UK - Libby Squire, 21, last seen outside Welly club, Hull, 31 Jan 2019 #22

[Niner]

Catching up - have I missed the final defence witness? Bit confused how we're at summing up already (sorry, skimming quickly during my own break)

post #883

 

[jamjim]

14:17
Prosecution looks at possible scenarios

Mr Wright has explored the different scenarios as to how Libby may have died.

First he looks at suicide.

He says: “You know her mental health was much improved and in visits to the doctor in 2017 she never considered those thoughts and her friends say she never had any depression at the time.

"She hated the water. There is a throwaway line in medical records from years earlier that she may throw herself into the village river.

"For the proposition that she would kill herself and do it in that way in the River Hull, but by his own account she was far away from there.”

Mr Wright says this proposition is unsupported by the evidence.

Libby Squire murder trial live updates: Prosecution give closing speech

 

[jamjim]

14:19
The idea Libby fell in the river accidentally dismissed

Mr Wright now looks at the possibility Libby wandered into the river on her way home.

He says: “He is not saying he left her by the river. Even if he was you have photographs of that riverbank the next day. You can see the river and the river banking up to it.

"There is a run down to the river, to the weeds growing there. This is not a river that people fall into conveniently after being raped, taking with them scientific evidence.

“According to him when he left her she was not distressed, fully consenting to sex, she was on the road no where near the river. There is no evidence she fell into the river.

"Earlier in the evening she was confused but not setting off into dark, open fields. She was going to a well-lit road at the bus stop.

"The furthest she got was to the entrance of the Endsleigh Centre. We invite you to conclude this is not a proposition.”

Libby Squire murder trial live updates: Prosecution give closing speech

 

[agme28]

Does anyone know what time PR's first visit to the park was and whether that was by car?

And when was he spotted on CCTV with the wet knee? Was that after he had been home, got changed and been back to the park for the third time? Was he on foot that time?

Thanks.

 

[Lyall0814]

I do agree with you - how safe a conviction would that be though? That’s my concern.

As safe as many others I reckon when evidence availability has been reduced due to a body having been in water, undiscovered for a long time. If the jury concludes it's very likely he put it there then he only has himself to blame for evidence about cause of death being limited?

 

[jamjim]

14:21
Libby was not killed by someone else, prosecution claim

Another explanation is that Libby was killed by someone else but Mr Wright dismisses this explanation.

He said: “There was another tight-trousered man who had attacked a woman by the river that killed Libby. There is no evidence she came into contact with anyone else.

"Talk about unwholly coincidences - that would be one - that on this very night this man who was out to commit sexual offences, conveniently for him, someone else came into contact and murdered her. You can reject that.”

Libby Squire murder trial live updates: Prosecution give closing speech

 

[jamjim]

14:25
There was enough time for Relowicz to rape and murder Libby, prosecution claims

Mr Wright says seven and a half minutes was enough time for Relowicz to rape and murder Libby.

He said: "We should think about it for what it was - a hasty and forced episode by a man who was desperate to achieve his aim of having sex that night.

"The rape would not have taken long at all. Perhaps it was a Freudian slip in his evidence that when he turned the car around at Oak Road she got out and ‘ran away’ from the car."

Mr Wright also says there was a further five miutes when he returned to Oak Road playing fields to help cover his tracks.

Libby Squire murder trial live updates: Prosecution give closing speech

 

[jamjim]

14:36
'Incredible coinidence'

Mr Wright has flagged up the evidence of Sam Alford who lived next to Oak Road playing fields.

The prosecutor said: “We accepted the timing isn’t a problem for the prosecution - it’s for Mr Relowicz.

"Another problem for him. Mr Alford said that he heard at 12.17am screaming, at a time where Pawel Relowicz was out of his car with Libby Squire.

"He says he didn’t hear anything - well why not? He puts himself outside of Mr Alford’s house. Is this another woman being attacked at the same time? By another man wearing really tight jeans of the sort Pawel Relowicz was wearing?

“According to Mr Relowicz, Mr Alford shouldn’t have heard screaming by the river but Libby Squire screaming and shouting at him as he drove away, scratching his face because this was happening at exactly the time Mr Alford was listening out of the window.

"He says he couldn’t hear words or shouting but a woman screaming desperately. When he described those screams he choked up a little.

