True Crime with Kimbyr - Part 2: 8 Minutes To Murder: The Predator Who Practiced in Plain Sight | Libby Squire

Episode Date: March 16, 2026

In Part 2 of this heartbreaking case, True Crime with Kimbyr dives deeper into the investigation surrounding Libby Squire’s disappearance after a winter night out in Hull. As detectives piece together CCTV footage and witness accounts, a far more disturbing pattern begins to emerge—one involving stalking, voyeurism, and crimes that had been happening in the same student neighborhoods long before tragedy struck. On True Crime with Kimbyr, Kimbyrleigha compassionately examines the evidence, the suspect’s history, and the courtroom revelations that ultimately exposed the truth behind this devastating case. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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That car was taken for a full forensic examination. I'm talking, swabbing the interior, the seats of the walls, the trunk space. Mud from the tires and undercarriage was collected, and it was going to be compared to soil from locations that were relevant to this investigation. Fibers were lifted from the vehicle. They were bagged for examination.

And officers also seized clothing and shoes. that they suspected he wore the night Libby disappeared. There was one other critical detail that officers documented when Pavel was first brought into custody. They noticed visible scratch marks on his face. That's not a good sign. They were photographed and recorded as part of the custody process. In documentation, they were described as fresh and consistent with fingernail scratches. It appeared as though he was in some kind of struggle.

Now inside the trunk of the car, wait till you hear this, they found a pink duffel bag, and that definitely looked out of place. It was not his wife's. And guess what it contained? Items that had been reported stolen during those burglaries in the area. Yeah, it's interesting, isn't it? The list of items found included several pairs of used women's underwear, adult toys, and a number of bottles of lube. And then there were photos of women. that were not his wife in various stages of undress. The items matched reports made by victims dating back all the way to 2017 and 2018. So this is connecting the dots.

But inside his home was a different story. It was a normal family house. Nothing stood out. Except digital devices were seized, including a drone and phones and storage banks and a computer. Now, I don't know how they decided to look inside the computer tower, the actual tower, but they unscrewed it. They took off the top, and there were more pairs of dirty women's underwear. Very strange.

When asked who the women were in these pictures that were found in that bag within his trunk, he said he didn't know. When pressed about the panties, or as they put it, the soiled knickers and other items in his possession and why he had them, he would not elaborate. He just kept saying, No comment. But they didn't need him to speak. GPS data was examined and his phone placed him repeatedly in the Beverly Road and Newland Avenue areas late at night over a sustained period of time, years in fact. The same area Libby had been walking. This data matched the pattern of the

robberies and voyeurism that were already reported. When officers looked at previous CCTV footage from dates of crimes, they were able to watch his same silver car prowling the streets in the early hours of the night. And in some cases, DNA recovered from windows and entry points of women's homes matched Pavel's DNA. It was this forensic link that allowed police to formally connect him to those other cases, the offenses from the past I told you about. But if only they would have done that before, but still, to their credit, They would not have had a suspect to compare it to. It's only when he's arrested that they take his DNA and it's in the system.

When he was interviewed about Libby's disappearance, Pavel denied any involvement. But at that stage, the police had strong evidence when it came to the earlier offenses, so they focused their efforts there because they wanted to get him on something. They could put him at the scenes. They could connect him to the stolen property, even to specific addresses and to dates and times through CCTV, phone data, and like I said, DNA in some cases, and we'll get to that. He had committed offenses all around Libby's neighborhood, almost on several streets in one cluster, and then there were a few a bit north. But yet, it does make you wonder how they didn't think

these were all connected at the time. Now they had the physical evidence in DNA. They had the victims who reported what had happened, but what they didn't have was evidence linking him to Libby. and that's frustrating because everything's lining up. They really felt like they had their man. I want to go in a little more detail about something I told you earlier. There had been two college students who just called the police 11 days before Libby vanished. This recent exposure, it was reported. They were coming home at night.

They saw a man standing by their apartment watching them. And they noticed he was inappropriately touching himself. so they ran inside, and later seminal fluid was found right on their front door. This is what I meant by DNA. That's the type of DNA that eventually was matched to Pavel. Police knew that he could flee back to Poland if they did not put him in jail. And that's why they moved so fast. It made me sick because when they picked him up and they put him in the police car that morning,

he laughed like it didn't even phase him. Weeks after Pavel's arrest, he was charged with nine kids. counts of burglary, voyeurism, and outraging public decency related to those offenses committed between June 2017 and January 2019. Remember, though, voyeurism is not simply peeping or peaking at someone without them knowing it. It's a boundary violation. These are not harmless acts in case you thought they were, but I'm thinking you probably don't. In fact, in many of these cases, including this one, they are a rehearsal for what the offender really wants to achieve. When he was looking at those college students and they ran inside and he did what he did at their door,

that's an exercise and control without someone's consent. He's controlling what happens. That's power and it's access. He's getting closer and closer. Next, it would have been inside someone's home doing that same thing, but with them. Do you catch my drift? The progression shows a shift from distance to closeness, from watching to physically intruding on people, from a fantasy to an act. But charging Pavel with these offenses didn't give them any justice or answers about what happened to Libby. But it did get a dangerous and escalating off the streets in the meanwhile, if it's any consolation. But to Libby's parents, it wasn't. Because where was she?

