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Libby Squire murder trial: Accused's consensual sex claim 'nonsense'

Humberside Police Libby SquireHumberside Police
Philosophy student Libby Squire was last seen in the early hours of 1 February 2019

Claims of consensual sex with a student by a man accused of her rape and murder is a "nonsense proposition", a court heard.

Libby Squire disappeared in the early hours of 1 February 2019 after she was refused entry to a Hull nightclub.

Sheffield Crown Court heard Pawel Relowicz, 26, was a "prolific sex offender" who had cruised the student area of the city looking for a victim.

He denies raping and killing Ms Squire before dumping her body in a river.

In his closing speech to the jury, prosecutor Richard Wright QC said it was two years ago that Ms Squire had vanished after leaving her student accommodation on Wellesley Avenue to go for a night out with friends.

"Two years ago today, at probably this very moment, her friends and her parents were frantically searching for her, and for news of her as she had seemingly vanished as if into thin air," he added.

Elizabeth Cook Artist sketch of prosecutor Richard Wright and defendant Pawel Relowicz, who is flanked by court security guardsElizabeth Cook
Richard Wright QC gave his closing speech to the jury two years to the day Ms Squire disappeared

Mr Wright described the Polish-born butcher as a "phantom killer in tight trousers" who had spent the night of 31 January 2019 driving around Hull looking for a victim "to spy on, to masturbate at".

He reminded jurors how the University of Hull philosophy student, originally from High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, had been drunk and cold to the point of being hypothermic, crying, shivering and wanting her mother before married father-of-two Mr Relowicz had approached her.

The prosecutor asked the jury whether Ms Squire would have said: "I'll lie down on this scrap of grass in the snow in the cold, not in the warm car, and I'll have unprotected sex with you here and now.

"It is, we suggest in common sense, a nonsense proposition," said Mr Wright.

He told the court Mr Relowicz was "no knight in shining armour" when he came across 21-year-old Ms Squire on Beverley Road.

"He was looking for a woman to satisfy his problem, to satisfy his sexual urges," said Mr Wright.

The prosecutor said Mr Relowicz had lied and given five varying accounts of his encounter with Ms Squire to police, his friends and to the court.

The trial continues.

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