GUILTY UK - Maria Rawlings, 45, murdered, Romford, Essex, 3 May 2021 *arrest*

[Dotta]

Evil predator jailed for battering and strangling lone woman

More details

 

[JuicyLucy]

Thank you very much for updating the thread @Skigh. I forgot that this was due but I was very interested in the case at the time and appreciate the closure. I'm very glad the defendant's claims of amnesia apparently left the judge unmoved.

I haven't forgotten how slow the police were to declare this a murder case and with every update, I feel more incredulous about that.

The mum-of-two was strangled and attacked with a wooden stick embedded with nails and a knife then left naked in undergrowth
[...]
The court previously heard that Ms Rawlings, suffered 13 fractures during the brutal attack

I mean, really, what did they think had happened?? Three cheers for the pathologist who apparently had had his coffee the morning he did Maria's PM.

I hope that her family can finally find some peace now justice has been done.

 

[Luwin]

The details are just awful. RIP Maria

 

[HongKongPhooey]

And what was the motive? Just a random blitz attack? Removing clothes suggests sexual but I haven’t seen anything about that unless I missed it.

 

[Skigh]

Man who bludgeoned grandmother to death with a wooden club embedded with nails is jailed for life | Daily Mail Online


Romanian labourer who followed a grandmother off a London bus and bludgeoned her in an unprovoked attack, before leaving her to die naked in a bush, has been jailed for life.

Valentin Lazar attacked 45-year-old Maria Rawlings with a wooden club embedded with nails and a knife before leaving her without clothes in undergrowth in Romford, east London, in May last year.

A post-mortem revealed she had been killed following compression to her neck. She had also suffered injuries to her mouth, chest and knee as well as 15 fractured ribs, and was found with more than 100 marks on her body.

The 21-year-old, who admitted the murder, and whose lawyer said she could not provide an explanation for the attack, was branded 'evil' by Ms Rawlings's devastated family as he was jailed at the Old Bailey today.

Addressing Lazar in court, her father Tony Rawlings said: 'Your 15 minutes of anger towards a defenceless grandmother has caused me and my family a lifetime of pain.'

 

[JuicyLucy]

And what was the motive? Just a random blitz attack? Removing clothes suggests sexual but I haven’t seen anything about that unless I missed it.

Strangulation, male-on-female stabbing and removal of clothes all strike me as sexual, but according to this there was no sexual assault:

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/breaking-evil-predator-who-killed-26128836

"Ms Rawlings had suffered multiple injures but there was no evidence of sexual assault."

 

[Dotta]

If not for CCTV, he would still roam free.
Who knows, maybe there are other victims.

 

[CoverMeCagney]

If not for CCTV, he would still roam free.
Who knows, maybe there are other victims.

Seems likely, doesn’t it? What he did to her was complete overkill (can’t think of a better word) and what was his motive? It wasn’t sexual and probably not robbery either. He didn’t know her. It wasn’t revenge, or personal. Weird.

 

[Dotta]

Seems likely, doesn’t it? What he did to her was complete overkill (can’t think of a better word) and what was his motive? It wasn’t sexual and probably not robbery either. He didn’t know her. It wasn’t revenge, or personal. Weird.

I suspect mental disturbances.

Or usage of drugs.
The bus driver said (in the link I sent above) that he behaved strangely as if under influence.

Why was he loitering at night?

What triggered his fury?

 

[HollyHunter9]

Seems likely, doesn’t it? What he did to her was complete overkill (can’t think of a better word) and what was his motive? It wasn’t sexual and probably not robbery either. He didn’t know her. It wasn’t revenge, or personal. Weird.

I agree. I also can't figure out either whether he was purposely out roaming looking for someone to attack or was he on his way home and just randomly attacked her for no other reason than she was just there alone (wrong place, wrong time). But then one of weapons used was a bat/wood with nails in it, which I am presuming wasn't just lying there available to him coincidentally, so he must've taken it with him which suggests pre meditation. I didn't actually realise this had gone to court so quickly, I would of been interested in reading the court reports just to gain a bit more insight on what on earth provoked such a violent, callous yet random & spontaneous crime. So glad he is off the streets because I don't believe MR would have been his only victim. The brutality of the crime suggests he could no longer control himself, or his dark urges and just completely let it out. I wonder if he has been wanting to do something like this for quite some time and has been holding it in. He is one very dangerous individual IMO.

 

[CandyCaneLane]

Romanian killer hit a grandmother with a stick embedded with nails

Valentin Lazar, 23, killed Maria Rawlings with a wooden stick embedded with nails and a knife in May 2021. He has now been charged with raping her before leaving her naked body in the bushes.

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[dotr]

Convicted killer pleads guilty to raping murder victim

Valentin Lazar attacked Maria Rawlings before leaving her naked in undergrowth in Romford, east London, on May 3 2021.

www.standard.co.uk

ELLIE NG44 MINUTES AGO

''He was jailed for life with a minimum term of 23 years and six months.
Lazar appeared at the Old Bailey on Monday via video link from HMP Frankland to plead guilty to raping Ms Rawlings on the same evening as her killing.
At his sentencing in 2022, the court heard how Ms Rawlings had visited King George Hospital in Chadwell Heath complaining of a headache after suffering a head injury on the evening of May 3.''