Those behaviors, the investigators finally linked, were the ones we've already talked about that escalation pathway. The ones that are not minor or gross, they're serious. And all the police can do right now is try to build a compelling case in the background. But they had not pressed any charges relating to Libby's disappearance. When they were asked whether this man that they took into custody was responsible for Libby's disappearance, they refused to comment on whether they thought he was involved. All they would say is that the investigation is ongoing. And then you know how much the public hates that phrase, but they couldn't talk right now, and you're going to know why. Weeks then passed, and Libby's family still had no answers. But what police had not let out to the

public was that there was a much more CCTV footage than what they had released. Of course there was. We see this all the time after the fact. Remember Brian Koberger? The police were so slow to release details and it looked like the case was at a standstill, but it wasn't. And right now, the Nancy Guthrie case, I assume it's the same story, that they're letting out bits and pieces of footage, leaking them as they go along, but they're not going to tell us what's up their sleeve. And this shouldn't come as a surprise. Investigators were often hold back key information in order to capture their offender or to prove their case when it goes to court. And in Libby's case, the police had publicly shared that Pavel's car had been seen multiple times in the area. That was true. But they didn't let the

public know that at 1208 a.m. on Friday the 1st of February 2019, the night that Libby was walking the streets, CCTV placed her inside of his car. Yeah, that was withheld. Moments earlier, that footage, which was really grainy, it was black and white, it was hard to see since the camera had a cobweb hanging right in front of the lens, it showed what was later identified as Pavel's silver car pulling up and parking on Hayworth Street. Remember that was the last street? Police were going to get information and they went around while a building that had a garage had a camera facing the road. I have this footage. I'm showing it to you. Pavel is seen leaving his vehicle in FYI. If you are watching and you're from the U.S., you might be thinking, wait, that's the passenger side. Just remember.

remember in Europe, it's reversed. After this, Pavel makes his way to Beverly Road, and he has seen walking past where Libby was on that bench. She would have been in that area during this time, but they were not seen crossing paths. Instead, he returned to his car, opened the door, and then he just sits inside. It looked like he was on his phone, maybe looking around, just sitting there with his legs hanging out of the open car door, just waiting. And then he stands up, He looks around the street back and forth, and once again, he locks his car and he heads to Beverly Road. At this point, Libby is walking down that same street, and he seems to be on a mission, and we know that he was. And what's eerie is that on one side of the road is Libby, and on the other side is Pavel, and every time she walks, he follows her from his side.

and then all of a sudden he makes his first move. He runs across Beverly Road and is trying to catch up to Libby. And she has no idea that she's being watched, followed, already violated because just like Laura, who was watched through her open window without her knowledge, Libby didn't know her personal boundaries were being crossed. Investigators watching this footage were stunned. Libby had been hunted. When Pavel finally caught up to her, he makes contact. He acts as though he's

helping her, steadying her. We will never know what he said to her. But he's close to her age. He doesn't look evil, so to speak. He has children of his own, so he probably knows how to be fatherly, how to be helpful and reassuring. He may have told her, I'm going to help you find your way home. He may have smiled and been friendly and gently guided her. But all of these things were done not to ensure that she got home safe, but to make sure she didn't. And that's sick. It's evil. It's not human. A few minutes later on the previous CCTV camera pointing towards Pavel's car, a pair of legs are seen getting into the passenger side. This is Libby. And then moments like, later, Pavel jumps into the driver's seat and pulls away. Now, the exact mechanics of how Libby

got into this vehicle, whether she was persuaded, promised something, told he was a cop, who knows? It's never going to be 100% clear, especially from grainy CCTV footage alone where we can only see part of his car. But it did show that Pavel was in close proximity to Libby at a critical moment that night. That should tell you enough, because you know, who he really is behind the facade that he shows to the world. And from 1208 a.m., that vehicle is tracked on CCTV footage going towards the area of Libby's house. And for a moment, the investigators could have wondered, was this man taking her home? But the car passed her street and kept going, making a three-minute drive to Oak Road playing fields.

