A Date That Turned Into A Nightmare | True Crime Story
Libby, my darling pie, we just want you to know that you are safe. Please get in touch with us any way you can. The whole family is missing you, especially me and your dad, sisters, and your brother. I miss you so much. It’s breaking my heart not knowing where you are. Hull, from where she was last seen, a week since she vanished.
Forensic investigators have been at this house since last night. Here, a 24-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of the abduction of Libby Squire. After 7 weeks, Libby’s family were told yesterday that a body had been found in the Humber Estuary. Breaking news on the Libby Squire murder trial and Pawel Relowicz has been found guilty at Sheffield Crown Court of raping and murdering the Hull University student.
23:20 p.m. Outside the nightclub, the Welly in Hull, security cameras show a group of students walking up to the entrance. Among them is a 21-year-old student from the University of Hull, Liberty Squire. Her friends call her Libby. Security stops her at the door. She is way too drunk. She can barely stand on her feet.
Her words are slurred and hard to understand. So, yeah, they do not let her inside the club. About 10 minutes later, her friends help her into a taxi. They hand the driver some money and ask him to take her home to Wellesley Avenue. The car pulls away. The friends turn around and head back into the club. Around 23:30 to 23:37, the taxi stops outside her house.
The driver watches in his mirror as she gets out and walks toward the door. It looks like she is heading inside, but she never actually goes in. Just a few minutes later, nearby security cameras pick her up again on the surrounding streets. She is walking alone. No phone. Her house keys will later be found in the garden. It is freezing outside.
Snow covers the roads and the whole street is dark. 23:40 p.m. Two passersby notice her lying in the snow. She is crying. She looks confused, disoriented. They try to help her, but she refuses. She speaks in broken fragments and then slowly walks away. A few students spot her near their house.
They offer to let her come inside and warm up. She refuses again. Um she just keeps walking. No clear direction, no real destination. Around that same time, a silver Vauxhall Astra appears in the neighborhood. Security cameras capture the car driving through the streets for hours. Slowly. Circling the same roads. No obvious reason. Shortly before midnight, the car stops near the end of a street.
The driver steps out. He crosses the road and walks toward Libby. He looks around, checking if anyone else is nearby. Then he turns and walks back to the car. A moment later, he crosses the road again. This time he starts talking to her. The cameras show them standing there for several minutes. Then something changes.
Libby turns and starts walking in a different direction. She is no longer heading home. Now she is walking with this man. 12:08 a.m. Libby gets into the car. Just a few yards from where the vehicle had been parked, investigators will later find her watch. It must have slipped off her wrist. The car pulls away.
Cameras track its route through the city. The vehicle leaves the residential area and heads toward Oak Road playing fields, a dark open field on the edge of the neighborhood. 12:11 a.m. The car enters the field. 12:14 a.m. A nearby resident suddenly wakes up. He hears a scream. A woman screaming. It is loud enough to wake him in the middle of the night.
He glances at his phone. 12:14. He walks to the window. He sees a man quickly walking back toward a car. A few minutes later, the headlights switch on. The car drives away heading back toward the city. No one ever sees Libby alive again. That same night, around 3:00 in the morning, something strange happens on another street.
Two women call the police. They say a man suddenly appeared in front of them and started masturbating right there in the road. He does not run away. He watches their reaction and it almost looks like he is enjoying it. The description of the man, the time, the neighborhood, and the car, everything matches.
Police identify the driver of the silver Vauxhall Astra, a 24-year-old man, married, father of two children, a butcher. His name is Paweł Relowicz. When detectives begin checking his DNA and fingerprints, a disturbing pattern starts to emerge. For almost 2 years, he had been breaking into strangers’ homes, watching women through their windows, following them through the streets, stealing women’s underwear, leaving behind used condoms.
And at night, he would leave the house telling his wife he was going for a run. On January 31st, 2019, his car came across a young student who was alone and extremely drunk, barely able to stand on her feet. Just a few minutes later, she got into his car. A few minutes after that, a scream echoed across a dark field.
