Romanian serial killer Gheorghe Dinca on Tuesday was sentenced to 30 years in prison for the kidnapping, rape and murder of two teenage girls in 2019 in a case that shocked Romania and led to the firing of the country’s top police officer.
The Craiova Court of Appeal issued the sentence on Tuesday. His accomplice, Stefan Risipiteanu, was also sentenced to 12 years in jail for rape. The ruling is final.
iMechanic Dinca, 69, admitted to murdering and burning the body of a 15-year-old girl amid outrage over why it took police in Romania 19 hours to respond to the teenager’s desperate emergency calls for help.
Alexandra Macesanu shouted: ‘He’s coming, he’s coming’ as she called the emergency 112 line from Dinca’s house who had snatched the youngster as she was hitchhiking home.
Police took 12 hours to get to Dinca’s home near the southern city of Caracal after her third and final call in July 2019.
The case led to protests in Romania as it emerged police had waited seven hours standing outside his house for a warrant to arrive _ which they did not need.
Police eventually found charred bones, body parts in a barrel and Alexandra’s jewelry at the property.
Dinca admitted killing and burning both Alexandra and another teenager, 18-year-old Luiza Melencu who went missing in April 2019.
Romania’s police chief was fired and other officials were also forced to resign.
The court also ordered Dinca to pay moral damages of 500,000 euros to Alexandra Macesanu’s mother and moral damages of 100,000 to Luiza Melencu’s mother and another relative.
The court has seized Dinca’s assets and bank accounts, including land, his house and some annexes in Caracal.