At 1211, the car is captured arriving at the fields, and then at 1219, it's captured leaving the area. There's no further signs of Libby Squire. That eight-minute window, 1211 to 1219, is an incredibly short time, and yet those eight minutes changed everything. She went into those fields, and she never came out.

And what's really terrifying is that when all the tips were coming in, there was a caller who lived right in this area and they said they thought they heard screaming around midnight, but they thought it could be a fox or other wildlife. And still, they called, just in case. And officers did go out to that location to see if they saw any fox or animals nearby, but they didn't.

And at the time, nothing else stood out. They were simultaneously trying to track down the driver of this silver car. The police had all this information, but they only made public the fact they saw this silver car that they linked to Pavel in the same area, or Libby went missing. That's all the public knew. We now know. They believe Pavel was responsible for a disappearance because now we're seeing what they knew. But at that stage, they only had enough evidence to charge him in relation to those other offenses. In the meantime, they continued

working behind the scenes, reviewing more footage, analyzing forensic results, combing through every inch of that field, searching the waterways behind the field. Divers even searched this retention pond nearby, and all of this was happening while they were sharing very little publicly. But that search turned up nothing. They started to theorize that Libby may have been thrown into the riverhole behind the fields. The banks were being heavily searched and analyzed, but not only the way you're probably picturing, they had to know how long it would take theoretically for someone of Libby's height and weight to be carried, pulled, or dragged out to that field from a vehicle, violated, and then thrown into the water. So they got a weighted mannequin, kind of remind me the Karen Reed trial,

they used a weighted mannequin to test this. They wanted to see how far someone could get in that small window of time when she disappeared into those fields. And they concluded six to eight minutes. The possibility that this is what happened was both a huge lead, but also horrifying, because I'm showing you the river. It winds through the city, and then it dumps into the Humber, a major 40-mile-long tidal estuary that flows out to the North Sea, the sea, a vast, almost endless body of water. The river hole, where they believe Libby could have been thrown in, was fast, moving, it was six miles per hour, and it's 18 miles to the Humber. So that's three hours time,

and Libby would have been carried into that huge estuary. And then the Humber flows at the same speed around six miles an hour. Its job is to drain into the sea. It's about 22 miles to get there. So in another four hours, Libby could have been way out there. And that means by 10 a.m., while everyone was searching the streets, Libby could be in the sea. And when they told her parents, it's almost as though Lisa knew. And she actually did. Believe what you will, but on the way into Hull after Libby went missing, they were driving and they passed the humber. And when she looked into that water, she turned to her husband and she said, she's in there. And Russell was like, don't be silly. and she told him, I'm not. I'm being serious. She said she had a very strong feeling that that's

where Libby already was and that she wasn't alive. But now she had to at least hold on to hope until that was proven. Talk about a mother's intuition, but investigators were working around the clock. They were actually overworked. They weren't getting to go home to their families. They were exhausted, but they did not give up. They knew they couldn't. I want to bring you back to where they were in the investigation. They were trying really hard to identify the man who drove the silver car the lady got into. They were scouring CCTV footage. You were trying to pinpoint the make and model, and they were finally able to figure out it was an Astra, and they used traffic cameras to find all of them in that vicinity that night. And it narrowed it down to 80. But guess what?

They couldn't read the license plate, so nothing moved this forward. They were finally going back to the night of the crime, and they found one restaurant footage. It was called Chicken George's, and they had really, really good CCTV footage. They were hoping they could just read a little bit of that Silver Astra's plate, the one that kept driving around when Libby was walking. But unfortunately, I think you can tell from this photo, it was not readable. They tracked this car, though, for hours. Just seeing where he went next, snaking all around town. And it's crazy because at 2.24 a.m., he's making his way back to Oak Road towards the fields, the place where he went and Libby never came out. He was down there for a few minutes,

and then his car reappeared on the main road. And finally, after tracking him for hours, he turned down Raglan Street at 3 o'clock in the morning. And he never drove back out. So that is how they narrowed down who is driving that car. But it gets even better. Because as they're watching the footage from right around that time, they see a man walking from Raglan right after this and he goes past where? Chicken George's. And you know they have good cameras.

