Agnes Akom: Power tool murder-accused says he was poisoned

A lorry driver accused of murdering a young woman with an electric power tool inside a shipping container has told a court she poisoned him with iced coffee and died while he suffered a "sort of amnesia".

Necolai Paizan, 64, is alleged to have repeatedly hit 20-year-old Agnes Akom over the head with the tool.

He told the jury he found her and chose to bury her rather than call police because "they would not believe" him.

He said the drink was laced with drugs.

Mr Paizan, a Romanian national, had been meeting with Hungarian Ms Akom for about 18 months when she died in May 2021, the Old Bailey heard.

Her body was discovered at Neasden Recreation Ground in north-west London about five weeks later.

The pair met frequently and Ms Akom, who worked for a coffin maker, would dance naked, play games and tell Mr Paizan stories about other men she had "relationships" with, the court was told.

He told jurors she would ask him for money "insistently" and, on the day of her death, they met and drove to his converted residence in the shipping container so he could give her an outstanding £20.

He told the court: "She was doing something on her phone. I started to feel a bit unwell, my mouth was dry, and I was not feeling right. I realised that I had been poisoned, drugged.

"I believe it was from the iced coffee, she drank some of it and then she handed it to me and said 'you drink it, I've had enough'."

He said he then felt "a wave of darkness" and could not walk.

When he regained consciousness, the court heard, he felt Ms Akom pushing something into his mouth and "because of the pain instinctively I pushed her away and two of my front teeth ended up broken".

Mr Paizan said he then suffered a "sort of amnesia" and washed his face before finding Ms Akom curled up in a ball.

"I got scared and I entered a state of panic. What was going on? What had happened? How did she end up like this? I cannot say what happened."

Asked why he did not seek medical help, he told the court: "I think I realised there was no life left in her, the poor little thing, and I was in such a state of panic. I did not know what to do, how to go about things."

He said he was afraid to call the police, fearing they would not believe him, and instead "tried to take her to the park, put her in a good place".

Mr Paizan, from Kensington, west London, denies murder and the trial continues.