Killer jailed for life for murdering flatmate in Walthamstow

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.

Appearing at the Old Bailey on Friday, Judge Richard Marks KC sentenced Neamtu to life with a minimum term of 27 years.

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.