At 309 a.m., they got their very first glimpse of Pavel. All they had to do was link his image to the Silver Astra parked at his house on Raglan and they nailed him. That's what led to them confirming his identity. However, they weren't ready to move in and arrest him yet, and they wouldn't have if it wasn't for the damn media. I told you, it's a blessing and a curse. We love the media. We love reports on everything. We want to keep up with cases like this, but the media was pushing to release the CCTV footage of Libby getting into his car. Yep. They were watching police. They saw him. them go to that garage and ask for CCTV footage so the media did too, and the building owner

who wanted to make some cash sold them the footage. The investigators knew if that footage got out, it would compromise everything. It would tip off this perpetrator, and they had to move fast, even though they weren't ready to. So that's why the next morning they knock on his door, and they are stunned, because a woman answers, his wife. When they asked to speak to the man of the house, he comes out with two young children, and it's unbelievable. They thought, we have the wrong house. There's just no way this normal-looking guy hurt Libby. But they take him in for questioning. And I told you, he denied any involvement. Well, first of all, he needed a translator, because he did not speak very good English. They explained why they arrested him. They asked him if he was involved in any

way, and he said he can only tell them what he remembered that he did that night. He said, yes, he parked his car on Hayworth's and he got out to go on a run to lose weight. And he added that this was something he always did. It's kind of odd to run in a place at that, don't you think? A random residential neighborhood that's five minutes from his own house. And why not run during normal hours at maybe a park? I left myself on the street, where I parked in my car on that street, Hayworth, I think. So I did my warm-up in the car.

And I went on the road, the road, and I got out of the car and I went into the pavement. Remember how he was sitting in his car? He called that his warm-up for his run, that he was stretching. That's beyond creepy. Because, yeah, it was a warm-up all right, but not for working out.

He actually admits to seeing Libby and speaking with her. He said she told him to stop and that she needed help. She was crying and telling him she needed to go home and call her mother. Hey man, stop, please. I need help. I need go home. I need to call my mother. And what's sad is that part is probably true.

So now we have some insight into how scared Borough Libby was. She just wanted her mother. She just wanted to make it home. Then he told investigators that he felt sorry for her. And he told her he had a car. And if she just gives him her address, he can drive her home. She follows him to his car. He gets her to get inside.

He says he put the seatbelt on her and he's acting like he's so caring. Like, oh, I buckled her in. He said, she felt better because it was warm inside the car. and that makes me so heartbroken for her. It's a moment of comfort. Before the last moment, she will ever feel anything again. And she was hooked up to the car,

she got inside the car. And I fastened seatbelt on her. But he said on the way there, she asked him to stop. He thinks it was on Oak Road because she said she needed to throw up. And he didn't want to get a mess inside of his vehicle. So he pulled over and he told her to get out.

He actually told them she fell and he could tell she was only wearing a mini skirt and no tights. That's an interesting fact, you pervert. Somewhere here, somewhere here. She started to do it like this as if she wanted to vomit. And she begins to do like that again. So I said, get out of my car. She didn't know she went out of the snowing, in her, you know, her legs. She didn't have any, she only had the mini skirt.

She definitely did not have tides. He said after that he made sure she was okay and he saw her walking on the sidewalk and he drove away. He even tells them, you can check the cameras. Oh, they had. They had. And though the story was really well thought out, they didn't believe it. Even though it fits so nicely in what could be seen on the footage, they know better. So what they do is they go back in time and check more footage all the way back to 9 p.m.

And he stops at a gas station. They can see that he's wearing jeans. That's not jogging clothes. Oh, and his drone footage. yes, his own drone footage that they confiscated from his house, it showed that he was flying his drone right over the same area of the fields where Libby was taken. Now this was before he abducted her, so think about that. He was scoping out that area.

Look how clear this footage is. There's the monster putting his drone in flight. And there it goes, soaring over hall and showing the field. and the river, and to think, this is how he's using this technology. Modern day premeditation. He probably pinpointed that this was the perfect place to bring a victim and have his way with them. Except Libby fought back.

That's why his eye was scratch. Remember, she was feisty. Investigators believe he dragged her out of the car. He began forcing himself on her. And that's how he remembered. that she wasn't wearing tights. And when he was done, a struggle continued. And that's when they think Pavel was able to pick Libby up

or drag her to the river and throw her inside. Lisa told investigators, the Libby was not the best swimmer. She was decent, but she wasn't great. And she would have never gotten into that water by herself. It had to have been against her will. She was also under the influence of alcohol, which makes it so much harder to swim and keep your head above water.

She could be anywhere. And investigators had worked cases where people just fell into the same river, and they were never found. The case was at a standstill until it was thrust back into the public eye on Wednesday the 20th of March of that same year in 2019, 47 days after Libby disappeared. A member of the public was walking along Humber Estuary near the beautiful spurn point.

There's a basin there right before it drains into the North Sea. And that is where they discovered a body in the water. Police were called and that area was cordoned off while forensic teams began their work. And later that day, Uberside police confirmed that a body had been recovered from the estuary. A formal identification process followed this, but this happened two times before this

in different areas of this river, once it was a man's body. And they told Lisa they found something, and she was then relieved when it wasn't Libby. And then a woman's body was found. Again, not her daughter. So she was hoping it wasn't her this time either. But it was. The body was confirmed to be 21-year-old Liberty Anna Squire.