Seven weeks later, the body of Liberty Squire would be found in the waters of the Humber Estuary. Before she died, she had been raped. And the final minutes of her life are still being reconstructed almost second by second using security camera footage and fragments of what happened during that freezing night. But to really understand how this story unfolded, we need to go back to the very beginning.
Hull, East Yorkshire in England, officially called Kingston upon Hull, is a port city in the county of East Yorkshire in Eastern England. The city sits near the mouth of the River Hull right where it flows into the Humber Estuary. Hull has a large working port and serves as an important transportation hub for the region.
In the city center, you will find shops, restaurants, hotels, and large shopping centers. The Old Town has preserved its narrow streets and historic buildings. Hull is also home to one of the region’s major universities, the University of Hull. Public transportation includes buses and railway connections that link the city with other parts of England.
There are waterfront promenades and a marina where people like to walk along the water. Overall, the city’s infrastructure makes it comfortable for both tourists and students. Hull is the kind of place people visit if they want to spend some quiet time and explore the coastal towns of Eastern England.
By the way, um where are you watching this video from right now? And what time is it where you are? I am honestly really curious to know where my audience is watching from. While you type that in the comments, I will keep going. The University of Hull has around 14,000 students. Among them was a 21-year-old student named Liberty Squire.
Everyone called her Libby. Libby was in her second year at the university, and she seemed to be doing really well. She studied hard, enjoyed the social side of student life, and had a great group of friends around her. People who knew her described her as incredibly funny, talented, quick-witted, and the kind of person who always tried to include everyone.
She was also a caring older sister to her brother and two sisters, and she was very close with her parents, Lisa and Russell. Libby had always been a very capable and driven person. She pushed herself to achieve high results, but her family later said that she often set almost impossible standards for herself.
Over time, her mental health began to suffer. She struggled with an eating disorder. She harmed herself, and her grades started to slip. Even so, she kept trying and eventually managed to earn her A-level qualifications. When she was accepted into university study philosophy, she was absolutely glowing with happiness.
Her mother, Lisa, later admitted that she was worried about letting her daughter move so far away from home. She was afraid that Libby’s mental health struggles might come back, but Libby believed that starting fresh in a new place would be better for her. She was excited about a new beginning. She took a gap year and traveled to Paris, and when she came back, she felt completely ready to begin the next chapter of her life.
At the time, she was also in a serious relationship with her boyfriend, Connor. They had been together for 3 years. Connor later said that Libby was the most interesting person he had ever met, caring, empathetic, and someone who truly made the world around her brighter.
“I know it might sound easy to say something like that at my age, mhm, but I just knew she was the one for me.” He later recalled. Libby was always busy and already had so many plans for the future after finishing university. She wanted to travel with her housemates, like explore different places together, and later on, she was even thinking about possibly moving into journalism.
>> [laughter] >> University life brought out a whole new side of her, and Connor later said she had become more confident and happier than he had ever seen her before. At about 8:30 that evening, Libby left her student house on Wellesley Avenue. She and a group of friends walked over to another student house nearby.
Most of the students that night were planning to go out somewhere. The idea was simple. Have a few drinks, play some games, hang out and talk for a while, and then head to a popular club nearby called the Welly. Around 10:00, Libby sent Connor a message to say good night, because she was leaving her phone at home
. Then, at about 11:20 p.m., the group arrived at the nightclub. Security cameras captured the moment they walked up to the entrance together. >> Libby was not allowed inside the club. She was clearly very drunk. It was hard for her to even stand, let alone walk straight. The security staff refused to let her in, telling her she had already had way too much to drink.
The group stepped aside, and about 10 minutes later her friends helped her into a taxi. They gave the driver some money and asked him to take her home. They watched the car drive away and then went back to continue their night. A little before 3:00 in the morning, when the group started heading home and getting ready to sleep, they sent a message to one of Libby’s housemates who had stayed home that night.
They just wanted to check how Libby was doing. And then came the response that made their stomachs drop. Libby had never come home. No one had seen her. No one had heard from her. At first they thought maybe she was still at the club. They started calling friends and asking around, trying to figure out if maybe she had gone to someone else’s place, but no one had seen her.
