A Romanian worker who murdered a grandmother after following her off a bus has had his sentence increased by five years after he admitted raping her.
Valentin Lazar attacked Maria Rawlings, 45, with a wooden club studded with nails and a knife before leaving her dying in undergrowth in Romford, east London, in May 2021.
CCTV captured Lazar leaving the bus with the mother-of-two before leading her into bushes where he stripped her naked, punched her and strangled her.
An autopsy revealed that he had died after neck compression. She also had injuries to her mouth, chest and knee, as well as 15 fractured ribs, and was found with more than 100 marks on her body.
There was no evidence of rape at the time, but Lazar admitted it to a probation officer in prison and said he thought, “There’s a woman there, I should have sex with her.”
Valentin Lazar attacked Maria Rawlings, 45, with a wooden club studded with nails and raped her in undergrowth near a bus stop in Romford, east London, in May 2021.
Mrs Rawlings (pictured above), 45, from Chelmsford, Essex, was found dead in Little Heath, Romford, by a man walking his dog in May.
Ms Rawlings, pictured, suffered injuries to her mouth, chest and knee, as well as 15 fractured ribs, following a violent 30-minute attack by the then 20-year-old.
After the 30-minute attack, Lazar fled with her white bag to make it look like a robbery.
The police found her purse, shoes and bank cards nearby.
Lazar, who was 20 at the time of the attack, was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum sentence of 23 years and six months in February 2022 after admitting the murder.
At the time, the killer’s lawyer said she could not give an explanation or motive for his savage attack, but he later admitted to having wanted to rape the defenseless grandmother.
He was sentenced to five consecutive years until the end of his minimum sentence.
Judge Mark Lucraft, KC, Recorder of London, said it was a “vicious and sustained attack”.
Ms Rawling’s father, Tony Rawlings, said in a victim impact statement: “Your 15 minutes of anger towards a defenseless grandmother has caused me and my family a lifetime of pain.”
His daughter Charlee Rawlings said he was a “fun-loving soul who would never cause harm to anyone.”
Lazar appeared at the Old Bailey today via video link from HMP Frankland wearing a gray tracksuit.
Prosecutor Bill Emlyn Jones said: “The position is that, although the body was found naked, there was no positive evidence that there was any sexual motive to the attack.”
“And then, whilst at HMP Belmarsh, Mr Lazar was interviewed for a custodial risk assessment and within it he made confessions which gave rise to the current charge.
‘The accused was questioned in custody through an interpreter by a probation officer and during that interview he admitted that at the time of the murder he had also raped her.
He told the probation officer: “I pushed her to the ground and at that very moment I wanted to have sex with her when she was down.”
“I saw she was trying to scream for help, so I slapped her.
“I took off her blouse and left her naked because I wanted to have sex with her.”
The officer asked him why he didn’t have sex with her.
He replied, “Okay, I had sex with her, but no one knows before it’s the first time I tell you.”
“She started screaming and I didn’t know what to do so I started hitting her but she wasn’t dead, I looked and saw she wasn’t dead.”
“I wanted to call an ambulance but I wasn’t in my right mind. I grabbed the bag to make it look like a robbery.
Maria Rawlings’ family (left to right), her daughter Charlee, her father Tony Rawlings and her daughter Katie, outside the Old Bailey.
Flowers left at Little Health in Romford, where Mrs Rawlings was found dead. A message attached to a bouquet read: ‘Mom. I love you now, forever and ever’
When he was later questioned by police, he said: “I was thinking about stealing something, I wanted to take her purse but she wouldn’t let go so I slapped her and she fell.”
“She was drunk but I was drunker.
“I thought, there’s a woman there, I should have sex with her.”
He said she started screaming, told him to shut up and slapped her five times.
“She still wouldn’t stay quiet, so I got tired of punching her in the face one more time and I stayed silent and her nose started bleeding.”
‘When I saw the blood I started to panic. ‘I didn’t want to kill her, I just wanted her to keep quiet about it or hurt her so badly that she would go to the hospital.’
He said he ejaculated on the ground because he calculated that the rain would mean it would wash him away.
Lazar told police he told them because he wanted to “get it off his chest.”
Mrs Rawlings, who had a history of alcoholism, was drunk and heading home after being discharged from hospital without treatment.
Lazar, who arrived in the UK when he was 18, was initially filmed speaking to Mrs Rawlings after they got off the bus, before grabbing her arm and leading her into the bushes.
He emerged from the bushes 31 minutes later and briefly went back inside to retrieve the victim’s purse.
“The driver of the bus he got on described him as having a drug-like energy and his eyes were wide and staring,” Emlyn Jones said.
The court heard that a dog walker discovered Mrs Rawlings’ body in bushes the next day.
“She was naked, obviously had very serious injuries to her face and was noted to have what looked like a shoe print on her chest,” Emlyn Jones said.
A public appeal led to the Romanian’s arrest after a compatriot of Lazar’s commented on an ITV London article shared on Twitter saying he knew who the suspect was.
A post-mortem examination showed that the victim, who died as a result of strangulation and blunt force trauma, had lived for “at least an hour” after the assault.
She had horrific injuries to her face likely caused by Lazar hitting her with a blood-stained piece of wood with nails protruding from it found at the scene.
When police arrested Lazar on May 9, he claimed he did not remember the attack, adding: “I don’t remember what happened yesterday.”
Ms Rawlings’ daughter Charlee previously said in a victim impact statement: “I don’t think I really know where to start in explaining the impact my mother’s murder has had on me.”
‘My mom was my best friend. I am 17 years old and I lived with my mother.
“We were best friends, we talked about everything, we shared everything in our lives.”
Mrs Rawlings had visited King George’s Hospital in Chadwell Heath complaining of a headache after suffering a head injury on the night of May 3 last year.
After leaving the hospital without being treated, Mrs. Rawlings, who had a problem with alcohol, got on a bus shortly after 11:00 p.m., where her path crossed that of Lazar.
The mother-of-two, who had been staying with her daughter in Witham, Essex, before being brutally murdered.
Sentencing the Romanian for the murder two years ago, Judge Lucraft described it as a “savage and sustained attack” with a “high degree of pain and suffering”.
‘In my opinion, it was with the intent to kill.
“Maria Rawlings was naked, and that is further humiliation and degradation.”
Lazar, of Hockley Avenue, East Ham, admitted rape.