She had been found more than 30 miles from where she was last seen in Hull. And I do think that it's quite amazing that she didn't drift into the sea. Instead, she was caught in that point just before she disappeared forever. The confirmation ended weeks of uncertainty for her family. And Detective Superintendent Matt Hutchinson said at this time, our thoughts are with Libby's family. He also made it clear that the investigation was ongoing. And officers were continuing to examine how she came to be in that water.

Because remember, the public. doesn't know everything I told you already. Plus, there is a full investigation that still had to be conducted. Lisa said, she could barely breathe when she got the news. She was numb. She didn't even cry. She was just stunned. She couldn't believe this was real. And then they only had 24 hours to alert loved ones before the media released information. Were Libby's best friend, Amelia, hearing that she was dead was devastating. But she also said it was a huge relief because even if she was dead, they knew where she was.

And the outpouring of condolence to reach far and wide all over the internet, people were talking about it and how sorry they were that this was the outcome. But questions remained. Lisa wanted to know how her daughter died. And after her body was recovered on Wednesday, the 20th of March,

a post-mortem examination was carried out by special forensic pathologists. The problem was, the water had washed away any signs of a struggle that you would usually look for, like skin cells underneath fingernails. They couldn't tell if she had been alive or already dead when she went into the river. And her cause of death could not be confirmed. And being in the water that long has its own effect on the body. The decomposition process does slow down, especially in cold water, the skin, it becomes a pale, ashy color. It wrinkles, and it starts slipping away from muscle and bone. And the body itself would become bloated. And that's due to the processes that occur after death. It would also have what's known as grave wax all over it. I don't know

if you've ever heard of it or seen it, but I probably can't show it on this video, but you can look it up on Google. It's a waxy gray substance from the fatty tissue reacting with chemicals that are released during the decomposition phase. Now, this actually preserves the body a bit, but not in a way that anyone would want to witness. And why I'm saying that was because even though Libby's mother begged to see her, I mean, begged. These pathologists said no, and they tried to reason with her. They said, you don't want to see her daughter in this condition. But she said to them, her daughter was already dead. That in her mind was the worst thing. The worst had already happened. She wanted to see her no matter what condition she was in, period. Lisa admitted that this is not the right choice for everyone,

but it was for her. And though she said, of course, Libby didn't look like she used to. She was still beautiful to her. And that hit me so hard as a mom because that would be me when 100% nothing would come between me saying goodbye to my child. And that's what Lisa needed. She just wanted to be close to her again and tell her she loved her. She said, you're still my little girl, and you did a great job coming back to me. And that she was so proud of her. Lisa told her, it's okay. You're with me now. And that is such a bittersweet last moment. It's making me cry now. But the The findings from Libby's autopsy were not released in graphic detail to the public, but the toxicology test showed that she did have a high level of alcohol in her system on the night that

she died. The pathologist also identified evidence of intercourse. Summinal fluid was found in swabs from inside of her. They were collected for DNA, and there were no injuries suggesting that she had died from, let's say, blunt trauma or a weapon. But it was clear from the condition of her body that Libby had likely been in the water since the night that she went missing. But investigators had to consider every possible explanation before settling on murder. They explored whether Libby could have fallen into the water accidentally. You know, she was intoxicated. They saw her on CCTV footage, and they examined the possibility of this being self-inflicted,

but there was no evidence that suggests that she intended to take her own life that night. And her family was clear. She had been in a positive place mentally in the weeks leading up to her disappearance. They mapped the title patterns of this estuary to understand how long a body could have been in that water and where it might have traveled. Experts examined currents and drift modeling to establish whether Libby could realistically have entered the water herself near where she was found. I don't think you would conclude that right. But the conclusion investigators did reach was that the location and timing did not support an accident fall. That didn't happen. Forensic work on Libby's death continued for months alongside the investigation

into Pavel's other crimes. Police didn't have tunnel vision, though. They were seeking a link between the cases given his proximity to Libby on the night she died. And one critical factor potentially linked the crime together. And that was the DNA. The DNA collected from those other crimes was used to cross-check DNA found from the swabs from Libby's body. And it's going to be no surprise to you. It was a match. I was surprised. It was still preserved all of that time. But with modern technology, you only need a tiny amount for a match. Fibers were found from her clothing that were in his car. These were a match. And the CCTV timeline was also crucial evidence in this case. Police knew Libby had been in Pavel's car, but they didn't have any footage of an attack or a murder

or anything to show her being transported from Oak Road to the playing field and then to the water. So they could only work with what they had, his DNA, the footage showing them together, and the knowledge that he had already admitted to similar crimes motivated by a desire to prey on females on the same streets where she disappeared. They had tracked his vehicle on camera to the exact time when she vanished. They had forensic evidence inside of his car. They had that eight-minute window at Oak Road playing fields, where a car arrived with two people and left with one.

