Detective Superintendent Martin Smalley, Senior Investigating Officer in the case, said:“This has been one of the most challenging and emotional cases I’ve led on in my 30 year career as a detective, and I know everyone has felt as deep a personal connection to Libby as I have.

“Whenever anyone is reported missing, especially someone who was vulnerable, as Libby was that night, it prompts a large scale response.

“We had hundreds of officers from across all teams, including neighbourhood policing teams, patrol teams, specials and student officers, knocking on doors in the local area and gathering as much information from people who knew Libby about where she frequented.

"We had specialist, trained search officers, alongside other specialist teams such as, dogs and underwater search, searching vast green areas, drains and areas of water. We are grateful to the National Crime Agency who supported us with extra resources, as well as all of the partner agencies and other forces who helped us.

“We were also so grateful for the incredible support from local people who took Libby into their hearts from the outset. Countless numbers of local people were out every single day searching for Libby. It really showed the true spirit of Hull and how much the people of the city care about each other.”

“A key part of the search, and later the investigation was the piecing together of CCTV imagery showing Libby’s movements that night and subsequently Pawel Relowicz’s too.

“Our teams painstakingly trawled through hundreds and hundreds of hours of CCTV footage, to put together a timeline of events from the moment Libby was refused entry to the nightclub, to when Pawel Relowicz picked her up in his car on Beverley Road and took her to Oak Road Playing Fields; the last moment Libby was seen on CCTV.

“The search and investigation into Libby’s disappearance were incredibly complex and fast moving. With very limited lines of enquiry, officers acted quickly to proactively identify, locate and apprehend Pawel Relowicz within days of Libby’s disappearance. These efforts have undoubtedly prevented him from going on to commit further offences.

“Although the investigation was challenging, we remained motivated throughout and never gave up looking for Libby.

“From the CCTV imagery and the significant pieces of information provided to us during the investigation, we were able to show just how premeditated this crime was.

"Pawel Relowicz had been captured prowling streets, particularly the student areas, where he found Libby, and also visiting Oak Road Playing Fields several times, where the offences took place, presumably scoping the area for what he would later do.

“He was arrested on suspicion of a number of burglaries and sexually motivated crimes, including in connection with Libby’s disappearance, just five days after Libby was reported missing.

“Pawel Relowicz was not known to police before the investigation into Libby’s disappearance, and had never been in the police or court system before.

"A number of these other sexually motivated offences had been reported over the two years leading up to Libby’s disappearance, but some of them only started to be reported as the Libby search unfolded.

“There was no one pattern of offending to the previous offences that would have allowed us to have reasonably made a connection between them all. They were spread out in time, had taken place in an extremely densely populated area and even with DNA and fingerprints available at some of the offence locations, Pawel Relowicz wasn’t in the system so there was no match.

“As soon as he was arrested in February 2019, we were able to take his DNA and fingerprints which then showed a match for some of these other crimes.

"Whilst we continued to investigate Libby’s disappearance further, we secured charges for 13 offences and he was remanded. He then pleaded guilty to nine of these and was sentenced in August 2019.

“There was no doubt in my mind from the moment of Pawel Relowicz’s first arrest that he was responsible for Libby’s disappearance. Of course at that stage in the investigation, we didn’t know exactly what had happened to Libby, but it was clear to me and my team that our investigation would uncover the truth.

“On Thursday 24 October 2019, he was charged in connection with Libby’s rape and murder.

“During the trial, Pawel Relowicz gave a significant number of different accounts of what had happened to Libby and what his interactions with her had been.

“Ultimately, a combination of CCTV, witness testimony, forensic evidence (DNA), Pawel Relowicz’s changing testimony and previous offending history, presented an extremely compelling case. The jury have been able to make their own conclusions from that.

“Finally, I again just want to thank everyone who has helped and supported our investigation over what has been a difficult two years.”