The five versions in court of what happened on the night Libby died
TRAGIC VERSIONS OF WHAT HAPPENED TO HULL STUDENT
THESE are the bleak and tragic versions of what happened to Hull student Libby Squire on the night she died, as heard in court.
In the first week of the trial of Pawel Relowicz, who is accused if Libby’s rape and murder in February 2019, the prosecution outlined its own case as well as saying the jury will hear another four conflicting accounts of what happened on the night she died.
On Wednesday, the trial heard prosecution barrister Richard Wright QC outline what he believed happened the night the Hull student was last seen alive.
But Mr Wright told the jury at Sheffield Crown Court there were another four different accounts of that night, recounted by Relowicz himself in the days after Libby went missing which he delivered to police, to a friend, to a colleague and finally his formal defence in court.
1 The prosecution case
Mr Wright told the court that Libby had been seen by a number of people on the last night she was seen alive, January 31, 2019.
She had been denied entry to Beverley Road nightclub The Welly because she was too drunk while on a night out with friends, who had paid for a taxi home for her at around 11.30pm that night.
But instead of heading back inside her Wellesley Avenue home, she walked out on to Beverley Road. The court heard how a number of people confirmed they had seen her drunk and walking unsteadily, even sitting or lying on the snow-covered ground. Some even tried unsuccessfully to talk to her and help her.
It was shortly after that when Relowicz encountered her at the corner of Haworth Street, the court heard.
Relowicz, who in August 2019 pleaded guilty to nine offences including four counts of voyeurism, had frequently “targeted” the student area of the city for his sexual offending, Mr Wright said.
He had spent much of the evening of January 31 patrolling the same area “looking for an opportunity to offend... in a state of heightened sexual arousal,” Mr Wright said, evidenced by his use of pornography uncovered from his phone and CCTV footage appearing to show him “masturbating” in Newland Avenue.
Mr Wright told the court Relowicz had happened upon Libby in her drunken and vulnerable state and “bided his time” to ensure they were alone before getting her into his car, either by force or persuasion, and driving her to Oak Road playing fields at around 12.11am, shortly after the clocks had ticked over into February 1.
Both Libby and Relowicz arrived at the “remote” playing fields, which the court heard was an area he knew well having been there earlier in the night, but only Relowicz left.
Mr Wright said in the seven and a half minutes before Relowicz was picked up on CCTV returning to his car, he had raped and killed Libby and pushed her into the freezing cold waters of the River Hull. Her body was found in the Humber Estuary just over six weeks later on March 20, 2019, by the skipper of a pleasure fishing vessel off Spurn Point.
A pathologist had not been able to establish exactly how Libby had died, the court heard, but the prosecution argued that Relowicz’s DNA found on Libby’s body and a bruise found on the inside of her thigh was evidence that he had sexually attacked her before killing her and pushing her into the River Hull.
2 What Relowicz told police
Mr Wright said Relowicz was arrested by Humberside Police just under a week after Libby’s disappearance on February 6, 2019, after his car had been identified from CCTV footage.
“He was, on any view, the last person to have been seen in Libby’s company before she disappeared,” Mr Wright said.
After being booked into custody, a nurse examining him found two scratch marks on Relowicz’s face, the court heard. A further mark was also noted on his chest, near to his right shoulder.
When questioned by police, Relowicz denied that he had abducted Libby and asked “how on earth” he was supposed to know whether she was alive or dead.
He told officers that he had been in his car on Haworth Street on February 1, but claimed that he had parked there because he intended to go for a run through the grounds of the University of Hull, Mr Wright said. He claimed that he was stretching to warm up.
Mr Wright told the court that “he was hardly dressed for a planned evening run in his jeans”.
The court heard how Relowicz told police he had approached Libby as he was concerned for her having seen her on the pavement, drunk and crying.
He said he had asked if she was alright and she had told him she wanted to go home to her mum, the court heard, so he offered to drive her there.
The court heard how he told police he reached Beresford Avenue and thought she might be sick, so stopped by Oak Road playing fields where he said Libby had got out of the car while he went to the toilet. He claimed she then began crying and walked away down Beresford Avenue, where he assumed she lived, the court heard.
Relowicz then claimed he went home, sat with his wife and had a bath. He said he only went out again later in the night to look for her, but that he could not see her, the court heard.
Relowicz claimed the marks on his face had come from playing with his young son, that there had been no sexual contact with Libby, that she had not caused the injuries and that he had left her alive and well in Beresford Avenue.
3 What Relowicz told his friend
Mr Wright told the jury Relowicz told a different story to a friend he had accompanied to an indoor football centre the evening after Libby’s disappearance.
Mr Wright told the court that the friend said Relowicz had told him that he was driving back from Tesco and was on Beverley Road when a woman flagged him down.
The court heard how Relowicz told his friend that the woman had got into his car and he drove her home, where she had tried to kiss him and unzip his trousers.
He had told her to leave the car, Relowicz claimed, at which point she had got angry, shouting at him and scratching his face, the court heard.
“They discussed the missing student Libby Squire, but at no point did the defendant make it clear that she was the person that had flagged down his car and who had injured him,” Mr Wright said.
4 What Relowicz told his colleague
There was yet another account of the night’s events that Relowicz gave to one of his colleagues, the court heard, as they drove
to work on February 4, three days after Libby went missing.
“He said that he had encountered a girl on Beverley Road who was not drunk but appeared to have taken drugs,” Mr Wright said.
“He said that he offered to help get her home and so she got into his car. The girl was crying and asking for her mum as he drove her.
“He stopped the car and she started to remove her knickers, so he told her to get out of his car and left her.”
The court heard how again the pair had discussed the missing student, but again Relowicz told his friend how he had seen the pictures of Libby in the media appeals at the time and that it was not her who had been in his car.
He told his friend that he did not want to go to the police for fear of getting into trouble for leaving the girl alone, Mr Wright said.
5 Relowicz’s ‘expected’ defence in court
Mr Wright said now the case has come to court, he expected Relowicz to present a new defence; that he was trying to give Libby a lift home and that she instigated consensual sex at Oak Road playing fields before walking off into the night.
This, Mr Wright told the jury, would be the “fifth version of events for your consideration”.
“We expect him to now claim,” Mr Wright said. “That he was trying to give her a lift home when she removed her knickers in the car and threw them at him. He will say he thought that she was directing him to her mother’s address and that is what led to him
Pawel Relowicz is accused of Libby’s rape and murder being parked up on the Oak Road playing fields.
“Libby, he will claim, got out of his car and she fell over and was crying. He will say he went to help her and she then instigated consensual sexual intercourse with him. He got into his car and drove away and as he did so he saw her pick up her knickers and walk off in an upset state.”
Mr Wright said he expected Relowicz will also claim that he returned to Oak Road for a third time that night to try to look for Libby “because he was concerned about her” but did not see her again and “will claim that he has no idea how she ended up in the water”.
The trail against Relowicz, which started on Tuesday at Sheffield Crown Court before Judge Lambert, is expected to last four weeks.
Relowicz was due to stand trial in June 2020, but it was delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic. He denies charges of rape and murder. The trial continues.