And because she had left her phone at home, there was no way to contact her. Then they found something else, her house keys. They were lying in the garden. Libby had been extremely intoxicated, and outside it was bitterly cold. Snow covered parts of the roads and the freezing air cut through everything. Everyone understood the same thing.
If she was still out there somewhere, that was really dangerous. So they called the police right away. Police officers were seriously concerned, and the investigation began without delay. One question investigators considered was whether Libby might have been going through another mental health crisis and possibly run off.
Friends and family said all possibilities had to be considered, but honestly, that one seemed very unlikely. Recently she had been in a great mood. She loved living with her housemates, and she had just received high grades and positive feedback for her Christmas coursework. Within just a few hours, the story appeared in the news, and suddenly Libby was at the center of national attention.
The two CCTV cameras are on a nearby property agency, and they show the area where people queue to get into the Welly nightclub here. Libby Squire is seen coming up to the club. Off camera, she’s turned away by a doorman and then goes back down to the group. The businessman who’s released the footage to police says he hope it serves to jog someone’s memory of seeing Libby that night.
Police were able to track down the taxi driver. He explained that he dropped her off on Wellesley Avenue. As he was pulling away, he glanced in his rearview mirror and saw her walking toward the front door of her house. But for some reason, Libby never actually went inside. Fortunately, the surrounding streets were covered with security cameras.
Since police already knew the exact time she got into the taxi, it was not difficult for investigators to trace her movements after she stepped out of the car. At 11:37 p.m., cameras captured Libby walking along nearby streets. At 11:40 p.m., two passersby stopped when they saw her lying in the snow.
They later told investigators she was crying and seemed very distressed. She appeared confused and disoriented. When they tried to help her, she refused. Her responses were abrupt, and the things she said were hard to understand. Eventually, they felt there was nothing more they could do. Later, a group of students noticed her near their house and invited her to come inside so they could make sure she was okay, but she kept walking, almost like she had no clear destination.
One local official later pointed out that because of the intense cold that early in the night, Libby may already have been showing the early signs of hypothermia. days since Libby Squire was last seen, and forensic officers from Humberside police have spent today at the place where she was last spotted. They collected items of interest as their investigation into the missing 21-year-old student continues.
Police say they’re extremely concerned for her welfare. Specialist teams aided by coast guards are continuing their search efforts along the nearby River Hull. Students have also helped in the ongoing operation. It doesn’t feel real. It still feels like really surreal. We were talking like last night and it feels like something out of a movie and the second you don’t like do anything it you just get frustrated.
She’s a lovely person and it’s so out of character for something like this to happen. Please come home. We know we love you and all the support there’s over 200 people in there for you. Please please come home soon. Obviously when people go out and they drink, sometimes you lose your phone or you can’t get home quite as easy, but she’s always always made sure that she’s found a phone or anyone she can contact to make sure someone knows she’s safe regardless of what happens.
So to not hear anything from her at all is completely not like her. Libby got into a taxi outside the Welly Club in Beverley Road at 11:00 p.m. on Thursday. Police believe she got out near her home in Wellesley Avenue just a few minutes up the road. But she was then spotted on CCTV 45 minutes later here at the junction with Hayworth Street.
A male driver reportedly saw her sitting on a bench got out to ask if she was okay. She said she was and he drove away. What happened next remains a mystery. Police said they’re following up a number of leads and are keen to hear from anyone who was in the area where Libby was last seen. If anyone was driving around the area between 11:00 p.m. on Thursday evening and 3:00 a.m.
on Friday morning and has dash cam footage, we would urge them to come forward. Police efforts supported by the community and students in Hull continue 3 days since Libby Squire was last seen. Neil Connery, ITV News. The situation looked deeply concerning. Still, police emphasized that the case was officially being treated as a missing person investigation for the time being.
But mm journalists were reporting something else behind the scenes. According to several reports, detectives were already starting to look at the case as a possible abduction. Libby’s parents soon began speaking directly to the public asking for help. Libby, my darling pie, we just want you to know that you’re safe.
