Pawel Relowicz found guilty of Libby Squire's murder and rape

Pawel Relowicz was found guilty of killing and sexually assaulting the University of Hull student by a majority of 11 to one at Sheffield Crown Court.

The jury reached their decision this afternoon after days of deliberation, finding Relowicz guilty of the attack in February 2019.

He showed no emotion as the jury foreman read out the verdicts.

Libby Squire’s parents, Lisa and Russ, held hands and cried as they sat in the public gallery overlooking the courtroom waiting for the announcement.

The Crown Prosecution Service said Relowicz had "robbed a young and vibrant woman of her life and her future" and left her family and friends "devastated", ahead of his sentencing tomorrow.

Relowicz, 26, denied both offences, claiming the sex was consensual and that he had not killed her after giving her a lift home after she had been on a night out.

A court sketch of Pawel Relowicz

The killer, who worked as a butcher, raped the 21-year-old on a playing field in Hull before dumping her in the River Hull, a jury at Sheffield Crown Court was told.

Ms Squire went missing after a night out on February 1, 2019, and her body was found almost seven weeks later in the Humber Estuary.

A father-of-two, Relowicz, who was found to have committed a series of strange and frightening sex offences after he was arrested, picked up the second year philosophy student as she wandered around the Beverley Road area of Hull in a confused, upset and drunken state in freezing conditions.

He was found guilty after the jury of five men and seven women heard a mass of circumstantial evidence linking Relowicz to Ms Squire’s disappearance, despite pathologists being unable to determine how she died.

During three weeks of evidence, the court how the Hull University philosophy student had been out with friends, but was so drunk she was refused entry to a club.

Her friends paid a taxi driver to take her home but, instead of going into her shared student house, Ms Squire wandered in a drunken state – falling over in the snow and refusing offers of help from passers-by, until she encountered Relowicz.

The defendant has admitted a series of what his barrister called “utterly disgusting” sexual offences in the months before that night, and he admitted he watched porn and masturbated in the street in the hours after he said he had sex with the student.

He has previous convictions for outraging public decency, voyeurism and sexually motivated burglaries.

A pathologist told the court he could not determine the cause of Ms Squire’s death due to the amount of time she had been in the water.

In a statement, Gerry Wareham, of the CPS, said: “Relowicz robbed a young and vibrant woman of her life and her future. His actions have left her family and friends devastated.

“Relowicz invented a web of lies to explain his actions that night, insisting throughout that he had tried to help Libby find her way home.

“Nothing could be further from the truth. Far from being a good Samaritan, Relowicz preyed upon her, he took advantage of her vulnerable and distressed state and then he raped and murdered her.

“I cannot begin to imagine the suffering Libby’s family are enduring. I can only hope that today’s verdict can bring them some measure of comfort. Our thoughts remain with them.”

Mrs Justice Lambert will sentence Pawel Relowicz tomorrow at midday.