A man accused of raping and murdering a 21-year-old student from High Wycombe told police he “felt sorry for her” after seeing her crying and offered her a lift home in his car, a court heard.
Pawel Relowicz, 26, said he had not “kidnapped anybody” and wanted to help “so [Libby Squire] was found” when he was interviewed by police six days after her disappearance in Hull, East Yorkshire, Sheffield Crown Court heard.
READ MORE: Worried friends describe moment they realised Libby Squire was missing
Polish-born Relowicz, of Raglan Street, Hull, denies raping and murdering Ms Squire on February 1, 2019.
Today (Tuesday), retired detective constable Claire Jackson, of Humberside Police, read a transcript of Relowicz’s first interviews after he was arrested on suspicion of the abduction of Ms Squire.
The jury of five men and seven women heard that he was arrested at his home on the evening of February 6 and was interviewed for the first time at 10.13pm that night.
Richard Woolfall, prosecuting, said Relowicz, who worked as a butcher at Karro Foods, in Malton, North Yorkshire, was shown a picture of Ms Squire and asked if she was alive.
READ MORE: Student was seen ‘crying and screaming’ on the ground, murder trial told
Ms Jackson said the defendant replied: “I don’t know? How am I supposed to know?”
When asked where Ms Squire was, he answered: “I didn’t abduct her.”
In his next interview, which took place at 1.59pm the following day, Relowicz told detectives: “I know nothing and this is the whole truth. I haven’t kidnapped anybody, this isn’t kidnapping is it?
“I even want to help so that she’s found.”
He told police he parked in Haworth Street on the evening of January 31 because he planned to go for a run, but he saw Ms Squire “sitting crying”, the court heard.
He said: “I feel sorry for the girl because she was crying.”
The court heard that Relowicz told police: “I walked past the girl and she says to me ‘Stop please’. She said ‘I need help’. And I was asking ‘What’s up?’.
“She went ‘I need to go home, I need my mother’ and she was crying, she was all in tears.”
He added: “She was drunk and it seems to me that either she had been taking something or somebody had given her something. She was behaving strangely.”
He said he offered to give Ms Squire a lift home in his car and described how she “nearly walked on to the road, where the cars were coming” and held his hand as they walked, the court heard.
Ms Jackson said he told police he sat in his car to warm it up and, when Ms Squire got in, he fastened her seatbelt for her.
Relowicz told police he asked Ms Squire for directions as he drove and she directed him towards the Oak Road playing fields, where he said he would take his dog and son, the court heard.
But he said he told her to get out of his car because she looked like she might vomit and she fell over in the snow and knelt on the floor, crying, the jury was told.
The court heard that Relowicz told police he drove away and saw Ms Squire walking on the pavement.
He said in his interview: “I know nothing more about it. I’ve never seen her since.”
He told police he returned home, sat with his wife, had a bath and watched a film but, at some point, drove to see if Ms Squire was “lying anywhere”, the court heard.
He said: “I drove but there was nothing lying so I drove round and that was it.”
The trial was adjourned until Wednesday.
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