Please get in touch with us any way you can. The whole family is missing you, especially me and your dad, your sisters, and your brother. I miss you so much. It’s breaking my heart not knowing where you are. Please come forward with any information you may have, no matter how small or relevant it may be. We just want Libby home.
The search efforts quickly became massive. Teams of volunteers joined in and Libby’s name started spreading everywhere across social media and the news. The university began working closely with police helping organize search times and locations so people could assist in the effort. Police also asked local residents to check their gardens, sheds, and outbuildings just in case she might have tried to shelter there from the cold.
Officers went door-to-door throughout the neighborhood. Trash bins were checked. Drainage systems were inspected. Investigators were looking anywhere she could possibly be. Online, people started sharing descriptions of the clothes she had been wearing that night. Police also asked anyone who appeared on security cameras in that same area around the same time to come forward and provide any information they might have.
By that point, the case had become national news. It was already turning into the largest investigation in the history of Humberside Police. Investigators examined Libby’s phone as well, but there was nothing there suggesting she had planned to meet anyone. No messages, no signs, nothing at all that pointed to a meeting with someone that night.
And so, in many ways, the only real way to piece together what happened was through the security cameras scattered across the area. It’s day four of the search. And now experts are looking for clues in the water. This river is a few meters from where missing student Libby Squire went missing on Thursday night.
On the road where Libby lives, the search effort is just as thorough. Police officers hoping to find even the smallest clue to piece together her last known movements. We did discover a mobile phone which despite analysis has not provided any further insight as to where she may be or her movements at night.
Whilst her location is not yet known, this does not mean she has come to harm. But we must carry out a thorough investigation and explore all possibilities. Eventually, police received the first truly serious lead. A resident who lived near Oak Road playing fields told investigators that at around 12:15 in the morning, he heard a woman’s scream.
The sound was coming from the direction of a wooded area nearby. The scream was so loud that it woke him up. He knew the exact time because he looked at his phone. When he glanced out the window, he saw a man walking quickly toward a car. Using that time frame, detectives went back to the security camera footage and began working backward.
If what the neighbor heard was connected to Libby, that meant roughly 30 to 40 minutes had passed between the moment she was first seen on the streets and that exact time. And that detail significantly narrowed the search window. Then investigators finally noticed something important in the footage.
They spotted a silver Vauxhall Astra that had been circling the neighborhood for several hours before Libby was last seen. The car was just driving around the same streets over and over again, like it had no clear destination. Shortly before midnight, that same vehicle pulled into the end of a street not far from where Libby was walking. A man got out of the car and crossed the road, moving quickly in her direction.
At first, it looked like Libby was standing near a bus stop, but in reality, she was turning and heading back toward her house. The man then crossed the road again and walked along the opposite side of the street. It almost looked like he had crossed over just to figure out whether Libby was alone um to see if anyone else was nearby and to assess the situation.
For a moment, he stopped. Then he crossed the road again and started talking to her. They stood there for about 5 minutes and then they walked off together. But now, they were heading in the opposite direction from where Libby had originally been going. Libby was walking along the sidewalk while the driver was sitting in the car.
Investigators noticed that other cars occasionally passed by. Headlights would appear and then disappear along the road. Detectives later suggested that the driver may have been waiting for the street to become quiet and empty before making his next move. At 12:08 a.m., Libby got into the car, the same one that belonged to this man, and the vehicle drove away.
Later, in that exact spot, her watch was found. Something had caused it to come off her wrist. Police believe there may have been a moment when the driver either physically tried to persuade her to get into the car or grabbed her arm and pulled her inside. That short piece of video turned out to be incredibly important. If the car had been parked even a single yard farther away, the cameras might not have captured anything useful at all.
Now, investigators had several critical details, a description of the vehicle, a specific timeline, and based on the nearby resident’s statement, a possible location where the car had driven with Libby. And sure enough, they were able to track the vehicle. It entered the area known as Oak Road Playing Fields. About 10 minutes passed.
