CCTV obtained by ITV News is shown to jury in Libby Squire murder trial

CCTV footage obtained by ITV News in the days after the disappearance of Hull University student, Libby Squire, has been shown in court.

Prosecutors claim the images show the last known movements of the philosophy student as she got into a car owned by the defendant Pawel Relowicz who is on trial at Sheffield Crown Court accused of rape and murder.

Libby went missing on January 31, 2019 after she was refused entry to a nightclub.

The jury were told Libby was drunk, cold and upset. She was last seen on the corner of Haworth Street and Beverley Road in Hull near to her student house.

The prosecution claim Pawel Relowicz picked her up from the roadside and took her to a nearby playing field where he raped and killed her.

Libby’s body was found in the Humber Estuary on March 20, 2019.

• CCTV footage shown to the jury in the Libby Squire murder trial

Describing CCTV footage taken between 11.57pm on January 31 and 12.08am on February 1, 2019, Prosecutor Richard Wright QC said it showed Relowicz leaving his vehicle, walking past Ms Squire and crossing Beverley Road.

Mr Wright ​claimed it later showed the defendant return to his vehicle: “Relowicz had opened his car and had sat in the driver’s seat with the door open and both of his legs on the pavement.”

Another car, a Renault Scenic leaves the street. The prosecutor invited the jury to conclude that Relowicz was “biding his time” until the car had gone.

After this, the defendant is seen in the CCTV on the passenger side of his vehicle for some time. It appears he is struggling. This is believed to be one of the last images of Libby alive.

Speaking to the jury, the prosecutor said “whether Libby was forced into the vehicle, an act that would we suggest not have been difficult given her condition at this point, or whether she was persuaded to enter it on the promise of some assistance being rendered to her may not be clear from the CCTV footage.”

The jury were also told that days later a member of the public found a gold digital watch on Haworth Street, close to the area where Relowicz had parked his vehicle.

Police said the watch had a damaged clasp and it was identified by Libby’s mother as having belonged to her and DNA recovered from it confirmed that it was hers.

“Something had caused her to lose it about the very point on Haworth Street that she had entered the defendant’s vehicle.”

The court also heard that Relowicz was “driven” to commit the crimes and “went further than he had done before” when he subjected Libby Squire to his “uncontrollable sexual urges” in Hull on February 1 2019.

The jury was told that Relowicz came across Ms Squire – who was in a “drunken and distressed condition” – as he was “prowling around the student area” looking for an opportunity to commit a sexual offence against a vulnerable young girl.

Richard Wright QC, prosecuting, said Relowicz was in a “heightened state of arousal” – browsing an internet pornography site twice in the hours after Ms Squire’s disappearance and being captured on CCTV masturbating in the street.

Mr Wright said: “The defendant was, therefore, at the time he encountered Libby on 31 January, a man who was driven to commit sexually motivated offences against young women.”

He added: “In Libby Squire, he found the opportunity he was looking for and went further than he had done before, driving her away, raping her and killing her.”

The jury watched CCTV footage of Relowicz “cruising” around the student area of Hull in his silver Vauxhall Astra during the hours before and after Ms Squire’s disappearance.

The court has heard that Ms Squire, a philosophy student at the University of Hull who was originally from High Wycombe, in Buckinghamshire, was on Beverley Road after being refused entry to a nightclub because she appeared to be drunk.

She was seen falling and lying on the floor in the snow and a number of people had tried to help her, the court heard.

Mr Wright said Relowicz “identified her as a target” and was seen on CCTV as he “stalks” and “intercepts” her a few minutes before she enters his car and he drives to Oak Road, where a witness described hearing “frantic” screams and seeing a man running away.

Pavel Relowicz, 26, who lived at Raglan Street, Hull, but is originally from Poland, denies raping and murdering Ms Squire.