‘LIBBY FOUGHT BACK AS SHE WAS RAPED’
SUSPECT ACCUSED OF MURDERING STUDENT HAD ‘SCRATCHES ON HIS FACE WHEN HE WAS ARRESTED’, TRIAL HEARS
Libby Squire vanished in the early hours of February 1, 2019 and her body was tragically recovered from the Humber Estuary
LIBBY Squire bravely tried to fight off Pawel Relowicz as he raped her, a trial has heard.
Relowicz, 26, of Raglan Street, is charged with the rape and murder of Hull student Libby. He denies both charges.
Libby vanished in the early hours of February 1, 2019 and her body was recovered from the Humber Estuary, close to Spurn Point, on March 20.
The trial at Sheffield Crown Court has heard how Relowicz was spotted on CCTV “stalking” and “intercepting” her as she walked along Beverley Road.
Richard Wright QC, prosecuting, alleged that Relowicz and Libby then got into his car that was parked in Haworth Street and he drove her to Oak Road Playing Fields, where it is alleged he raped and killed her before throwing her in the River Hull.
He then told how the pair were both spotted on CCTV arriving at the beauty spot - but only Relowicz was seen leaving by the footage and a man living nearby who also heard “frantic” and “urgent” screaming.
Days later, as the police and members of the public searched for Libby, a condom containing semen matching Relowicz’s DNA was found in Alexandra Road, near to where his car was parked.
As the search for Libby intensified, on February 6, Relowicz was arrested after his car was captured on CCTV.
When he was taken into custody,
Relowicz was examined by a nurse and photographed, Mr Wright said.
The jury was told Relowicz had scratches along the right side of his face, just under the eye and another lower down on the right side of his nose.
Relowicz also had a mark on his chest, close to his right shoulder.
The prosecutor added: “This defendant did have injuries. In and of themselves they were not serious, but we suggest they were significant in the context of this case.”
Relowicz told police he had got the scratches while playing with his young son but had told a friend on February 1 a different story, the court heard.
Mr Wright told the court that Relowicz’s friend Dariusz recalls him telling him that he had been driving in Beverley Road when he was flagged down by a woman who got into his car.
He claimed he was driving the woman to her home address when she started trying to unzip his trousers and attempt to kiss him.
Relowicz allegedly told Dariusz that he stopped the car and told her to get out and she started to shout at him and attacked him by scratching his face.
Mr Wright says that when Relowicz was challenged about his differing accounts, he made no reply.
The prosecutor told the jury: “We say that you can be sure that she did not give her consent to a hurried act of intercourse with a stranger on the freezing and snow covered ground of the Oak Road Playing Fields.
“Her screams, and the scratches that she clearly managed to land on the face of the defendant as she fought him off, are just part of the evidence that establishes that she was raped by a man whose entire motivation for coming into contact with her that night was to take her away from safety to a remote area well known to him and there to subject her to his uncontrollable sexual urges.”
The trial, due to last four weeks, continues.