Illegal immigrant jailed for murder just years after being released from Romanian jail for ‘strikingly similar’ crime

An illegal immigrant has been jailed for life for murdering a man in the UK just three years after serving a sentence in Romania for a “strikingly similar” killing.

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

On Friday, Judge Richard Marks KC jailed Neamtu at the Old Bailey for life with a minimum term of 27 years.

Neamtu had stabbed Mr 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.