They also found a gold watch that was damaged. The clasp was broken. It had been found right near the bench where Libby was last seen. Her mother identified it as her watch. It wasn't a huge piece of evidence, but it did confirm that the person in the footage was Libby, and that a personal item from hers was also found there, and that a struggle had happened because it was ripped off of her arm.

Two months after Pavel appeared in court on the robbery and warriors from charges, on Thursday the 24th of October of 2019, he was finally charged for Libby's murder and for violating her. And finally, the public had confirmation that police believed they knew who was responsible for her death. But until that point, everything the public knew was things that they had pieced together through everything that you probably do when you watch current cases, court hearings, conferences, earlier offenses that were coming out in reports, and what they had of CCTV evidence. But a murder charge requires prosecutors to believe that there's a realistic prospect of a conviction based on the evidence they had. When these charges were brought, it meant that the Crown Prosecution Service believed the evidence was strong enough to present it to a church,

and get a conviction. Pavel appeared before a whole magistrate's court shortly after being charged and was remanded into custody. The case was then sent to Sheffield Crown Court for trial, and when it came time for Pavel to enter his plea, you could have guessed it, he denied everything. But finally, on the 12th of August of 2019,

he appeared at the whole Crown Court, and this was now for 13 past offenses. They added more. And it was at that point, that he finally agreed to plead guilty to some of them. And what was surprising was that he chose the ones that were similar to Libby's case. And if you don't know what I mean, not just what he burglarized, but the motivations, the ones that connected him to having an urge of gratifying himself.

He took a plea and that meant that his victims didn't have to appear in court. And you would think that's a good thing, including Laura. Remember her? She wasn't thrilled about not appearing. because she felt like she could have done more. She said, I was disturbed by how quickly it seemed to escalate. Things like him fondling himself. She used a different word that starts with M that I can't use.

She said in front of people, following them home. I mean, that stuff's terrifying. That's far worse than what he did at mine. I just felt terrible for these women. It was just gradually getting worse. And she went on to admit, I get these thoughts. Should I have done something? Should I have gone after him?

him? Could we have made the police take it more seriously? All of these things go through your head, but you know ultimately there's nothing you could have done. That makes me think. How many people were either embarrassed or blamed themselves and never actually reported it? These were still her words. And she also commented about how ordinary he looked. And that made her feel more inclined to show up and get him convicted so that people can truly understand there is no look to an evil person, which is the most frightening part. On Thursday the 22nd of August of 2019, he was sentenced to eight years and eight months in prison on all the previous charges.

There was no apology. There was no visible sign that there was any remorse. He was just quiet. Of course he was. And then the police came under fire. How could they have let these college students not know that this monster was prowling the grounds right near the school? How did they miss the signs? How did they let him keep escalating? But to their credit, there are so many of these types of incidents. I hate saying that, but it's true. They happen all over that it was hard to connect them. And if they would have tested the DNA before knowing that they had a suspect in mind, they would have gotten no matches. But still, I understand.

understand the public's criticism. Pavel's trial for Libby's murder began on Tuesday the 12th of January, 2021 at Sheffield Crown Court. And because of COVID, there were restrictions. They had to be modified. There were conditions. There were distancing in place, if you remember all that. So the public access was limited.

And for Libby's family who had waited nearly two years for this moment, it was the first time the full prosecution case would be laid out in detail before. a jury. The prosecution opened by setting out a clear timeline of the early hours of Friday the 1st of February. They told the jury that Libby had been vulnerable as she was clearly intoxicated when she was last seen on Beverly Road and that Pavel had driven past her multiple times before stopping his car and getting out to catch up with her. CCTV footage was played in court showing him leaving his silver car, walking in her direction and returning to his vehicle. And later, The footage then showed Libby entering the passenger side of the car at approximately 12.8 a.m.

Prosecutors said that from that moment, she was no longer seen alive on CCTV. Prosecutors argued that during that eight-minute window between the car arriving at the Oak Road playing fields and Pavel being seen leaving alone, he had forced himself on her and then dispose of her by dragging her to the edge of the river and throwing her inside. They went on to say that there was also a likely possibility that the reason he went back to that location a couple hours later was to make sure her body had made it downstream and that she wasn't caught up on rocks or in the riverbed. And it really didn't matter what technique he used to get her into that water. The jury was told that Pavel's DNA was found on her body and that she had not consented to enact with him. All other forensic evidence was laid out as well. When I say it on her body, it was in her body.

