A brutal murderer who battered a young woman to death has failed in a legal bid to appeal his conviction and sentence.

Romanian Neculai Paizan, 66, was jailed for life with a minimum term of 22 years in July 2022 after being found guilty of murdering 20-year-old Agnes Dora Akom.

Paizan had hit the small Hungarian woman at least 20 times over the head with a jigsaw power tool during the assault in a converted shipping container in May 2021.

Her badly decomposed body was found buried in woods near Neasden Recreation Ground more than a month later, and blood stains were discovered at Paizan’s container.

Yesterday (May 14), the Court of Appeal refused Paizan’s application to appeal against both his verdict and sentence.

Brent & Kilburn Times: Agnes Dora Akom was murdered by Neculai Paizan in May 2021Agnes Dora Akom was murdered by Neculai Paizan in May 2021 (Image: Metropolitan Police)

Paizan had made a number of complaints about his trial, including that one of the jurors smelled of cannabis and that his victim had previous convictions.

He said the sentence was excessive, and that Judge Richard Marks KC had failed to consider his age and health problems.

But Lord Justice Dingemans, Mr Justice Wall and Judge De Bertodano said in their judgment that some of his claims were “poorly evidenced or irrelevant”.

They said his defence counsel were happy to proceed with the trial after the smell of cannabis was raised, adding that the verdict was not impacted.

The judges also dismissed his false claims about him needing a Romanian interpreter, and that only one juror was present when verdicts were read.

They refused the application to appeal.

Reporting by PA.