Right around that same time, the resident reported hearing the screams. Then the headlights switched on and the car drove away from the field returning to the streets of the city. Not long after, two women came forward to police with a separate report, but it would soon become another crucial clue.
They said that around 3:00 in the morning, a man suddenly appeared in front of them on the street and began masturbating. The women were shocked, but he did not seem embarrassed at all. If anything, it almost seemed like he was enjoying their reaction. Using the time, location, and description provided by the women, police were able to identify the man.
Everything matched the same man and the same car. Now detectives had a clear image of their person of interest. By tracing his movements during the hours before the incident and in the days that followed, they were able to obtain a match for the vehicle’s license plate. On February 6th, police announced that an arrest had been made in connection with Libby’s disappearance.
A mile from where she was last seen, a week since she vanished. Forensic investigators have been at this house since last night. Here, a 24-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of the abduction of Libby Squire. Officers also recovered a car as part of an investigation which has increased in tempo in the last 24 hours.
Quarter past 9:00, two plain-clothes policemen knocked on the door and they were seeking access to the back garden of the house next door cuz they wanted to block off um any escape route if um any anybody tried to leave that way when police entered at the front door. At around midnight tonight, it will mark 7 days since Libby vanished.
On the land and in the water, the search continues into her disturbing disappearance. Earlier, a specialist police marine unit examined local waterways. Others carried out a search of the wooded areas adjacent to it. The last few days have seen her shocked fellow students, as well as staff and the wider community holding vigils.
The car was parked down this quiet, secluded side street, which is actually a dead end. There are terraced houses either side. Libby was last seen on the main road there, about 20 paces from where I am now. The car was here for approximately 20 minutes before it drove off down this road at exactly the same time that it’s believed Libby disappeared.
The man arrested was 24-year-old Pawel Relowicz, a married father of two who worked as a butcher. Pawel had moved to the United Kingdom from Poland when he was still a teenager and later studied at a culinary college near Hull. Besides being suspected in Libby’s abduction, he was also arrested for several sexual offenses.
Finally, police had their main suspect in custody. Neighbors later said they had only ever seen a hard-working man, the kind of guy who liked going to the gym, baking, and taking long walks with his family. He always seemed friendly, polite, and smiling. Nothing about him ever appeared suspicious.
But what no one knew was that Pawel had already committed a series of disturbing crimes and that police had actually detained a very dangerous person. Pawel lived extremely close to the place where Libby was last seen and also not far from the fields where the screams had been heard. Once detectives took his fingerprints and DNA samples, something alarming started to appear.
He was linked to several other crimes that had happened over the previous 2 years. For a long time, Pawel had been sneaking into strangers’ homes, peeking through windows, watching couples having sex, and following women on the streets, sometimes exposing himself to them. In some cases, he even broke into houses, stole women’s underwear, and left used condoms behind.
One woman woke up during the night and saw Pavel staring at her through the glass of her bedroom door. She immediately messaged her housemates. They ran outside and chased him away. Someone tried to take a photo of him, but the image came out too blurry to identify him. Another similar incident happened on the very same street where Libby lived.
Even though fingerprints and DNA had been collected from several crime scenes before, Pavel had no prior criminal record. So, there had never been a match in the system. Now, there were many matches. According to sources close to the investigation, it became clear that Pavel had shown troubling sexual behavior from a young age.
By his own admission, he said he struggled to control his impulses and had developed an addiction to violent and extreme pornography. He often told his wife he was going out for an evening run. But instead, he would wander through the streets looking for open windows to peer into, houses he could sneak into, or women walking alone so he could follow them and expose himself.
Seven days had now passed since Libby disappeared. Police carried out a detailed search of his house and his car. Inside the house, investigators did not find anything directly connected to Libby, but the situation inside his car was very different. Detectives discovered dirty underwear, sex toys, used condoms, photographs of women that appear to have been taken without their knowledge, and various items that had clearly been stolen from different homes.