I think you understand where it came from. They heard evidence about title analysis of the water, the drift modeling to assess how her body would have traveled through that river. The prosecution's case relied heavily on the combination of CCTV, forensic science, and timing. Because since the first time the police had spoken to Pavel, He had denied any involvement in Libby's disappearance, her violation, or her murder. So they had to rely on what they had. Now, I wanted to quickly tell you something.

This is one of those courtroom concepts that completely changes how a jury hears a case, and it's critical in this case. The jury was allowed to hear about Pavel's previous convictions. In England and Wales, a defendant's past offenses cannot simply be introduced. It's a lot like the U.S. It can't be used to suggest they're a bad person. who's capable of worse things. The court has to determine whether those earlier events, those earlier crimes, are relevant to the issues the jury's going to decide in this murder case. And in this trial,

the prosecution applied to admit all of his earlier convictions of warriorism and what they call outraging public decency as what is known as bad character evidence. And the prosecution knew that Pavel's lawyers were going to try to say that any contact he had with her was consensual, and the Crown argued that his documented pattern, the intrusions on women over and over again, are relevant because it shows the intent. His legal team argued that his earlier offenses for burglary and voyeurism and all that other stuff should not be used to suggest that he was more likely to commit this crime. But guess what? The judge allowed it in. It's because of motive. It was the same in Libby's case and the other case.

also they were in the same geographical location targeting women late at night. That's very specific. And just like in cases you have watched here, the court gave the jury very, very limited and detailed instructions on how they could use that information. They were not allowed to just reason that because he had committed similar offenses, he must be guilty of murder. Instead, they were told they could consider whether the earlier convictions demonstrated a pattern of behavior that helped the jury assess the likelihood of his account not being truthful. Remember, his account was, oh, it wasn't me, I just nicely, carefully, gentleman-like, took her home. Easy enough, right? So we're assessing, is he being truthful from what we know he did before? But back to what the defense

said. Here's their story of that night. As expected, when it was the defense's turn to address the jury, their case did not center on denying that Pavel had encountered Libby at all. Instead, it focused on reframing what happened during that encounter. Pavel accepted that he had stopped his car because he was a good Samaritan. That's what he was agreeing to. I'm a good Samaritan. That's why I stopped. And that Libby had entered his car voluntarily and willingly. But now at court, he doesn't give the story about how he's running in this part of town. No. He said he was driving around that night, looking for what he described as easy sex, and that when he saw Libby sitting alone and intoxicated,

he approached her, and that's just, ugh. Like, even the fact that he's admitting just that, I don't know, I'm like, checkbox, guilty, but of course, the jury had to hear everything. He told the court that he asked her if she was all right, that she got into his car by herself voluntarily, and that what followed down Oak Road was a consensual act between two.

adults. The defense argued the CCTV footage did not show violence. It didn't show force. It just showed proximity. It did not capture what happened inside the vehicle or at the field. They emphasized that there was no eyewitness to an attack, no recording of an attack. And when it came to that eight-minute window on Oak Road, the defense position was that Libby had just left the vehicle. She left alive. Pavelle claimed that after they had, been together inside of his car in that supposed consensual act, she exited the car and walked away. He denied forcing her into anything. He denied causing her to go in the water. He told the court he did not know what happened to her after that point. And the defense suggested that given her level of intoxication

and the cold conditions, it was possible she just walked into the river. Or, that she had walked somewhere else and come to harm in some other way that did not involve their client, Pavel, at all. And you're wondering about the scratches on his face, while those were addressed in court, the prosecution framed them as evidence of resistance from Libby, and even Pavel's wife had told detectives that they were not there, and so the morning after Libby had been reported missing.

She asked him, how'd you get that? And he said when he was fixing his car. And then in his interview with police, he said it was from his glasses that he was playing with one of his young sons and they were pulling off his glasses and it scratched his face. So we already changed his story before. Tell me about the mark on your face. I wear glasses all the time, you know.

Okay. And with my son, I would always play. Fully games and he would always throw my glasses somewhere. But now again, it's something different. Pavel's explanation was that Libby had scratched him when she tried to kiss him and he turned his face away? What? The defense presented this as a clumsy contact between two intoxicated people, not a struggle. So now I'm like, wait, they're both drunk?

When did that come into play? The defense also did not dispute that Pavel's DNA was found in Libby's body. Instead, they argued, oh, that's consistent. with the consensual contact. They told the jury that DNA alone can't tell you whether something's forced or it's consensual. And likewise, those fibers that match from her clothing in the car, well, it's obvious. She was in the car. It seemed like they had an answer for everything.