“Here again is another incredible coincidence."

Libby Squire murder trial live updates: Prosecution give closing speech

 

[jamjim]

14:40
Relowicz driven by the 'fear, control and the thrill of it'

Mr Wright is now addressing the jury on what motive Relowicz might have had for raping and killing Libby.

He says his offending was about “fear, control and the thrill of it.”

He continued: “The defendant knew that knock on the door was going to come because he knew he had been out in his car on Beverley Road and he knew that camera was there.

“He’d never been convicted so could leave his DNA in the streets in condoms but he knew because he left his DNA in her and those chickens would come home to roost. That she would go to a police station and say she had been taken to the playing fields by a man and been raped.

“Her fate, we say, was effectively sealed when he raped her and he would do whatever he could do to rape and silence her."

Libby Squire murder trial live updates: Prosecution give closing speech

 

[jamjim]

14:43
Relowicz would be 'shocked' when Libby's body was found

Mr Wright said: “Pawel Relowicz knew that no complaint was coming, because it couldn’t because he put her in the river.

“What a shock it would have been to him that they’d found her and his semen was found. He said nothing until his defence statement where he told lies and came to court and told more lies, we suggest.

“The fact he knew he raped and killed her explains why he returned for that third trip. It explains how he was able to return."

Libby Squire murder trial live updates: Prosecution give closing speech

 

[jamjim]

14:46
Final visit to Oak Road was to 'clean up'

Mr Wright explains to the jury why he feels Relowicz returned for the final time to Oak Road.

He said: “What was it about that final visit to Oak Road Pawel Relowicz didn’t want police to know about?

You know he lied in his interviews about that third visit. He even lied about seeing her footprints but said he never stopped his car - why lie about that? What was it about getting out of his car that he didn’t want police to know about?

“He knew it was connected to what he had done before. This was cleaning up and checking. Putting the body into the water or checking it had gone."

Libby Squire murder trial live updates: Prosecution give closing speech

 

[jamjim]

14:50
Lies kept coming

Mr Wright says the web of lies Reloiwicz committed is evidence of his guilt.

He said: “We have charted already the lies of Pawel Relowicz. They keep on coming. To Darius, to Rafal, lies when first told this girl was missing, the next day when he gave an account, lies in his defence statement and more lies to the jury in his evidence.

“Why? Because we invite you to conclude he is not willing to engage in the reality of what happened between himself and Libby Squire and what he did to her.

"He told you in evidence, he lied because he thought he’d get away with it and the police would not be able to prove it.

“We invite you to come to the sure conclusion that he raped Libby Squire and killed her and invite you to convict him of both offences because the evidence does stand up to that conclusion.”

Libby Squire murder trial live updates: Prosecution give closing speech

 

[Zazie]

Does anyone know what time PR's first visit to the park was and whether that was by car?
And when was he spotted on CCTV with the wet knee? Was that after he had been home, got changed and been back to the park for the third time? Was he on foot that time?

Thanks.

First visit: arrives at 21.13 by car and leaves at 21.25. I don't know about the wet knee, sorry.

 

[jamjim]

14:52
Trial ends for the day

That is the prosecution closing speech completed.

Tomorrow it will be the turn of the defence team to deliver its closing speech before the judge sums up the case to the jury.

Libby Squire murder trial live updates: Prosecution give closing speech

 

[VicBlazey]

14:52
Trial ends for the day

That is the prosecution closing speech completed.

Tomorrow it will be the turn of the defence team to deliver its closing speech before the judge sums up the case to the jury.

Libby Squire murder trial live updates: Prosecution give closing speech

Thanks again @jamjim for the updates

 

[Skigh]

14:52
Trial ends for the day

That is the prosecution closing speech completed.

Tomorrow it will be the turn of the defence team to deliver its closing speech before the judge sums up the case to the jury.

Libby Squire murder trial live updates: Prosecution give closing speech

Thanks very much for the updates. As always,greatly appreciated

 

[astheworldfallsdown]

Thanks for today's updates @jamjim , greatly appreciate your hard work.

 

[JosieJo]

I'm surprised they didn't carry on with defence closing speech and do judges comments tomorrow

 

[Newthoughts]

Thanks @jamjim for all these updates.

 

[Legally Bland]

Thanks @jamjim!