A man has been jailed for a minimum of 22 years after he was caught on CCTV using a wheelie bin to transport the body of a woman he had beaten to death inside a rented shipping container.
Neculai Paizan was found guilty of murdering 20-year-old Agnes Dora Akom in Brent, northwest London, hitting her over the head at least 20 times with a jigsaw power tool.
Shortly after committing the murder, the 64-year-old was captured on CCTV calmly washing his hands and face before bundling her body into the boot of his car inside a bag on 9 May 2021.
The following day, Paizan transported her body to Neasden Recreation Ground, where footage released by the Metropolitan Police after his sentencing at the Old Bailey on Monday showed him using a wheelie bin to transport her body to nearby woodland.
She lay buried there beneath a pile of logs and branches for more five weeks before being discovered by sniffer dogs just days before her 21st birthday, with her head in a black plastic bag and her body badly decomposed.
Following the verdict, Akom’s family accused Paizan of “dragging her through the mud” in death as a result of his lies about her, in which he falsely claimed she was a sex worker and that she had poisoned him with iced coffee.
A police investigation hailed as “exceptional” by Judge Richard Marks QC had led officers to Akom’s last known location, which was Paizan’s rented container, where an examination revealed heavy blood stains despite “vigorous attempts” to remove them.
Initially, Paizan – a concrete mixer driver whose residence was given as Peel Street, Kensington – told police he had killed Akom in “self-defence”, but went on to to give a different story in his evidence to jurors during his trial.
He admitted moving the body but denied murdering the young woman he knew as Dora and claimed to have come 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, with the court hearing that the pair met 54 times over the 12 months before she was murdered.
On Paizan’s possible motive, Judge Marks suggested he launched into the violent assault after she told him: “Don’t touch me.”
In a victim impact statement, Akom’s mother described how her daughter and her boyfriend Peter Lenart had moved to Britain from Hungary for a “new life”. Reading her statement, prosecutor Jake Hallam QC said the young couple’s hopes had been “thoroughly extinguished through the actions of this defendant”.
Her mother said Paizan had dragged her daughter’s name “presented himself as a victim” to the jury, adding: “But he is the one who is a liar.”
In his statement, Mr Lenart outlined the problems that he and Akom – who was a coffin-maker by trade – had in Britain due to their youth and “lack of money”, and described Paizan’s lies to the jury as compounding his grief.
“I have had to hear Paizan say Agnes slept with 15 or 20 people a day – these are really hurtful comments. She did not do these things. She was not a prostitute. She was my love, my partner and my best friend. He preyed on her vulnerabilities and knew it.”
Detective Chief Inspector Neil John, of the Metropolitan Police, said: “Our thoughts remain with Agnes’s family and friends, who not only have suffered from her loss, but have had to endure hearing the details of her murder during this trial.
“The level of violence Paizan used in his attack on Agnes was truly horrific. What she suffered inside the container does not bear thinking about.
“Whilst it is not clear why he killed her that day, his attempts to hide his crime in the following hours and days show a calculated effort to ensure that, not only was Agnes never found, but that he would not be caught.
“During his testimony at the Old Bailey, 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.”
At the sentencing, Judge Marks told Paizan: “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.”
Additional reporting by PA