But there was one major battleground which neither side had a clear explanation for. During that post-mortem examination, the pathologist was unable to determine a medical cause of her death. And that's not uncommon when a body has been in water for several weeks. The defense relied on that as an uncertainty. They argued that leaves wide open alternatives for how Libby died. They went so far, and this made me mad, to reference her past mental health history, implying that she did this to herself. They were trying to make it out like it was just coincidental timing that this happened to happen

And right after this consensual act, even though we know, all she was trying to do is go home and call her mom. No, he's seen watching, praying, and following her. In essence, the defense's case was that Pavel, he was selfish, he was immoral that night, but that doesn't mean he's a murderer. His lawyer was accepting the fact that he had taken advantage of a young, vulnerable woman. And his actions, he said, carried a strong moral responsibility. but he urged the jury to separate the disgust that they might feel from proof and to focus on whether the prosecution had proven that Pavel forced Libby into anything or intentionally killed her. And then the jury was left to deliberate.

They began on Monday, the 8th of February, and on Thursday the 11th of February 2021, they found Pavel guilty, not just of a forceful act, not consensual, and murder. What I thought was interesting is the verdict on the violation was unanimous, but the murder verdict was what they call a majority verdict, meaning more jurors believed he was guilty than not guilty, and in the UK, a majority verdict is still a conviction beyond a reasonable doubt. He was sentenced on Friday the 12th of February, and before the sentence was determined, the judge did hear the victim impact statements from Libby's family, her mother, who described a devastation of losing her eldest daughter and the weeks of uncertainty before her body was found. She spoke about the ordinary details that now felt unbearable, seeing Libby's belonging still in her

bedroom, celebrating birthdays without her, and knowing that she would never watch her daughter get married or build a career that she dreamed of. And her father Russell told the court that the family had been left with a life sentence of grief. He said he trusted that Libby was safe at the university, and the reality of what happened had shattered that sense of security. Both of her parents emphasized that Libby was deeply loved and that her absence was felt in their everyday lives. When this judge sentenced Pavel, he said that he took advantage of Libby's vulnerability for his own gratification, and then after he got what he wanted, he was done with her and he didn't care if she died. He actually made sure she did. He rejected Pavel's entire account of everything he said happened that night,

and he said that this was aggravated by the fact that he had actively been looking for a victim that night. He told Pavel that Libby had been drunk and vulnerable, and that he prayed upon her. The judge also addressed the disposal of Libby's body. He said that after killing her, Pavel hid what he had done and disposed of her in that water, in an attempt to avoid detection. And that added so much to this because it prolonged the family's suffering and denied them answers for weeks.

He was sentenced to a life term, but there is a term of 27 years first where it's sort of similar to US courts where he can be looked at by what's a parole board equivalent. And on top of the life sentence, he had a 17-year sentence for the violation to run concurrently. And as you're watching this,

the monster is still in prison and he's serving that minimum 27 years before there's any possibility of a parole board looking at his risk and whether they should let him out, and I hope they do not. In interviews after the trial, Lisa spoke about the need to understand what happened in those final minutes of her daughter's life. She talked about the unanswered questions that still linger even after the conviction, and despite their grief, Libby's family chose not to step back from the public. Instead, they began speaking up. Her family began questioning whether patterns like the ones in Pavel's

case ever received the level of scrutiny that they should. And when somebody repeatedly places themselves outside windows of women at night and does things that I already told you about because I don't want to keep repeating them, but when they're doing that, stealing those items, exposing themselves, that is not awkwardness. It's targeted. And we've seen this escalation. Ted Bundy. He engaged in the same kind of behavior and even stalking and then escalated to abduction, violation, and murder. And then we have Joseph DiAngelo, another high profile. He was the Golden State Killer. He did the same, prowling, voyeurism, years before his series of murders. Women are also discounted more times than they should be, and the boys will be boys' mentality is not healthy when it comes to

adult men acting out on their urges in a criminal manner. In Kingston upon whole, the place where Libby was last seen, it didn't just stay a CCTV location. It became a site for morning and flowers and candles and messages. And gathering at that bench area was a symbol for a name and what was lost. And one detail that always stuck with me is what her parents asked for. When they visited that bench, they wanted you to read the messages. And they wanted the flowers not to be wasted. They were taken back and turned into popery so that her family and friends and community would keep something tangible. She said she was here and she was loved. And if I leave you with anything, it's this. Libby didn't cause what happened to her. A predator caused it. And the story doesn't begin at a

club door. It begins in a pattern that was already active, already escalating, and already being socially minimized. But I'm not the thought police. I can't. tell you not to think what you want about Libby, but I do ask you not to post negative thoughts and keep the comments respectful. Let Libby's name be spoken about with love and with care. Don't leave your friends behind either. I hope you always remember Libby's story. Bye.