A young couple from northeast London have been found guilty of the fatal poisoning of an Irish dancer who they lured on Gay dating sight Grindr to rob him.
Joel Osei, 25, formerly of Seven Sisters and Diana Cristea, 19, formerly of Tottenham were convicted at Croydon Crown Court on Friday of the killing 43-year-old Adrian Murphy on June 1 2019.
Murphy was found at his 17th-floor flat in Battersea, south-west London, three days later.
The couple, who met Murphy on Grindr, injected him with Scopolamine - dubbed the 'Devil's Breath' in the criminal underworld - so they could rob him.
Scopolamine is used medically as a general anaesthetic and to treat nausea and motion sickness, but is also popular among criminals as a means to incapacitate victims. An overdose can be fatal.
Cristea was convicted of Murphy's murder and Osei of the lesser charge of manslaughter. Both were also found guilty of administering poison, two counts of theft and eight counts of fraud.
The charges included a similar assault on a 40-year-old man in Walthamstow - who survived and cannot be named for legal reasons - two days before Murphy's murder.
Senior investigating officer Detective Chief Inspector Robert Pack called the crime "callous and calculated."
Osei "selected this method with the belief that victims would be unlikely to contact police due to the intimate and personal nature of the meetings," Pack said. “The second victim assisted us significantly with our investigation and was able to identify Osei, who at the time he only knew as Remy. He has shown bravery and great strength and has been central in bringing this pair to justice."
The pair robbed Murphy's home of goods including laptops, phones, bank cards, a designer bag and wallet and clothes, many of which they posted for sale online with photos taken on Christea's phone. They also used one of Murphy's cards to buy £3,000 worth of software online, and then made an unsuccessful bid to buy $80,000 (£61,000) worth of goods from a diamond jeweller across the Atlantic in New York.
“Adrian’s legacy is that of a hero and hopefully his tragic death has stopped this happening to any other innocent victim," read a statement from Murphy's family. “He is now dancing amongst the stars. May he rest in peace.”
The case has parallels with that of 'Grindr Killer' Steven Port, the east London serial killer and rapist who used date rape drug GHB on his young male victims, killing four of them between 2015 and 2016 by an overdose.
Port's drug dealer Gerald Matovu and his boyfriend Brandon Dunbar were jailed last year for the murder of 54-year-old Eric Michels, who they met on Grindr, with a fatal overdose of GHB.
Dundar and Matovu - who now identifies as a woman - used dating apps to rob a number of men.