Agnes Akom: Lorry driver Necolai Paizan guilty of power tool murder

A 64-year-old man who beat a young woman to death in a converted shipping container has been found guilty of murder.

Lorry driver Necolai Paizan hit 20-year-old Agnes Dora Akom at least 20 times over the head with a jigsaw power tool.

The brutal assault happened in Brent, north-west London, on 9 May last year.

Paizan, from Kensington, west London, then buried her dismembered body in the woods.

He was captured on CCTV calmly washing his hands and face after the attack, before bundling her body into the boot of his car inside a bag.

The next day, he transported her to Neasden Recreation Ground in north London, where he used a wheelie bin to transport her to woodland and buried her beneath a pile of logs and branches.

Over the next few 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.

Her badly decomposed body was discovered by police sniffer dogs on 14 June last year, a week before her 21st birthday. Her head was found in a black plastic bag.

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. Her 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.

Giving evidence, 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.

The father-of-four claimed he called her his "princess, little angel and sparrow" and in turn she called him "grandpa".

Under cross-examination, prosecutor Jake Hallam QC suggested Paizan's account was a pack of lies.

Speaking outside court, Det Ch Insp Neil John said the level of violence used in the attack as "truly horrific".

Describing Paizan's efforts to "hide his crime" from police as "calculated", Det Ch Insp also dismissed his defence testimony saying: "Paizan concocted a number of stories in an attempt to paint Agnes in a bad light".

"Our investigation, and what we know about Agnes, tell us that whilst she was vulnerable, he has clearly lied about her background and personal situation in an attempt to sway the jury."

"It is likely that he preyed upon these vulnerabilities to abuse her, ultimately leading to her murder."

Judge Richard Marks QC adjourned sentencing until 25 July, so that an officer could travel to rural Hungary and speak to Ms Akom's family and obtain a victim impact statement.

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HM Courts & Tribunals Service