Killer stalked ex more than 130 miles to London before trying to behead her

Dennis Akpomedaye, 29, used a kitchen knife to murder Anna Jedrkowiak, 21 (Pictures: Met Police)

A man travelled more than 130 miles across the country to London to stalk and kill his ex-girlfriend.

Dennis Akpomedaye, 29, tried to behead 21-year-old Anna Jedrkowiak, who went by Ania, just after midnight on May 17 last year, a court heard.

Ania, who had moved from Newport, in south Wales, to the capital to continue her studies, was walking home from the restaurant she worked at with her new boyfriend.

When they got to Roberts Alley, in south Ealing, west London, Akpomedaye used a large kitchen knife to saw at Ania’s neck and ‘stabbed her several times in the stomach’, her partner said.

This was ‘an apparent attempt to decapitate her’, prosecutor Deanna Heer KC previously told Kingston Crown Court. Paramedics were called but ‘it was not possible to save her life’.

Akpomedaye ran away and was arrested 22 hours after he approached an ambulance worker to complain about an open wound to his fingers – which he claimed had been caused by a pitbull.

The murder weapon was found in a pond in nearby Gunnerbury Park. Also found were his and Ania’s mobile phones and a photo frame with a picture of them together.

Ania Jedrkowiak, 21, had moved from Poland to Wales to study in the UK (Picture: Met Police)

Dennis Akpomedaye, 29, denied murder but was still convicted (Picture: Met Police)

Akpomedaye was convicted of murder yesterday. During the trial, it came out that he had travelled to London Victoria on May 15 and then made his way to the restaurant where Ania worked.

But she was not there and CCTV footage shows him pacing back and forth outside the venue with his face covered by a scarf. He then went to her home and ended up spending hours riding buses around Ealing.

The next day, at 8pm, he bought a £4.99 knife from a local shop and paced outside Ania’s workplace again.

When she and her new boyfriend left to head home, Akpomedaye followed them while wearing a balaclava and launched his terrifying attack.

The packaging for the knife that Akpomedaye used to kill Ania (Picture: Met Police)

Flowers and other tributes left for Ania after her death (Picture: Met Police)

The court heard how Akpomedaye was not able to accept the end of his relationship with Ania, who he had met in 2020, after she moved to the UK from her home country Poland.

During the breakup, Akpomedaye had told her: ‘We will be together no matter what… I will find you.’

Akpomedaye, of Blewitt Street, Newport will be sentenced next Wednesday.

Detective chief inspector Brian Howie said: ‘Anna’s life was taken by someone who is cowardly but extremely dangerous.

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‘She had moved away to start what should have been an exciting new life in London but now will never be able to fulfil that promise, and her family will never see her again.

‘It was moving that so many of her family, university and work friends attended a vigil in her honour during the trial.

‘My thoughts and sympathies remain with the family and friends of Anna, both in the UK and in Poland, who will never get over the tragic circumstances surrounding her death.

‘Even in the context of a murder investigation, the ferocity with which she was attacked was extreme, and this individual belongs in prison where he cannot harm another woman.’

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When the woman tried to break up with the killer, he had told her: ‘We will be together no matter what… I will find you.’