned beyond recognition, so badly dental records were needed to identify as only 7kg of Lauren remained” in her letters to the squads.

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”.

Kevin Crotty, the stepfather of Alison and Lauren, 61, used their life savings to fly to each court hearing in Qatar. Al-Jabr’s sentence was reduced to 10 years in 2018 following years of legal fighting and appeals. He is scheduled to be released in less than a year after 

“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.