A man convicted of murder in Romania travelled to Britain after being released from prison and killed his flatmate in an attack described as ‘strikingly similar’.
Eugeniu Neamtu, 59, was this week found guilty of fatally stabbing 63-year-old Gheorghe Trica at their Walthamstow, north-east London, flat on February 20.
It was heard at the Old Bailey that the two men had been arguing about money in the moments before Neamtu stabbed his victim in the chest with a kitchen knife.
Witnesses reported hearing Mr Trica shouting: ‘Give me back those £5’, before Neamtu cried: ‘F**k off, I don’t have any to give you, leave me.’
Mr Trica was found lying in a pool of blood on a communal balcony outside the flat a short time later. Despite the efforts of paramedics and police, he died at the scene from a single stab wound to the chest.
Neamtu was spotted throwing an item over the balcony’s banister shortly after the attack. A police dog was used to search the area and the murder weapon – a black-handled steak knife – was recovered from the garden.
The ‘dangerous offender’ also made a call to 999, in which he said: ‘There was an incident here and a person is injured. There was an altercation, a man was cut, and I am the perpetrator’ .
Witnesses identified Neamtu as the man who stabbed Mr Trica when police officers arrived at the scene a short time later.
Eugeniu Neamtu, 59, was this week found guilty of murder 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
Following his arrest, he claimed in prepared statements 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’ his flatmate and stabbed him in the chest to protect himself.
Prosecutor Philip Evans KC said: ‘He said that Gheorghe Trica was swearing towards his family members and had been drinking cider from cans.
‘At one point Gheorghe pushed him and he fell down the stairs, and that he had an injury on his rear right shoulder and a scrape on his forehead.
‘He said that Gheorghe Trica continued swearing and making threats towards him and went to grab a chair to attack him with.’
But Mr Evans also pointed out during the trial that, in fact, Neamtu had stabbed a man and tried to cast the blame on his victim on a previous occasion.
The 59-year-old was convicted in May 2007 of fatally stabbing his housemate Adrian Vas during a drunken row centred around money in his native Romania.
The incident occurred during August 2006 at the home where Neamtu and Vas were living together.
Mr Evans said the housemates had been drinking plum brandy and rowed over rent and work that the defendant had agreed to carry out at the property.
During the confrontation, the defendant took up a knife from the hallway and stabbed Mr Vas several times in the chest, jurors were told.
Neamtu 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.
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
The 59-year-old was found guilty of the crime at the Old Bailey and will be sentenced on Friday, August 21
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 said: ‘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.
‘In both cases he stabbed the other man in the chest. In both cases he later claimed that he acted in self‑defence.’
Neamtu’s earlier murder conviction can only now be reported following the conclusion of his trial for the killing of Mr Trica.
He was released from prison in Romania in 2023 and moved to Walthamstow, where he carried out his latest attack just three years later.
Before the week-long trial began, Mr Evans had asked for the full details of the earlier stabbing to be put before the jury because of its ‘powerful probative evidence’ in the new case.
He pointed out many aspects of the two cases were the same and the fact Neamtu would have known his second victim, Mr Trica, might die if he was stabbed in the chest.
During legal argument, Mr Evans said: ‘The court in Romania in 2007 rejected the argument he did not intend to inflict injury in 2006. This is directly relevant to a key issue – was it to scare him or cause serious bodily harm?’
Defence barrister Paul Hynes KC argued it would be too prejudicial to his client for the full circumstances to be shared with the jury.
Judge Richard Marks KC allowed some details to be put before the jury but not that the first victim had in fact died from stab wounds to the heart and lungs, or that Neamtu had been convicted of his murder.
In his ruling, Judge Marks told the prosecution: ‘In fairness, I am not proposing to allow you to adduce the consequences of the death.’
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.
Following the verdict, Judge Marks told jurors the victim in Romania had died and remanded the defendant in custody to be sentenced on Friday, August 21.
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