Update from day 2: Jury watches CCTV footage of murder-accused as he ‘effectively stalks and intercepts’ student Libby Squire

A 26-year-old father-of-two raped and murdered a "vulnerable" student from High Wycombe before putting her body into a river, a court has heard.

Pawel Relowicz had come across Libby Squire, who was "drunk", "likely hypothermic" and "in deep distress", on a road in Hull and driven her away from safety to a remote playing field, Sheffield Crown Court heard today.

Miss Squire's body was recovered by a lifeboat around seven weeks later after being spotted in the Humber Estuary by the skipper of a fishing boat.

Relowicz denies raping and murdering Miss Squire.

Richard Wright QC, opening the case for the prosecution, said Ms Squire had "seemingly disappeared" on the freezing cold night of January 31, 2019 after being refused entry to a nightclub.

He said: "She was drunk, she was likely hypothermic, and she was in deep distress.

"She had lost her house keys, she was crying, she had fallen repeatedly to the floor as she tried to walk and she was extremely vulnerable."

Mr Wright told the jury that some "good citizens" tried to help Miss Squire, but she became agitated and they left her by the roadside.

He said: "From there she seemingly vanished.

"One man knew very well where Libby had gone. That man is the defendant, Pawel Relowicz.

"He lived with his family in a residential street a short distance from Libby's home and he had come across her, drunk and vulnerable as she was, on Beverley Road, in Hull."

Mr Wright told the court that Relowicz drove Ms Squire to nearby playing fields at Oak Road – a "remote spot" that he was familiar with and chose "so that he would not be disturbed".

He said: "At Oak Road, having exited his vehicle, we say that Pawel Relowicz raped Libby and that he killed her, causing her death during that act of sexual violence, which culminated in his putting her, dead or dying, into the cold waters of the River Hull that bordered the edge of that playing field.

"It was from there that Libby's body travelled into the Humber and then out to sea to be recovered by the lifeboat on March 20."

Mr Wright told the jury how Miss Squire had drinks with friends and was said to be in "good spirits", but as they walked to The Welly nightclub, she seemed drunk and she was refused entry.

He said her friends put her into a taxi but, on being dropped near her home she fell and landed face first on the ground and walked "away from the safety of her front door" and towards Beverley Road.

He told the jury that a group of students heard Miss Squire crying and let her in but she left, saying that she wanted to go home.

The barrister said the philosophy student, who would not take her phone with her on a night out because she had smashed too many screens, had dropped her house keys in the garden of this house.

A number of people saw Miss Squire on Beverley Road and were concerned about her condition, describing her as "obviously drunk" and "sobbing", the jury heard.

Mr Wright said these included two men who saw Miss Squire lying in the snow and stopped to try to help her but she became verbally aggressive so they drove away.

Relowicz sat listening to the prosecution opening statement in the glass-fronted dock, flanked by three prison officers.

He was wearing a dark blue suit over a white shirt with a royal blue tie and was sporting a green face mask.

Mr Wright told the court that the defendant, who is is originally from Poland, was living with his wife and two children in Raglan Street, Hull.

He worked as a butcher at Karro Foods, in Malton, North Yorkshire, he said.

Miss Squire's parents - Lisa and Russ - looked down on proceedings from the public gallery above the jury of five men and seven women.

The trial continues.