A debt-ridden handyman who stabbed a customer in the neck with scissors and strangled him with cable ties in a dispute over money has been convicted of murder.
Dorin Ciorba owed more than £5,000 on credit cards and was overdrawn at the bank by another £1,000 when he brutally killed Osaretin Oronsaye in his Dartford flat on July 5 last year.
It was just a day after Ciorba had been notified he was being taken to small claims court for the sum of £2,158.
CCTV captured the 29-year-old cycling towards the home Mr Oronsaye shared with his wife in Dunlop Close shortly before 2.15pm, wearing fingerless gloves and pulling a balaclava over his face.
Half-an-hour later, Ciorba rode away to catch a train from nearby Slade Green station, leaving his 62-year-old victim lying on the floor in his blood-splattered en-suite bathroom with his body covered with a duvet.
In a bid to avoid detection, Ciorba, who lived with his partner and their young child in Barking in east London, had changed his clothing and removed his gloves.
The prosecution also suggested in court that as he walked along the station platform he could be seen checking the back of his bare legs for blood.
The horrific scene of Mr Oronsaye, who was wearing his dressing gown and underwear, lying amid pools of blood was discovered by his wife when she returned home from work just after 6pm.
Despite the efforts of a neighbour, a passing nurse, and the emergency services, he was pronounced dead.
Maidstone Crown Court heard police had initially treated his death as suicide until a post-mortem examination 10 days later revealed the deceased had been subjected to “various modes of assault”.
These were consistent with being struck to the head with an electric radiator, stabbed in the jugular vein with scissors, and strangled both by hand and using tightly-secured cable ties.
It was also concluded that although Mr Oronsaye had suffered a fracture to his skull, he would have been alive when his other injuries were inflicted by his killer.
In the intervening period between the violent attack and police launching their murder investigation, Ciorba not only went on a spree of using the victim’s bank cards but also Googled “Man murdered in London Dartford house”.
He subsequently denied murder and robbery but was found guilty of both charges this morning (February 12) at the end of a three-week trial.
He is expected to be sentenced by Mrs Justice Dias next month.
Following the jury’s unanimous verdicts, delivered after around eight hours’ deliberation, the High Court judge thanked them for their “care and attention”, and also paid tribute to members of Mr Oronsaye’s family who had attended proceedings.
“They have conducted themselves with dignity throughout despite having to listen to some extremely distressing pieces of evidence and it does them great credit,” said Mrs Justice Dias.
The court was told Mr Oronsaye’s family is likely to provide victim impact statements for the sentencing hearing.
Ciorba showed no reaction to the verdicts while standing in the dock next to his interpreter.
During the trial, jurors heard that the financial dispute arose after the handyman, who is from Moldova, had been hired to carry out maintenance work in the en-suite and bedroom at the flat around April last year.
Mr Oronsaye agreed to pay the workman, who he had employed before, for labour and materials upfront in the expectation of reimbursement when his insurance claim was settled.
However, when the insurers insisted on paying the contractor instead, Mr Oronsaye was left having to try to claw it back from Ciorba.
It was after those efforts failed that he filed his county court claim, stating that Ciorba was “dodging” his calls and refusing to hand over the insurance pay-out.
This resulted in an email from HM Courts and Tribunals Service being sent to the handyman on July 4, informing him of the legal action being taken and instructions on how to respond.
By his own later admission in court, Ciorba had already spent much of the money by that date.
Following his arrest on July 17, paperwork relating to that civil action was found by police in his blood-stained rucksack.
Numerous personal items belonging to the deceased, including his phone, bank cards and car keys were also found at the killer’s home in Longbridge Road and an associated storage unit, the court heard.
The police search also uncovered a 100-pack of cable ties with nine missing, fingerless gloves and a blood-stained balaclava.
It was a download of Ciorba’s phone which revealed that the Google search referencing a man being murdered in Dartford was made on July 8 – a week before the post-mortem examination had concluded the victim had been unlawfully killed.
Jurors also heard that having attacked Mr Oronsaye and robbed him of his personal belongings, Ciorba then went on a spending spree, using the deceased’s bank cards to withdraw cash at ATMs, as well as attempting money transfers and purchases of goods such as a one-week travelcard and two bouquets of flowers.
Read more:
Murder trial jury hears of devastating moment wife found husband dead on bathroom floor
Handyman ‘killed customer with scissors and cable ties’ after money row, court hears
Pathologist found ‘suicide’ victim had been stabbed in neck and strangled
Ciorba, who has dual Moldovan and Romanian nationality, gave a ‘No comment’ interview to police.
But at trial he claimed to have done nothing more than push Mr Oronsaye, causing him to fall and hit his head, before fleeing the flat in panic and taking his belongings.
He told the jury when questioned by his barrister Beth O’Reilly KC that the shove was in response to being propositioned by Mr Oronsaye for “sexual relations” in exchange for writing off the debt.
Ciorba added that he had already paid him back £500 in cash and was unaware legal proceedings had been instigated.
Giving evidence, he agreed that a sum of £2,158 had been paid into his bank account on May 28 and that he spent £1,400 over two days.
But as well as telling the jury he did not know where the money had come from, he denied being in “a lot of” debt, saying he was simply using credit cards to build up his credit score.
Ciorba also maintained there was no dispute between himself and Mr Oronsaye, that he knew he did not have his money, and they had talked about him doing more work for him.
Furthermore, Ciorba asserted that the victim, who ran a window and carpet cleaning business, was a cocaine dealer and that he had introduced Mr Oronsaye to an associate called ‘Vlad’ for the purpose of buying the class A drug.
He then claimed that having gone to do some decorating at the flat on July 5, he had been threatened by Vlad to open a window so he could gain access and steal from Mr Oronsaye.
Ciorba told the jury Vlad had warned he would “do damage” to his partner and child if he did not comply.
But he agreed when cross-examined by prosecutor Dominic Connolly that despite his fears that day, he neither alerted his girlfriend nor Mr Oronsaye to the danger they were in, nor did he tell police or immediately go home after catching a train from Dartford back to London.
Ciorba, who has been in custody since his arrest, told the jury he was “scared and didn’t think”.
At his forthcoming sentencing hearing, Mrs Justice Dias will impose life imprisonment and decide the minimum term that must be served before he is eligible for parole.
Investigating Officer, Detective Chief Inspector Neil Kimber, said: “Ciorba calmly travelled from London to carry out this senseless murder and truly believed he had gotten away with his crime.
“He arrogantly used Mr Oronsaye’s bank cards after searching online for reports of a murder and kept hold of the items he had taken from the murder scene.
“This case shows that no matter how calculated an offender believes they are, they will not get away with such appalling violence.
“I hope this verdict provides Osaretin’s family and friends with some comfort and will give them time to grieve their loved one.”
