A “wicked” predator who beat a vulnerable young woman to death in a converted shipping container and buried her body in woods has been jailed for life.
Romanian Neculai Paizan, 64, was found guilty of murdering Agnes Dora Akom, 20, from Cricklewood, following a trial at the Old Bailey.
The court heard how Paizan hit his victim at least 20 times over the head with a jigsaw power tool during the brutal assault in Park Royal on May 9 last year.
Afterwards, he was captured on CCTV calmly washing his hands and face before bundling her body into the boot of his car inside a bag.
The next day, he transported her to Neasden Recreation Ground where he used a wheelie bin to transport her to woodland where he buried her beneath a pile of logs and branches.
Over the coming days, Paizan visited the park where he had hidden the body five times while telling his son he wanted to go back to Romania.
Ms Akom, a coffin-maker from Hungary, was reported missing by her concerned boyfriend, with whom she lived in Cricklewood.
With her head in a black plastic bag, her badly decomposed body was discovered by police sniffer dogs on June 14 last year, a week before her 21st birthday.
The police investigation led officers to Ms Akom’s last known location, Paizan’s rented container.
An examination of the container revealed heavy blood stains matched to the victim despite “vigorous attempts” to clean it up.
Ms Akom’s blood was also found in the defendant’s car.
Her clothes had been bagged and discarded in a skip along with the blood-stained jigsaw with Ms Akom’s hairs stuck to it.
Initially, Paizan told police he had killed Ms Akom in “self-defence” but went on to to give a different story in his evidence to jurors during his trial.
Paizan, a concrete mixer driver, admitted moving the body but denied murdering the young woman he knew as Dora, falsely claiming she poisoned him with iced coffee.
He described how he came to love her “like a daughter” after finding her begging for small change in a supermarket car park.
However, the evidence suggested that he had preyed on her vulnerability and targeted her with the promise of money.
They met 54 times over the 12 months before the murder, and jurors were shown photographs Paizan took of Ms Akom semi-naked, the court heard.
On Monday, Judge Richard Marks QC said Paizan, of Peel Street, Kensington, had shown no remorse as he jailed him for life with a minimum term of 22 years.
Judge Marks told him: “It is clear on your lengthy evidence that you remain in a complete state of denial as to what you did in that frenzy of violence that took away that young girl’s life at the age of 20.
“These were shocking acts of wickedness on your part.”
Ms Akom’s mother said Paizan had dragged her daughter’s name “through the mud after her death” and “presented himself as a victim” to the jury.
She added: “But he is the one who is a liar.”
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here