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A woman who posed as a sex worker and administered a deadly amount of sedative to two men so that she and an accomplice could steal from them has been jailed for 17 years.
Adina Mihai, 31, and her partner Madalin Dumitru, 30, who was imprisoned for the same length of time, arranged for her to meet men at their homes.
She drugged four men by spiking glasses of wine with the sedative gamma-butyrolactone (GBL). Two men, Malcolm King, 80, of Gloucestershire, and Gary Mouat, 36, of Oxfordshire, died.
Jailing Mihai and Dumitru at Oxford crown court, Mrs Justice Brunner said: “Your intention was to incapacitate each victim making them deeply unconscious.
“The administration of the drug was haphazard and depended on the strength of each batch, the amount put into drinks, and the amount they drunk.
“If you had stopped for a moment to consider the risks, as you should have done, you would have realised that it carried a high risk of serious injury or death at the very moment you administered that drug.
“If you had done the most cursory research, you would know that GBL can be extremely toxic.”
The pair, from Ilford, Essex, pleaded guilty to two charges of manslaughter and to administering poison to the two survivors, who cannot be identified.
Julian Evans KC, prosecuting, said: “While Dumitru waited nearby, Mihai would enter the victim’s home. There, she would persuade the victim to drink alcohol laced with GBL.
“Once the victim was unconscious, Mihai would look for property to steal. Then she would rejoin Dumitru, leaving the victim alone and unconscious.”
No sexual services were in fact provided but the pair worked on the premise that victims would not report what had happened to the police out of embarrassment.
The court heard Mihai advertised online and the pair would take cash deposits before meeting the men. When their victims fell unconscious, she would steal watches, jewellery, aftershave and cash.
In a victim personal statement, Mouat’s son, aged eight, said the defendants had ruined his life.
He asked the pair: “Why did you have to kill my dad, you could have just taken the money, he was really kind, he would have given it to you.
“He was my dad and now he’s gone. I miss him every day and will never get to see him again. I will never be able to get another dad and that makes me feel so sad.
“You have ruined my life and all the plans we had to do things together. My family is destroyed now.
King’s daughter, Caroline, said: “When my father was killed, the defendants did not only end his future. They stole mine as well.”
His younger sister, Jacky Seagroatt, said: “What haunts me every day is the way he died.
“I might have been able to come to terms with losing my brother if he had died naturally or as the result of a tragic accident. I cannot stop imagining what he went through or how frightened he may have been.”
Charles White, the senior crown prosecutor with the CPS, described the case as “unique”.
No other deaths, poisonings or thefts have been linked to the pair but police are keeping an open mind about the possibility of other victims.
