Naked killer gets 24 years

An illegal immigrant who ‘slaughtered’ a naked prostitute in a frenzied knife attack has been jailed for 24 years.

Bangladeshi Noor Mohammad, 29, had also stripped before he stabbed Romina Kalachi, 32, in her neck, back, face and groin multiple times with such force the blade snapped.

Her body was found seven days later at her home in Fernhead Road, Kilburn, north London on 29 May after a neighbour noticed a foul odour and called police.

Mohammad stabbed her on her bed and then dragged her into the bathroom, first using a knife he had taken with him from his home in Ealing.

When it snapped he grabbed another knife from the bedsit and carried on, leaving bloodied footprints all over the floor next to the shower where she lay.

The killer was due to stand trial for murder but changed his plea at the last moment, finally admitting to what he had done.

Prosecutor Allison Hunter, QC, said police carried out a ‘painstaking’ investigation to catch their man and described her flat as ‘the scene of a slaughter.’

The bespectacled and bearded murderer would throw away SIM cards after he called her, but officers were able to trace his number and track his movements.

He washed his clothes normally when he got home and then poured bleach on them in a bid to cover his tracks, Blackfriars Crown Court heard.

CCTV picked him up leaving at around 3.35am while his DNA was also found all over the flat after he sipped a glass of water and drank a cup of tea before the attack.

He walked around her flat naked after the attack that lasted approximately 35 minutes.

Judge John Hillen told him: ‘This was an attack of which – whether or not you intended to kill her from the outset – became a deliberate killing of this young woman.

‘She led you into her own home – at some point both she and you became naked and at some point during the 35 minutes you killed her.’

He said the ‘ferocity’ of the attack satisfied him fully that he ‘had the full intention of killing her’.

Alistair MacDonald, QC, for Mohammad, conceded that his client went to the flat armed with a knife but suggested there was no evidence of ‘pre-meditation.’

‘The scene itself spoke of a chaotic and frenzied attack which is consistent with a loss of control or temper – in any event it was spontaneous.’

The barrister said it was admitted in previous police interviews that he ‘spoke of a robbery’ and ‘a fight began’.

He said ‘the best years of his life will be lost to imprisonment’ and he is ‘a young man with of previous good character in Bangadesh and the United Kingdom.’

‘Perhaps the most significant factor is the plea of guilt – the most tangible sign of remorse’

Kalachi, from Albanian and Italian descent, had placed an advertisement on an escort site on 26 March.

She came to the UK in 2016 and was supported financially by her family in the early months as she looked for work.

Her family reported her missing and travelled to England on 28 May when they could not reach her.

Mohammad, who was born in 1988, came to the UK in 2012 on a student visa and began overstaying in 2014 when he living in west Ealing.

He was living rent free with a person due to be called as a prosecution witness and had been out of work for five months.

The bespectacled and bearded killer has no previous convictions.
Kalachi’s mother wept in the public gallery as a translator revealed the horrific facts of the case.

The judge was shown pictures of the blood-soaked bathroom with handprints ‘consistent’ with being dragged across the floor.

‘At some stage he had taken that knife from his pocket and what can be deduced is that he stabbed her in the back and in the back of her neck,’ Ms Hunter said.

Mohammad, of no fixed abode, but previously living in Ealing, admitted murder.

The judge told him: ‘The crime that you have pleaded guilty to is the murder of Miss Romina Kalachi – a 32 year old woman who had been in the UK since 2016.

He continued: ‘She was an escort and you had displayed an interest on previous occasions of such services although not with her.

‘On the 22 March you went to her home having contacted her – she let you in her home and at some point both she and you became naked.

‘During the 35 minutes you killed her, whatever your initial intention the ferocity of you attack satisfies me fully without any doubt that you internees to kill her.’

He said he started his attack at the corner of the bed before he dragged her into the bathroom before ‘jamming her head at an unnatural angle’.

‘You started – it is plain from the evidence – possibly inflicting further stab wounds.

‘I have read the impact statement from her father – it is a terrible burden for those who who and loved her.

‘Not only gave they lost a daughter, a sister, a friend but they must bear the fact that she did not die instantly.’

The judge added that the fact her iPhone was left playing loudly led him to have no doubt it was a deliberate attempt by the killer to ‘put other occupants off what you had done.’

He described the murder scene as ‘horrific’ and said Mohammed delayed the course of justice by only pleading guilty on the third day of trial before the prosecution opened their case.

‘Nothing can bring her back,’ he said. ‘But you must be punished for ending her life.’

He said the ‘undoubtedly aggravating factors’ included the murder of a woman in her own home and the fact he armed himself with a second knife.

‘That you have finally admitted your guilt must be acknowledged to encourage others to do the same.’

ends