A Romanian killer who moved to the UK and went on to murder a man in a case described as “strikingly similar” to his earlier crime has been jailed for life.
Eugeniu Neamtu, 59, told authorities he had no criminal convictions when he arrived in Britain on a six-month tourist visa in 2023.
In fact, the construction worker had been freed from prison only four months earlier after serving part of a 15-year sentence in Romania.
Neamtu, who was known as Jimmy, was convicted of murder in May 2007 after repeatedly stabbing his housemate during a drunken dispute over money and household chores.
This February, in an almost identical attack, Neamtu stabbed his flatmate and fellow Romanian, 63-year-old Gheorghe Trica, in the heart after an argument at their home in Walthamstow, east London.
Mr Trica collapsed on the doorstep, and despite attempts by police and paramedics to save him, he was pronounced dead at the scene.
The confrontation had begun after Mr Trica asked Neamtu to repay £5.
At the Old Bailey today, Neamtu was found guilty of fatally stabbing Mr Trica and was jailed for life with a minimum term of 27 years.
Eugeniu Neamtu, 59, has been jailed for life after fatally stabbing his flatmate at their home in Walthamstow, north-east London, in February
Gheorghe Trica, 63, was found lying in a pool of blood at the scene and died from a single stab wound to the chest
Judge Richard Marks KC described the motive behind the killing as ‘exceptionally trivial’.
Neamtu had shown ‘no remorse’ and his previous conviction in Romania was an ‘extremely aggravating factor,’ he said.
Following his release from a Romanian 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.
Judge Marks 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 Mr Trica at the flat they shared with six other Romanians in Walthamstow.
Both had shouted insults in Romanian and Mr 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.
Police bodycam footage of Neamtu at the scene. After being arrested, Neamtu claimed in prepared statements that Mr Trica had threatened to kill him, pushed him down the stairs and made throat-slitting gestures
Mr Trica collapsed on the communal balcony outside the front door of the flat and died at the scene, despite efforts of police and medics.
Afterwards, the defendant was seen to throw something over the banister of the balcony.
A police dog was used to search the area and the murder weapon – a black-handled steak knife – was recovered from the garden.
In a call translated by a Romanian-speaking interpreter, Neamtu told a 999 operator: ‘There was an incident here and a person is injured. There was an altercation, a man was cut, and I am the perpetrator.’
Following his arrest, Neamtu claimed in a prepared statement that Mr Trica had threatened to kill him, pushed him down the stairs and made throat-slitting gestures.
He said he picked up the knife from the kitchen to ‘scare’ Mr Trica and stabbed him in the chest to protect himself.
Mr Evans pointed out ‘striking similarities’ to Neamtu’s previous attack in Romania.
In August 2006, Neamtu had repeatedly stabbed Adrian Vas in the chest at the house where they were both living.
The pair had been drinking plum brandy and rowed over rent and housework that the defendant had agreed to carry out at the property.
During the confrontation, the defendant took up a knife from the hallway and attacked Mr Vas, jurors were told.
That knife was later recovered from the grounds of the property.
The defendant told Romanian authorities that he and Mr Vas had argued, insulted each other and fought with objects to hand, and that it was possible he struck Mr Vas with a knife in self‑defence.
In later accounts, he said that he picked up a knife because he was afraid and that Mr Vas had provoked him, the court was told.
The Romanian court rejected the defendant’s claim of self‑defence.
Mr Evans had told jurors: ‘The prosecution in this case relies on this previous conviction because of the striking similarities between the circumstances of that offence and the allegation you are concerned with in this trial.
‘In both cases the defendant was involved in a drunken argument with an associate over money. In both cases he took up a knife from within the home.’
He added that in both cases Neamtu claimed he was acting in ‘self-defence’.
Neamtu, of Westbury Road, Walthamstow, was assisted by an interpreter in court. He denied murder but declined to give evidence in his trial.
The jury deliberated for three hours to find him guilty of murder.
They were not told that Neamtu’s first victim had in fact died until after reaching their verdict.
A Home Office spokesperson said: ‘Our thoughts are with the victim of this horrific crime and with all those who have been affected by it.
‘The perpetrator has now been rightly convicted and justice has been delivered by the courts. Once sentencing has taken place, we will seek to deport him off British soil.’
