Butcher found guilty of raping and murdering student

Pawel Relowicz, 26, targetted the drunk and vulnerable student before driving her to a remote area, raping her then dumping her body.

A jury at Sheffield Crown Court today found him guilty on both counts following a three-week trial and 27 hours of deliberations.

All 12 jurors agreed Relowicz raped Libby while a majority verdict of 11-1 was reached with regard to her murder.

He will be sentenced at the same court room at a later date.

During the trial, the court heard Relowicz “targetted” Libby after seeing her “drunk” and “vulnerable” in the streets of Hull, East Yorks, on January 31, 2019.

He then took her in his car to a remote playing field and raped her before dumping her “dead or dying” into a river.

Relowicz admitted having sex with University of Hull undergraduate Libby but claimed it was consensual.

Libby’s body was recovered from the Humber Estuary on March 20, following the largest search in Humberside Police’s history.

Relowicz was initially arrested on suspicion of abduction but was then charged with and convicted for a series of different offences.

In the 18 months prior to Libby’s disappearance, it was heard, Relowicz committed a series of sexually-motivated crimes in the student area of Hull.

He broke into women’s homes and stole sex toys and underwear and masturbated at unwitting members of the public in the street.

Relowicz was charged with Libby’s rape and murder in August 2019.

The trial ended on February 4 and the jury came back with their verdict today after six days of deliberation.

In his opening, prosecutor Richard Wright QC told the court Libby was out drinking with uni pals on the evening of January 31.

She was denied entry to a club for being too drunk before being put into a taxi and sent back to her shared house, it was heard.

Witness evidence and CCTV showed the student, originally from High Wycombe, Bucks., didn’t enter the property and instead roamed the streets.

A number of people reported seeing her in a drunk and distressed state, even lying on the pavement, in the minutes before she vanished.

Mr Wright told the court Relowicz was prowling in the area seeking to commit more sexually-motivated offences when he spotted her.

He spent a number of minutes talking to her in the street, it was heard, before taking her from the scene in his silver Vauxhall Astra.

Relowicz claimed he was trying to Libby by taking her home, however, the prosecution argued he knew what he was doing and where he was taking her.

CCTV footage showed the pair arriving at Oak Road Playing Fields, a short distance away shortly after midnight.

Relowicz said while there he had consensual sex with Libby before leaving on his own around seven and a half minutes later.

He told the court she was fine and said that was the last time he saw her.

Defence barrister Oliver Saxby QC told the court Libby may have got “lost” or “disorientated” before falling into the river.

Mr Wright said Relowicz raped Libby at the playing field before dumping her “dead or dying” into a nearby river.

He told the jury Libby would have been too drunk to consent or even be fully aware of what was happening.

An expert witness told the court Libby would have had a significantly reduced sense of awareness about getting into an unsafe situation because of the effects of cold weather and alcohol.

Due to the length of time between Libby’s disappearance and discovery pathologists were unable to determine a cause of death.

Relowicz will be sentenced at Sheffield Crown Court.