A man who beat a vulnerable woman to death with a power tool and buried her in the woods has been found guilty of murder.

Neculai Paizan, 64, from Romania, hit Agnes Akom over the head at least 20 times in a converted shipping container in Brent, northwest London.

CCTV recorded him putting her body in his car boot after calmly washing his hands and face.

The next day he used a wheelie bin to take her to woodland at Neasden Recreation Ground, where he buried the 20-year-old under logs and branches.

Paizan visited the park five times over the days that followed as Ms Akom, a coffin maker from Hungary, was reported missing by her boyfriend.

Her decomposed body, with her head in a black plastic bag, was found by sniffer dogs on 14 June last year – a month after the murder.

Police looking for Ms Akom ended up at her last-known location, Paizan’s rented shipping container, where they found heavy blood stains despite “vigorous attempts” to clean it up.

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Her blood was also found in his car.

The power tool used to kill her, a jigsaw, was found in a skip with the victim’s hair stuck to it. Her clothes were also found there.

Paizan, a concrete mixer driver and father of four, admitted moving the body but denied murder after falsely claiming Ms Akom tried to poison him with iced coffee.

He claimed she was “like a daughter” and that he called her “princess, little angel and sparrow”, while she called him “grandpa”.

The pair met, according to the killer, when she was begging for money in a supermarket car park.

But evidence suggested he preyed on her vulnerability and promised her money.

They met 54 times in the year before the murder, the Old Bailey heard, with the jury shown pictures Paizan had taken of Ms Akom semi-naked.

He told the court she would strip and dance for him and send him “sexy” images and video, but that they didn’t have sex.

Killer claimed ‘amnesia’ after ‘poisoning’

Paizan said on the day of the murder they arranged a meeting on Facebook Messenger so he could give her an outstanding £20.

At 11.49am, they went into his dingy container, which was converted into accommodation, and Paizan said he couldn’t remember much after Ms Akom “poisoned” him with iced coffee they shared.

He claimed she then tried to force liquid into his mouth as he became sick and unsteady, but that he pushed her away and went outside for air.

“It was like a sort of amnesia,” he said.

“I washed my face to help myself to come to because my brain was blurred, I did not know who I was, what my name was, my head was not functioning right.”

On returning to the container, he said he found the 20-year-old “curled up in a ball, head down” and went in to a “state of panic”.

He said he didn’t call police because he feared they wouldn’t believe him.

“I tried to take her to the park, put her in a good place,” he told the court. CCTV capture him pushing the wheelie bin used to move the body.

Paizan claimed Ms Akom had asked for money and drugs as he portrayed himself in court as only wanting to help her.

However, there was no evidence she was a drug addict or sex worker.

Prosecutor Jake Hallam QC dismissed Paizan’s story as a series of lies and the jury found him guilty of murder after an hour of deliberations.

The judge adjourned sentencing until Monday.

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