When investigators first asked him about Libby, he denied ever seeing her in his life. But once they showed him the security camera footage, his story suddenly changed. Now, he claimed that he had picked her up that night only to help her. He described himself as a good Samaritan who simply offered her a ride home.
According to him, he drove her to Oak Road Playing Fields, then left her there, went back home, took a bath, and watched pornography on his phone. It was not a direct confession, but it was enough to place him at the scene. And considering the neighbor’s statement about the screams, detectives knew the story was almost certainly far more complicated.
Investigators soon announced that the case was likely no longer just a missing person investigation and that Libby had most likely been seriously harmed. They already had enough evidence to formally charge Pavel with 13 separate sexual offenses committed at different times, but police were told there was still not enough direct evidence to connect him to Libby’s disappearance.
Seven weeks after Libby vanished, the investigation suddenly took a dramatic turn. A fisherman in the Humber Estuary discovered a body in the water, badly decomposed. Around the neck was a small pendant with the letter L. After 7 weeks, Libby’s family were told yesterday that a body had been found in the Humber Estuary. Tonight, they got the news they’d been dreading as police confirmed it was Libby’s body.
A post-mortem examination that began this afternoon continues tonight as police try to establish what caused Libby’s death. They say this is a hugely distressing time for her family and a very difficult time for all those who’ve been involved in the investigation over the last 7 weeks. The University of Hull has released a statement saying, “Our hearts go out to Libby’s family and friends at this incredibly difficult time, and we will continue to give them our full support.
” A 24-year-old man arrested in connection with Libby’s disappearance remains under investigation. At the place where she was last seen tonight, people have already begun to pay their respects. Forensic experts confirmed that Libby had been raped before she was killed. Her body was so badly decomposed that investigators were unable to determine the exact cause of death.
It also remained unclear whether she was already dead when she entered the water. The pathologist explained that she could have died from asphyxiation or from drowning, but he could not say for certain. At the same time, police believed they understood what had happened. Investigators were confident that her body had been dumped into a water pit behind the fields, and from there it eventually drifted into the Humber Estuary.
The news devastated everyone. Libby’s mother, Lisa, was especially shocked when she learned where her daughter’s body had been found. Libby had always been terrified of water and could not swim well. The thought that she might have been alive when she entered the river made the loss even more painful. When reports began spreading that the investigation had officially been reclassified as a murder case, Lisa wrote a message on Facebook.
I can’t even put into words how grateful I am to you, my beautiful girl, for making me a mother, for choosing me to be your mom. I protected you for as long as I possibly could. And I’m so incredibly sorry that I couldn’t keep you safe that night. I’m sorry. I’m so so sorry. It was August 2019. Seven long months had passed since Libby disappeared.
Pawel was due to appear in court on the other charges against him, and up to that point he had pleaded not guilty. But at the last moment, he suddenly changed his position. He admitted guilt to nine offenses in total, four counts of voyeurism, two incidents of outraging public decency, and three burglaries that had taken place between 2017 and 2019.
He was sentenced to eight and a half years in prison. Later, after a successful appeal, the sentence was reduced to just under six years. Authorities said they were relieved that he was now behind bars. With him in custody, investigators could continue working the case without worrying that he might flee the country.
At that point, the main task was to keep building the case against Pawel. Detectives went through thousands of hours of surveillance footage trying to fully reconstruct his movements on the night Libby got into his car. Cameras in the Morpeth area showed something disturbing. Around 2:30 in the morning, Pavel returned to the exact same location only about 2 hours after he had first been there with Libby.
He stayed for just a few minutes, then drove back toward the city. That was around the same time he later exposed himself to the two women on the street. For investigators, this became the final piece of the puzzle they needed. There was no logical reason for Pavel to return to that location unless he had gone back to hide something or destroy evidence.
After months of waiting, additional forensic test results finally arrived. They showed that Pavel’s DNA had been found both on Libby’s body and inside her body. After that, Pavel changed his story again. Now, he claimed that Libby had supposedly thrown herself at him and that they had consensual sex in the field, after which he simply left her there.
