On Tuesday, August 18, a jury at the Old Bailey found Eugeniu Neamtu, 59, of Westbury Road, Walthamstow, guilty of the murder of 63-year-old Gheorghe Trica (30.07.1967).
At 20:51 hours on Friday, February 20, 2026, the London Ambulance Service and Met officers responded to allegations of a stabbing at an address in Walthamstow’s Westbury Road neighbourhood.
Upon their arrival at the property, the officers discovered Gheorghe unresponsive and suffering from a puncture wound. Gheorghe was declared deceased at the site shortly thereafter, despite the extensive efforts of paramedics.
Neamtu was apprehended that evening and was subsequently charged with homicide on Sunday, February 22.
The inquiry
Met detectives conducted enquiries that revealed that Neamtu and Gheorghe were engaged in a dispute over money within the flat in which they both resided on Friday, February 20. Neamtu utilised a knife to assault Gheorghe during the dispute.
A substantial portion of the investigation focused on a sequence of emergency calls that Neamtu made from his personal mobile phone in the minutes following his stabbing of Gheorghe.
In a call that was translated by a Romanian-speaking interpreter, Neamtu informed the 999 operator that “an incident occurred here and an individual sustained an injury.” A individual sustained a cut during an altercation, and I am the one who caused it.
Neamtu was promptly identified as the perpetrator by the residents upon the arrival of the police at the stabbing site.
Neamtu was observed by witnesses to be standing on the communal balcony immediately following the stabbing, and he then made a flinging motion over the railing. The area was searched by a police dog, and officers discovered a steak knife in the garden beneath the balcony. During a subsequent police interview, Neamtu acknowledged that he had lifted the knife from the kitchen.
Neamtu primarily responded with “no comment” during police interviews following his arrest. However, he submitted pre-formulated statements that asserted he acted in self-defence and did not intend to harm Gheorghe.
He informed the officers that Gheorghe had verbally abused him, threatened him, shoved him down a staircase, and attempted to attack him with a chair. Nevertheless, detectives were unable to locate any evidence that substantiated those assertions. Neamtu’s account of the events was not corroborated by witness accounts, and a medical examination revealed only minor superficial injuries on his body.
The pathology evidence indicated that Gheorghe was the victim of a single stab wound to the chest that penetrated the heart and resulted in catastrophic internal bleeding. Severe force was employed to cause the injury.
The trial
The jury heard testimony from numerous residents who were present in the flat at the time of the assault.
The court was informed by residents that they overheard a protracted dispute between Neamtu and Gheorghe, during which Gheorghe requested that Neamtu return £5. Additionally, residents reported that Neamtu maintained his composure in the aftermath of the stabbing and that he disposed of an object that was later identified as the murder weapon.
None of the witnesses reported witnessing Gheorghe being armed with a weapon or behaving in the manner that Neamtu later claimed during the police interview.
The jury was informed of evidence regarding a prior conviction at the Arges Court of Justice in Romania during the trial. This was in reference to a severe knife attack that transpired in 2006 during an additional dispute regarding financial matters. Fingerprint evidence obtained by Met investigators verified Neamtu’s status as the defendant in this non-recent case.
During the incident, Neamtu became embroiled in a dispute regarding rent and money. He subsequently armed himself with a knife and proceeded to repeatedly stab a man in the chest.
Neamtu was convicted by the Romanian court after the victim suffered fatal injuries. He was released in May 2023 after serving a 15-year custodial sentence in Romania. Subsequently, it is presumed that Neamtu travelled to the United Kingdom.
Neamtu asserted that he had acted in self-defence during both the incidents in Romania and the UK.
Neamtu will be sentenced at the Old Bailey on Friday, August 21.
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