Killer jailed for murdering second flatmate

A man has been jailed for life for murdering his flatmate in the UK just three years after completing a prison sentence in Romania for a "strikingly similar" killing.

Construction worker Eugeniu Neamtu, 59, known as Jimmy, was found guilty of fatally stabbing his flatmate Gheorghe Trica, 63, in Walthamstow, east London, on 20 February.

Appearing at the Old Bailey on Friday, Mr Justice Marks sentenced Neamtu to life with a minimum term of 27 years.

Neamtu had stabbed his fellow Romanian Trica in the heart in almost identical circumstances to an earlier killing in his home country dating back to 2006, the court heard.

In May 2007, he was jailed for 15 years in Romania for murdering his housemate by stabbing him repeatedly in the chest in a drunken row over money.

Following his release from prison, he travelled to the UK as a visitor in September 2023.

He failed to declare his previous conviction or his intention to work to UK authorities, and was therefore not in the country lawfully at the time of the killing in 2026, the court heard.

Sentencing Neamtu, Marks said Trica's killing had been triggered by the "exceptionally trivial fact" the victim had asked to be repaid £5.

The killer had shown "no remorse" and his previous conviction in Romania was an "extremely aggravating factor", he said.

The judge told Neamtu: "The fact you killed another person within three years of your release underlines how dangerous an individual you are."

The facts of the two killings were "remarkably similar", with both involving the use of a knife in a domestic setting in a row over money, he said.

During the trial, prosecutor Philip Evans KC told jurors there had been an argument between the defendant and Trica at the flat they shared with six other Romanians.

Both had shouted insults in Romanian and Trica was heard to say: "Give me back those £5."

At one point a bystander exclaimed "Oh my God, he has cut Trica", and the victim was found in a pool of blood, jurors were told.