But, it was obvious that this version did not match the evidence. By that point, investigators had enough material to formally resubmit the case and request charges for both rape and murder. While authorities were waiting for the legal process to move forward, Libby’s funeral took place in October 2019. Nearly 300 people gathered to say goodbye.
Then, just 2 weeks later, police finally made the announcement that both investigators and the public had been waiting for. After consulting with prosecutors, Pavel Relowicz was officially charged with the rape and murder of Libby Squire. When the charges were read to him inside a police vehicle through a translator, he began to laugh.
He appeared completely unmoved. Later, his mother said, “I know in my heart that Pavel didn’t do anything to that girl. He’s a good guy. He respects women.” At the same time, she added that her heart was breaking for the Squire family. She said that if it turned out her son had actually done something, then he should face the harshest possible punishment.
Pavel pleaded not guilty, continuing to insist on his version of events that what happened between him and Libby was simply a random consensual encounter. After multiple delays caused by the pandemic, the trial finally began in January 2021. Prosecutors presented what many described as a devastating case.
They argued that Pavel was an extremely dangerous predator whose behavior had escalated over time, reaching a point where he was willing to do almost anything to satisfy his sexual compulsions. According to the prosecution, he viewed women as objects and derived pleasure from frightening them. And the moment he saw Libby that night alone, freezing, upset, and vulnerable, she became his target.
They said he already knew exactly what he intended to do the moment she stepped into his car. Prosecutors told the court that if it had not been Libby, it would have been someone else, someone sober or someone drunk. That night or another night. In their view, he had been determined to rape someone and very likely kill someone.
And on that tragic night, Libby became the victim. The defense, however, focused heavily on one detail, the extremely short window of time in which the crime could have taken place. According to the timeline, his car entered the fields at 12:11 a.m. The screams were heard at 12:14, and by around 12:20, he had already left the area and driven away.
That meant less than 10 minutes. The defense argued that it was impossible for everything the prosecution described to have happened within such a short period of time. But prosecutors pushed back strongly against that claim. They said it was entirely possible, especially considering that Libby was heavily intoxicated and likely unable to properly resist or even stand.
While Pavel was physically fit and clearly determined to carry out what he intended to do. Prosecutors also reminded the jury that they did not need to prove that every single action happened in that exact short window. The DNA evidence and the surveillance footage already told a powerful story.
And considering that Pavel returned to the same location 2 hours later, investigators believe that was when he could have easily hidden evidence and moved Libby’s body. Prosecutors argued that it was clear Pawel had always been searching for something more extreme. When breaking into homes and spying on women no longer satisfied him, it became only a matter of time before he escalated further to fulfill his impulses.
And the reason his crimes kept escalating, they said, was simple. He kept getting away with it again and again. After a difficult 2-week trial, the jury retired to deliberate. Breaking news on the Libby Squire murder trial and Pawel Relowicz has been found guilty at Sheffield Crown Court of raping and murdering the Hull University student Libby Squire.
Sky’s Caterina Vittozzi is live outside Sheffield Crown Court for us. Yes, just in the last few minutes, the jury, which has been deliberating for 5 days now, coming back with guilty verdicts for both counts of murder and rape. But Relowicz and his defense team throughout saying that although he did admit to having sex with the university student, he said that was consensual, but a jury now deciding that in fact it was rape and that he then was guilty of her murder.
The jury found him guilty by a majority verdict, 11 to 1. Later, he was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 27 years. While delivering the sentence, the judge said that Libby had absolutely no chance that night. He also added that Pawel might never be released from prison.
And even if he ever is released, he will remain under supervision for the rest of his life. The judge described the entire case as unspeakably horrifying. If Pawel is ever granted parole, he will be a little over 50 years old. Firstly, we would like to thank everybody for their love and support over the last 2 years.
We’ve both really appreciated it. Our special thanks go out to the police teams and the other agencies that were involved with Libby’s case from the outset through to today. As a family, today’s verdict changes nothing for us. There is no closure. We don’t get to have Libby back, and our lives don’t revert back to normal. However, we are pleased that all the hard work and dedication of the police and legal teams has been recognized.
