Polish butcher has 'strong moral responsibility' for Hull student Libby Squire after 'taking advantage of her', court hears

Pawel Relowicz, 26, repeatedly lied, giving five different versions of what happened late on January 31, 2019, when he encountered the "drunk and vulnerable" Miss Squire on Beverley Road, Hull, Sheffield Crown Court heard.

Relowicz, who has admitted committing a series of sexually motivated offences in the 18 months before Miss Squire disappeared, previously told the court he had consensual sex with the University of Hull philosophy student after offering her a lift home and left her alive.

In his closing speech, defence barrister Oliver Saxby QC said Relowicz, by his own account, admits taking advantage of Miss Squire.

He said: "Libby Squire is not someone he should have been having sex with, for a whole host of reasons, and she was not someone he should have been leaving on her own in the state she was in.

"As far as Pawel Relowicz is concerned, he bears a responsibility - a moral responsibility, a strong moral responsibility you may think - for what happened."

Mr Saxby said Relowicz had lied repeatedly about what happened, to himself, his wife, the police and in court documents.

"There's no doubt guilty people lie," Mr Saxby said. "Of course they do, to get off, to get away with it. That's what the prosecution contend here: he's lying, he's guilty.

He added: "It's a headline. He lied. But please be careful to avoid taking the obvious short-cut and saying 'he lied so he's got to be guilty'."

The prosecution allege the butcher, a married father-of-two picked up Miss Squire, who was drunk, upset and hypothermic after being refused entry to the Welly nightclub, and drove her to Oak Road playing fields, where he raped her and put her into the River Hull, either alive, dead or dying.

Miss Squire's body was found in the Humber estuary six weeks after she went missing. A post-mortem examination could not determine the cause of death.

Mr Saxby read out Relowicz's previous convictions, which include voyeurism, masturbating in the street and stealing sex toys and underwear from women's homes.

He said Relowicz had never had any contact with his victims or attempted to do anything to them and there was nothing to suggest he "got a kick out of" violence, pain or rough sex.

"There's not a shred of evidence he ever acted in any way even approaching rape and murder," he told the jury.

Relowicz, of Raglan Street, Hull, denies raping and murdering Miss Squire.

The trial continues.