Killer jailed for life for murdering flatmate in Walthamstow – BBC News
BBC Homepage
Skip to content
Accessibility Help
Your account
Home
News
Sport
Earth
Reel
Worklife
Travel
Culture
Future
Music
TV
Weather
Sounds
More menu
More menu
Search BBC
Killer jailed for life for murdering second flatmate
Image source: Metropolitan Police
Image caption: Eugeniu Neamtu fatally stabbed another housemate over 20 years ago
Published: 21 August 2026, 12:05 BST
Updated: 5 minutes ago
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.
On Friday, Mr Justice Marks sentenced Neamtu to life with a minimum term of 27 years at the Old Bailey.
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 traveled 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.
‘Dangerous individual‘
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.