Libby will always be with us, and we are all so proud of our beautiful, caring, wonderful girl. And although she has been physically taken from us, the memories we have and the love we share will never be taken. Thank you. Thank you. After the verdict was delivered, his wife filed for divorce. Soon after the trial ended, she left the country and returned to Poland.
For her, it was a way to completely distance herself from everything that had happened. She tried to start her life over somewhere far away from the place where her husband’s name had become forever linked to one of the most notorious crimes in the country. Even today, she continues to insist that their relationship had been normal, even good.
According to her, there had been nothing in their family life that could have warned her about who the man beside her really was. She has said many times that she was shocked and completely devastated when the truth came out. The news about the crime and the details that later emerged during the investigation hit her just as hard as they did many other people.
And she kept repeating the same thought over and over again, the man described in court and in the news was not the same man she believed she knew in everyday life. Meanwhile, Libby’s mother, Lisa, did not stop after the trial ended. In many ways, that was only the beginning of a long fight for her.
She has continued speaking publicly and campaigning for changes to the laws surrounding sexual offenses, especially those that do not involve physical contact. In her view, these crimes are often underestimated, even though they can be warning signs of something far more dangerous. Lisa has been pushing for harsher sentences for these types of offenses.
She believes that when the justice system treats them too lightly, it can allow dangerous people to avoid serious consequences in the early stages of their behavior. In many of her public speeches, she has emphasized the same idea that many tragedies might be prevented if authorities responded more quickly and more firmly to these kinds of warning signs.
Police have also supported this initiative. Together with the Squire family, they joined an awareness campaign encouraging people to report so-called minor sexual offenses. The message behind the campaign is simple but important. Even actions that might seem small or insignificant can be part of a much more dangerous pattern of behavior.
That is why police are urging people not to stay silent and to report incidents like these, even if at first they appear minor. For Lisa, this campaign has become deeply personal. She has spoken to journalists many times and has taken part in meetings with lawmakers and community organizations. Every one of those meetings is another chance for her to remind people that behind crime statistics, there are real lives and real families whose worlds have been shattered.
As part of that effort, Lisa even met with the then Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Boris Johnson. During their meeting, she spoke directly to him about changing the approach to punishment for murder. In her opinion, life imprisonment without the possibility of parole should automatically apply to anyone convicted of murder.
And according to Lisa, Boris Johnson told her that the problem was that prisons simply did not have enough space. Then build more prisons. It’s that simple. Anyone who takes a life should get life in prison with no chance of release, period. In 27 years, Libby won’t come back. I won’t get my daughter back. My children won’t get their sister back.
For us, this is a life sentence we have to live with. In 2022, Lisa said she wanted to meet Pavel in prison to talk about what had happened that night, and Pavel agreed. A lot of people don’t understand this. I don’t hate him. I’m not angry with him. I just need information from him. I’m not trying to forgive him.
I’m not trying to understand why he did what he did. For me, the most important thing is finding out what she was like in the last 20 minutes of her life. Honestly, it’s actually quite a brave step for him to agree to meet with me. Just the fact that he said yes means a lot, and I’m grateful for that.
Because nothing he could tell me would ever be worse than what my own imagination has already created. That’s what Lisa said. However, in February 2023, Pavel withdrew his agreement. He claimed that the media had portrayed him as a bad person because of the Squire family, and for that reason he no longer wanted to speak with Lisa.
For Lisa, who had shown him nothing but dignity and restraint, it was a painful blow. And honestly, it seemed like this was his way of holding on to at least some form of control until the very end. Meanwhile, Libby’s family has continued to show incredible strength and resilience. They have focused their energy on pushing for changes in the law and keeping Libby’s memory alive.
Lisa later said, “Every morning, in that moment between sleep and waking up, I still think life is normal, and then I wake up and I remember that Libby is gone. Sometimes the grief just hits out of nowhere. I look at photos of Libby that I’ve seen a million times before, and I start crying thinking, why would someone take this beautiful person away?”
