Moldovan killer jailed after rape and attempted murder of woman in Northamptonshire
A convicted killer from Moldova has been jailed for life for the "evil and depraved" rape and attempted murder of a stranger who he left for dead in an alleyway.
Sergiu Boianjiu, who came to Britain after serving 10 years for the murder of his 19-year-old girlfriend in 2002, was caught on CCTV in February as he raped and repeatedly stamped on the head of a woman in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire.
Footage recovered by police also showed the former school caretaker leaving the scene to fetch a wheelie bin in which he tried to hide her apparently lifeless body.
The images also showed the badly-injured woman - who Boianjiu wanted to "eliminate" as a potential witness - being discovered by a passer-by after several hours lying in the rain and cold.
A two-week trial at Northampton Crown Court was told the woman was attacked near a church as she walked home from a night out in Wellingborough at about 5am.
She was subjected to a 40-minute ordeal, suffering a life-threatening brain injury, and could remember nothing of being attacked in what prosecutors described as acts of "desolating wickedness".
Jurors unanimously convicted Boianjiu, 38, of Melton Road North, Wellingborough, of attempted murder and a count of rape last month.
He was found not guilty of a second rape charge, having already admitted attempted rape.
Rapist tried to hide evidence
Jailing Boianjiu for a minimum period of 26 years on Friday, Judge David Herbert KC told him: "You repeatedly stamped on her head while she remained unconscious.
"It it clear from the evidence that after delivering a further six blows you believed you had successfully killed her."
The judge said the evidence showed Boianjiu was thinking clearly as he tried to cover up the offence at the scene, searching for evidence that might incriminate him.
Judge Herbert added: "Your offending is aggravated by a conviction for intentional murder in Moldova. My assessment of you from all the evidence before me is that you are an extremely dangerous man."
It emerged during the trial of Boianjiu that he was convicted of theft from a school and "deliberate murder" at Moldova's Riscani district court on 9 October 2009.
His lawyers attempted to prevent jurors from being told any details of the previous conviction for killing 19-year-old Ludmila Nour, whose body was hidden in a drainage shaft in a forest.
Boianjiu's KC claimed the conviction would assume a prejudicial dominance and be "an enormous knockout blow" in the trial, but it was ruled to be admissible after legal argument.
A translation of a record of Boianjiu's murder trial stated: "On 18 August 2002 at approximately 3pm, the defendant was in a park near lake Gusinaia Balca in the county of Chisinau together with a woman, Ludmila Nour.
"The defendant hit this woman several times with his hands and feet over various parts of her body, causing her bodily wounds which led to her death.
"After that, in order to conceal this crime he threw her dead body in a drainage shaft in the park and then fled the scene."
Jurors were also told that Boianjiu travelled to Moscow and Vladivostok in Russia and was not extradited back to Moldova until 2008.
Court documents from Moldova showed that the cause of Miss Nour's death could not be established but she was found to have suffered "blunt trauma" to the ribcage including seven fractures.
Boianjiu was released early from a 14-year sentence on July 6 2018, but the trial was not told how or when he entered the UK, or what checks were done to establish his past history.
'An attack of quite desolating wickedness'
His trial heard that he was observed groping women in a nightclub hours before the offences.
During his closing speech to the jury, prosecutor Gordon Aspden KC said: "The ugly truth here is that this exceptionally dangerous man, for his own selfish reasons, chose to carry out an attack of quite desolating wickedness against a complete stranger.
"His intention was to rape and ultimately to kill her. His behaviour was evil and depraved."
Mr Aspden said Boianjiu, whose victim spent several days in an intensive care unit, was arrested sitting in a friend's car, hours after returning to his shared occupancy home.
Commenting on the inquiry, Det Ch Insp Liz Wilcox said: "I welcome the lengthy sentence handed out to Sergiu Boianjiu today as it means that he is no longer able to harm anyone else.
"This case has been very traumatic for the young woman involved and I hope today's sentencing provides her with some closure. She has shown exceptional courage throughout our investigation and I hope that, with the help of her great support network, she will be able to continue to move forward.
"Sergiu Boianjiu presents an extraordinary danger to women."